What's the best thing to do when the world gets crazy? Bust out the robots, of course! The Front Mission series has always been about armed conflicts involving heavily armored robot tanks, and tense, geopolitical drama. Today's subject is no different. Front Mission 4 is the second game in the series to be released Stateside, and hardcore fans will perhaps appreciate that it doesn't offer too much of a departure from its antecedent. The bad part, though, is exactly that -- it's largely the same formula as before, without even much of a graphical overhaul. Granted, there's a lot to love in regards to depth and customization, but given that even recent releases with much more modest profiles have it trumped in those areas, it comes off as a bit of a disappointment.

Just like its predecessors, Front Mission 4 allows you to customize your "Wanzers" -- Front Mission's name for "mechs" -- to an insane degree. You can mount weapons on both of their hands and shoulders, as well as switch out each of their components parts to your liking -- their arms, legs, and even their chasses. These changes have overall affects on their performance; a lighter chassis, for instance, will reduce a Wanzer's weight dramatically, allowing you to increase its weapons load-out just that much more. Supped-up legs, on the other hand, can increase your machine's evasion rating. Ultimately, you'll find that it's best to specialize your Wanzers towards specific battle roles. There's little sense in strapping your nimble, rifle-using unit with a melee weapon; chances are, its lighter chassis will get torn up before it gets into a close enough range to use it.

Giant robots are always in style.
Your pilots themselves also improve in ability as the game progresses. It uses a simple RPG-style setup to facilitate this. During the debriefing sections that bookend each mission, you're able to "buy" new abilities for your pilots, which in turn boost their capabilities in battle. Some of these are passive -- weapon specializations, for instance, that increase the amount of damage they'll deal with certain weapons. Others, called "Battle Skills," are actual special abilities that they'll perform in combat, usually with catastrophic effects on enemies. Since you choose who learns these abilities and when, you'll likely feel the same sense of ownership towards your characters that you'd feel with your Wanzers. It's always cool and satisfying to build efficient killing machines, and Front Mission 4 certainly facilitates this.

The missions themselves, though, aren't always as exciting. Many of them feel rather drawn-out, with enemy A.I. that seems designed to needlessly prolong encounters. Basically, around 90 percent of the time, enemies will stay put until you come within a certain range of them. Think about how nonsensical it is for a unit of tanks to stand idly by while, 200 feet away, its comrades are being pelted by a giant robot's shotgun. The more defense-focused stages seem to be free of this sort of thing -- the enemies are much more proactive when it comes to trying to blow you up -- but these are few and far between. More realistic A.I. (which, in turn, would have given rise to more realistic strategy on the part of the player) would have made the game much more substantial and satisfying. However absurd it is to use "realistic" and "giant robot" in the same sentence, this kind of permissive design decision makes it harder to feel any genuine challenge from the game. Rather, when things are tough, you'll feel it's because the deck was stacked against you to begin with. On that same note, a game like Front Mission 4 just begs for multiplayer, even if it's just a musical-chairs-style implementation like in Advanced Wars. But since the upcoming Front Mission Online promises to make good on the series' potential for this kind of thing, perhaps this version is better off without what, in all likelihood, would have felt half-assed in comparison.

And the rocket's red glare...
Despite what you'd expect from Square Enix, Front Mission 4's production values aren't going to dazzle you. Apart from the hectic opening cinematic, the game's look is mostly sparse and utilitarian. Given that strategy games tend to be more iconic than literal in terms of aesthetics, it really sucks when, given the game's washed-out look, you mistake an enemy Wanzer for a rock formation and get two missiles in the face as a result. Luckily, this sort of thing doesn't happen a whole lot, but the fact that it does at all is pretty lame.

As much as it pains me to say it, this is one for the hardcore fans. The strategy genre has had some pretty cool releases in the past year -- stuff like Gladius, Disgaea, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, to name a few -- and Front Mission 4 doesn't quite stack up. The customization element is a definitely a high point, but without interesting and rewarding missions built around them, they just aren't as meaningful as they could be. Here's to Front Mission Online redeeming the series' great legacy.