The game starts with the player engaging in a test to become part of the "Raven's Nest". It simply involves destroying two Muscle Tracers (MTs), before being destroyed oneself. Upon passing this test, the player receives mission requests from corporations and other groups. Missions generally pay higher as difficulty increases. Depending on which missions are chosen, the story progresses differently. The player can also read mail from various senders, and observe the rankings, which are based on mission success rates.One notable aspect regarding the parts, particularly weapons, in the original Armored Core and its two PS1 expansions is that they are by far the most powerful in the series. For example, the original KARASAWA fired faster than most AST Rifles and Pulse Rifles in later games. The FINGER had 3000 ammo, and the Large Missile came in two styles, one that flew like a regular missile (discontinued after Master of Arena), and the traditional slow (though roughly twice as fast as later versions such as those in Last Raven) version. The slow version had ten missiles as opposed to the current four, and was the longest range missile of the first generation.This version of Armored Core utilizes the "Human Plus" concept where humans were altered by Murakumo in order to make them more effective. Unlocking the ability required players to purposely lose missions until they had acquired a significant debt (-50,000 credits). The maximum number of plussings hovering around 9 times, the skills acquired range anywhere from gridded radar showing colored dots for elevation differences (or not even requiring a head that has built in radar) to being able to fire shoulder mounted cannons while in full bipedal motion. The more bizarre effects would be the ability to fire plasma bursts from the laser blade and having increased effective generator power.Successfully becoming "Human Plus" takes the player back to the beginning of the storyline along with their current Armored Core unit as well as their full inventory of purchased AC components, and with one of the "Human Plus" upgrades.Screenshoots :
