A solid game
I love me some mech games-- I had to jump on this soon as I found out it was one. Or rather it's a an alien mech game?
The graphics are pretty nice. It runs very well for me when expanded. The sound is also pretty nice. However the music from the title screen to the "location select" screen has a pretty dramatic difference in mood. I wish there was more music for each levels, or at least some that matched the title music more closely. I really like the title music, by far my favorite in the game. The animation is pretty smooth, though I suffered a noticeably slower framerate in some of the later levels when the screen is packed with dozens of aircraft.
The gameplay is where the real criticism comes in. You need to get upgrades for your alien mech called "implants", obtained with "bio mass" you get from killing (mostly) organic enemies. Implants have 3 functions, weapons (various orange missiles that use a % of your power with varying amounts of damage, "AutoAim" ones attack enemies without pointing the mouse at them), ball things that improve your power (what you use as ammunition for weapons and your shields), and square things that slow down shield power usage and improve your energy (energy = health). Not so sure about the energy thing.
Object of the game is to go from stage to stage, right to left, destroying any idle cars and enemies as you can and live to the next level. There's 10 levels-- if there's any hidden ones I haven't found them. Your shield is your primary defense, it constantly uses power, and drains more the more damage it sustains, and it WILL be on 90% of the time. You can restore power by absorbing bio mass, and god knows you will need every ounce of bio mass you can get during the later levels. You will eventually fight a wave of enemies, absorb bio mass at the right end of the screen, then leave as much as you can to absorb during another wave when shit hits the fan.
And you can never get enough bio mass.
If you beat levels one after another without replaying any of them, you might make it to level 4 or 5 without implants like I did. Beating the last level you can yields a pathetic amount of bio mass, and early on, that means you can't afford shit. You'll run into 2 problems; 1, you want to save biomass for better implants, and 2, you're going to be grinding to get those implants. Grinding wouldn't be so bad if the number of bio mass you got was consistent for each level. For example, I got 1400ish off level 3 once, then got 2400 off the first level, then got 2000 for the first level after that, it just makes no sense. I conclude the first level gives the most.
It's not helped by the fact those implants you bought to help you beat a level just got outclassed by ones you unlocked just by beating it. This makes the gameplay to feel tedious.
The implant store itself is very clunky. Every implant has several tiers you progressively have to unlock to buy, and they're all scattered chaotically about the store-- it just looks like a bloated mess. It would be better if there were trees for each implant, that lets the higher tiered implants ascend up the screen. Not to mention the glaring problem that IMPLANTS DON'T HAVE NAMES, or descriptions of what the weapons do exactly. Wellp, they're all missiles. It'd be nice to be able to shoot a giant laser beam or something. Also I got some confusion regarding what's the best implants to use in the first place. I eventually settled with the top 2 best power ball implants, and the 40 damage/30 shot weapon because later levels you really need something to clear out all the dozens of enemies (which comes up to about 30k bio mass, happy grinding >.>).
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In conclusion, it's a solid game weighed down by grinding, lackluster translation and text, bloated upgrade shop, abstruse consistency for farming bio mass, bland weapons, etc. Regardless, I enjoyed it, and I might check out other Armored Fighter installments. With these issues addressed and a little polish, probably would be one of the best mech flash games ever if it isn't already.
Kep oop teh gude verk.