Of course, the wanzers alone aren’t enough to make Front Mission 3 worth playing. Something else does that job — deep, addictive RPG/Strategy game play. If you loved Final Fantasy Tactics, you know what I’m talking about. This Square masterpiece (maybe we’ll see the rest of the Front Mission games in America one day) leans closer to the strategy side than the RPG. There’s no world map to explore — Front Mission 3 is a series of wanzer battles with story scenes and resource management sandwiched between. Characters don’t have "stats" in the classic sense. Instead, they have weapon skills that grow as they deal damage with their wanzers. They also learn battle skills, special attacks that can, and often, do make the difference between quick, easy victory and long, messy wanzer combat. But besides these abilities, one pilot is as good as the next. The most important thing in combat is the power of the wanzer. I love using that word. Wanzer!

The battle system in Front Mission 3 is easy to pick up, but nigh–impossible to master. You command a squad of wanzers (up to four) in lethal combat across detailed and imaginative 3D battlemaps. Every pilot has a stock of action points (AP) used up in every movement, attack, and counterattack. The key to victory is learning when to spend AP and when to save them, as well as learning how to make effective attacks without getting your arms blown off by counterattacks. And yes, you can get your arms blown off. Wanzers take damage by hit location, and different parts have their own "health." If, say, an enemy keeps hitting your legs, your wanzer won’t explode when your legs break down. Instead, your legs will stop working and you won’t be able to move more than one space. Lose an arm, and all weapons on that arm are history. But your losses won’t be permanent. Parts and weapons automatically regenerate at the end of combat—even destroyed wanzers, which appear to self–detonate when they go down, magically reappear after you win. While that keeps the game from becoming a never ending for after–battle repairs, it also takes away from the realism of Front Mission 3.

That isn’t the only lapse in atmosphere, either. While a weapon’s line of fire can be blocked by obstacles or terrain, it can’t be blocked by another wanzer. Whenever one wanzer attacks another, all other units vanish from existence, returning only when all shots have been exchanged. Not only does this take away from the realism of Front Mission 3, it also gums up possible strategies. For example, early on in the game I tried to save an ailing ally by putting my wanzer between it and the enemy. When the bad guys ran up and started firing their machine guns, my wanzer couldn’t block the shots and my ally got toasted.

Also, while battle skills are the essence of Front Mission 3 combat, they’re activated at random, not on command. Nothing’s worse than waiting for a battle skill to finally work and then take down an injured opponent, or have one activated at the wrong time and blow away an enemy who was about to surrender. If an opponent surrenders or you force him to eject (also random), you can claim his wanzer to sell or chop up for spare parts. You can even purposely have your pilots eject, send them over to abandoned enemy equipment, and have them steal such goodies during the heat of battle. Very cool, but if it weren’t completely random, it’d be a lot more entertaining.

Of course, I wouldn’t have noticed these problems if the rest of Front Mission 3 weren’t so darn entertaining and addictive. You’ll have to put a lot of thought into your strategies if you want to succeed with the best rankings; you’ll also have to spend a lot of time preparing before battle. You can construct your wanzers Armored Core–style, name them, and even pick the paint job. Battle skills are hidden in different wanzer parts, so if you want to learn all of the special moves, you’ll have to try out different configurations in combat or spend time in the "Network" battle simulator. And that may as well be another game altogether.

The Network is a virtual Internet that your characters can use to send and receive e–mail, access websites, buy wanzer parts, and even hack into enemy mainframes. As you fight, you’ll get access to new websites, discover new passwords, and download a host of software tools. It all adds up to an intricate web of puzzles and sub–quests that you can spend hours tinkering with and exploring . . . as if there wasn’t enough to do in Front Mission 3 already. Get this — on one CD, Squaresoft has squeezed in about 150 hours of battles and storyline, split into two separate scenarios that occasionally overlap but have their own enemies, allies, and stories. And all of this is held together by one brilliant plot of political corruption, shifting allies, and forays into the philosophy of human conflict.

Front Mission 3 is intricate, entertaining, and addictive. If you liked FFT, rent it. If you like strategy games or giant robots, rent it — and make sure you have the cash on hand to buy . . . Wanzer!

GRADE: A

Electronic Arts’ website

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Get into your giant robot and kick some giant butt! You can order Front Mission 3 directly from the leading online game distributor right here. That’s correct, just click on the GameStop logo above and eagerly order this great game for your PlayStation!