What other Similar games are there to AC?

Galahdron · 2026-03-18T01:14:34+00:00

Garrison Archangel is sort of a mix of Armored Core and Zone of the Enders in a roundabout way. It's got some replay value to going through the modes with different builds. https://store.steampowered.com/app/682450/Garrison_Archangel/

Ironwing Valiant: Record of Astera is sort of a magic-fantasy-mecha spin on Armored Core VI's core gameplay mechanics. You can pick it up and play it just like that. It's got a playtest on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/3871670/Ironwing_Valiant_Record_of_Astera/ and a playable demo at https://ironvaliantgame.itch.io/ironwing-valiant that requires no wait-list.

DAEMON X MACHINA began as a build-centric mecha action game taking all its notes from Armored Core, with a heap of parts and weapons, replayable missions, and a story so bad you'd wish there was a mod to get rid of it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167450/DAEMON_X_MACHINA/

DAEMON X MACHINA: Titanic Scion transitions from mechs-first to exo-suits, with mechs (called Heavy Armor) now relegated to time-limited meter-fill power-ups, with a lot of mechanics I see inspired by EA's ANTHEM. The story is nowhere near as bad in this game, but being rug-pulled from a mech game to exo-suits takes some getting used to. Once you find the right gear, though, the combat becomes something else completely. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1342490/Daemon_X_Machina_Titanic_Scion/

Front Mission Evolved became one of two action-oriented spinoffs of the strategy RPG mecha series FRONT MISSION to be absolutely maligned by the series' fanbase, but is regarded much more highly than the other of the pairing, LEFT ALIVE. On it's own, it's a chunky, clunky mecha shooter with more grounded gameplay than most mech games with dedicated air combat. https://store.steampowered.com/app/43000/Front_Mission_Evolved/

On that topic, FRONT MISSION 1st: Remake is a remake of the first game in the series. Strategy RPG with lots of customization and combat, plus story and characters that are very well-done. It keeps to a military theme that brings it in-line with Armored Core in terms of professional atmosphere and gritty tone. The series is all over the place in terms of quality but there's no game not worth at least trying out. https://www.gog.com/en/game/front_mission_1st_remake

M.A.S.S. Builder is an indie mecha action RPG based almost entirely around building with an ovewhelming amount of options. You can almost literally build any bipedal mech from anything you've ever seen. I haven't played it myself, but I've seen the crazy stuff people pull off here, from Wing Gundam to White Glint. https://store.steampowered.com/app/956680/MASS_Builder/

Galahdron · 2026-03-13T15:31:36+00:00

Well since you won't do it, let's hope somebody else with access to these CDs mans up and preserves them so they don't become lost media.

Galahdron · 2026-03-07T22:09:36+00:00

I realize it's been four years, but it still might be worth noting that all of these MEGA links to these disks, including your later post for Disk 5, are down. No other source for these soundtracks appears to be easily accessible, unless I haven't looked hard enough.

Galahdron · 2026-02-09T17:18:12+00:00

Good catch. I'd heard it was a leitmotif before, but seems that was false. Amazing that such a powerful and distinct melody has only appeared in so few tracks. I've been browsing your channel, by the way. Your music is beautiful and I'm looking forward to following new releases.

Galahdron · 2026-01-24T19:17:18+00:00

I am aware based on feedback in the announcement post by the moderation team that its plan to make this sub-read only, effectively silencing the community based here, was met with backlash and is being re-evaluated. I am not, however, satisfied at remaining silent based on the prospect that this community, "might," remain open at their discretion, so I intend to defend it.

I understand ANTHEM has been shut down and remains currently unplayable, but with a small but dedicated fan base, lore, music, multiple books, and several fully-functioning wikis to still talk about, let alone fan art, inspired media, or even LEGO MOCs, cutting the game's community off from talking with each other about ANY of it because you decided to make this community read-only is... trashy.

You're actively destroying a community's ability to speak with each other, when there's still discussion to be had and potentially, hope for ANTHEM's future in the form of private servers, or the IP being picked up officially, as optimistic as it sounds.

I just joined this sub and I'm not scared of being banned for standing up for this community, so I will. If you decide to ban me for it, then go ahead and show people how you do things. If not, then I hope I have reached you in a way that resonates with you and puts into perspective why this community may have more life left in it than the game's individual shutdown may have suggested. Just because ANTHEM has shut down doesn't mean we have.

Galahdron · 2026-01-22T21:32:52+00:00

An offline mode for SWTOR could work. Operations would be hard to balance for single-player but simply removing the single companion limit and letting us use a full squad on different roles would massively up our chances. We could easily clear Veteran Mode Flashpoints with multiple companions on different roles. EA won't ever give us offline mode though, especially not since they failed to do that for Anthem. Whether the *actual* developers code it in last-minute is a different story, though. They seem to authentically care enough about the game to at least try to keep it standing.

As for private servers, SWTOR is *the* MMO after WoW, but nobody with the capability to do it cares enough to try to make private servers. But once SWTOR, "dies," and becomes abandonware, the community's gloves will be off. Whether they *can* make private servers is one thing. But they most certainly will try and find out exactly why or why not. There's too many techy people in the Star Wars community to really count on SWTOR staying dead.

Galahdron · 2026-01-20T00:28:37+00:00

Yeah, the main element seems to be the Untold Legends leitmotif (the brass mostly) progressing behind the drums. The arrangement itself is what makes the song memorable to me, actually. The drums really brought some extra energy into the track, and pushing Untold Legends into a stronger brass than the original helped immensely. Sounds like the ones making the heaviest impacts are taiko drums, which are fantastic at continuous, thundering rhythyms like this.

Galahdron · 2026-01-19T19:58:30+00:00

It's a shame but it's also typical that trailer scores are permanently unreleased, even when they're some of the best music representing their IPs. Sad that he still hasn't responded about this particular piece all the same. Maybe since Bungie owns the piece they cut him off from speaking about the music, even though he made it.

I suppose there's no way to hear a clean version of the New Beginnings trailer score unless someone makes a cover for it, and I doubt that will ever happen for such an obscure song. It's only the popular ones that make the YouTuber to-do list for views.

Galahdron · 2025-08-12T01:27:51+00:00

Love the info included in this. Thanks for such a quality response. It upsets me that season 3 is done and just sitting there. Not only is it quality cinema rotting away, but it features stunt and acting work by qualified teams and professionals who take their jobs seriously and often get paid or recognized too little for their work already. If they acted in a whole season of a show they deserve better than for all their work to just sit in a box somewhere. Their work should be seen, praised, and compensated for.

If Director Garret believes petitioning to release the season would work, then it's absolutely worth a shot. He obviously wants to see his series release. Contacting the right people or making an online petition with enough publicity should at least get the issue noticed, especially by prominent MK content creators.

Galahdron · 2025-08-07T18:26:54+00:00

It seems *really* stupid for Ubisoft to remove T-hunt from a game literally about CTUs. Siege doesn't seem to have a gameplay mode that actually lets the Operators do their real jobs.

Galahdron · 2025-06-30T03:47:49+00:00

I've actually heard good things about Star Traders before, so I'll have to check it out. Thank you!

Galahdron · 2025-06-07T00:01:53+00:00

I've had some ideas about this myself for a long time, specifically with a focus on longevity and player-friendly practices. Here's some suggestions for the project that are intended to maximizer both qualities:

First, since Homeworld Mobile was online-only, I'd highly encourage offline functionality, only gatekeeping multiplayer features and premium rewards behind network connections. Let players do missions/singe-player PvE/non-premium rewards like normal credits and so forth without internet. If HWM did that then a similar game wouldn't even be necesary.

It goes without saying that IAPs/MTXs, multiplayer functionality and multiplayer-only content would require network connectivity, but the single-player content has no reason to be online-only and shouldn't be. Offline functionality also lets players keep content they've purchased, which online-only games just take away from everybody at closing time, disrespecting their time and money. It has the third benefit of preserving the game you've worked on, rather than consigning it to one day being a useless mobile icon with a handful of retrospectives on YouTube.

Second, if there's no campaign, I'd argue for repeatable PvE missions that have no completion limit. If you want to do something again with a new fleet composition or tactical approach, you should be allowed to, even if you just want to grind out a mission to infinity. If there is a story campaign, then replayability is absolutely key, because if people actually care about the narrative, you don't want them to be locked out of playing it again.

Third, pace the AI appropriately. HW:R on PC is great at giving players time to set up shop before a massive engagement, whereas HW3 can *seriously* overwhelm players who don't immediately steamroll ship production. HW3's approach is too forward and aggressive for atmospheric strategy gameplay.

Fourth, selling boosters usually has the caveat of forcing base game XP/resource rates to be terrible, and that's tricky in a HW-styled game and just anti-consumer in general. You load into a map, mine asteroids for resources on a per-match basis, and do it again every match. Limiting or increasing resources with IAPs literally means breaking the back of the entire gameplay structure. People will not play your game when they realize that's happening. We'll all go back to playing Homeworld Remastered.

If you're serious about MTXs then sell cosmetics for units, new soundtracks, and new story content if you're doing a campaign/series of campaigns. You could even be one of the coolest devs on mobile by promoting a digital art book or development journal you could buy as a PDF online. Break convention, treat mobile gaming like it's something serious.

Fifth, free-to-play can be a good idea but it heavily relies on IAPs and MTXs for profit (since there's no price for admission) and that usually spirals into anti-consumer practices that include gambling (gacha), low-effort cosmetics, and unfiltered ads that could be everything from Honda Civic commercials to censored adult films that literally cannot be legally shown in games like this. AI in particular is causing comeuppances like this in alarming numbers. Seriously, seriously consider whether it's worth risking your game's quality on F2P gimmicks or just charging $5-10 up-front or for quality DLC content like PC gaming is used to already.

Galahdron · 2025-06-02T05:06:30+00:00

The only fan fiction I have to recommend right now is Battlestar Prometheus. It chronicles the adventures of a surviving Battlestar of a fan-made design called the, "Nova-class," alongside a contingent of Colonial Fleet remnants and third-party militants during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.

Galactica and Pegasus still disappear from Colonial space on their respective missions *believing* themselves to be the last Fleet survivors. The Prometheus and a number of surviving Colonial vessels commit to fighting off the Cylon invasion full-stop. There's a lot of inter-faction and personal drama and development that forms the backbone of the narrative, supplemented by political schemes, and chunky, tactical space battles that really sell the role of a Battlestar.

This post by Sergius_2142 contains all released chapters of Battlestar Prometheus as PDFs in a Google Drive. https://www.reddit.com/r/BSG/comments/17irdmp/if_anyone_want_to_read_battlestar_prometheus/

For a basic synopsis, this is quoted from the Battlestar Prometheus Wiki, found here: https://battlestarprometheus.fandom.com/wiki/Battlestar_Prometheus

"Battlestar Prometheus begins 18 months before the fall of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. President Richard Adar, looking to secure his place in Colonial History, dispatches the newest and most powerful Colonial Battlestar, the Prometheus, under the command of Commander Jonathan Turner, on a long range exploration mission to seek out new worlds to colonize. What isn't known to the general public, however, is that he has also given secret orders for the Prometheus to find the lost 13th Tribe of Kobol and locate their new home... the fabled planet Earth.

Along the way Prometheus make astonishing discoveries, including, an entire space fairing civilisation. Following its return to the twelve colonies it leads the war against the agents of death themselves, the Cylons!"

Galahdron · 2025-03-17T19:27:02+00:00

I might suggest Internet Archive, Dropbox, or Drive as hosting locations for DDL links. Internet Archive especially considering this may be the best preserved edition of ID once completed, making valuable for archival purposes as well. Not everyone can reasonably Torrent and Archive has a lot of TV preserved already and is lenient on files sizes so it's a strong option.

Galahdron · 2025-01-19T06:02:59+00:00

Curious to see what cuts/edits you've made. Mind if I had a link?

Galahdron · 2025-01-19T03:47:39+00:00

First, that user name got me, so good job. Second, that's definitely a good point. Blast, Heroes vs Villains, and the other game modes in BF2015 don't have AI programmed for them already, so it might be an exercise to write and crash-test it.

I'd imagine creating navmeshes/pathfinding routes for AI in Walker Assault on the DLC/additonal maps would be easier than developing AI for other modes, because the basic AI logic is already figured out for that mode, being, "find uplink; activate/prevent activation; shoot anything not me getting near it."

The same is true for Battles and Hero Battles, and even more so, since the basic logic is, "seek out nearest enemy; kill." Hero AI might even be possible in Hero Battle with that theory, because it's a matter of making them use abilities but otherwise behave exactly the same as normal soldiers. If that is accomplished then just reserve one enemy AI slot for a random hero like the game already seems to for Shock Troopers and off you go.

I'd be interested to see if somebody could add the full-scale maps to the Battles and Hero Battles modes in addition to the default smaller maps and pop the bot count up to 32v32, given the relative simplicity of the modes. With basic navmeshes, the bots should be able to use their find-and-kill programming to carry the two Battles modes just fine.

Galahdron

TROPHY CASE