Front Mission Evolved is a Humongous Mecha Third-Person Shooter game published by Square Enix and developed by Double Helix Games for the PC, PS3 and the Xbox360. It was released in Japan on September 16, 2010, in North America on September 28, 2010 and all of Europe on October 8, 2010. The game is a distant sequel to Front Mission 5 and is intended to serve as a soft reboot to gain new players to follow the franchise.
It takes place in the year 2171 where the superpower nations are looking at outerspace for expansion by creating space elevators. Cold War-like tensions resurfaced again as they used surveillance satellites and space-based technologies to keep an eye on each other. In the same year, a United States of the New Continent (USN)-made space elevator named Percival is targeted by an unknown terrorist group via wanzers in an amphibious assault.
Diable Avionics engineer Dylan Ramsey is caught in the middle of the attack while delivering a prototype wanzer. He helps USN wanzers led by Adela Seawell to take out hostile wanzers in the streets of Long Island while trying to look for his father at the National Strategy Research Laboratory. They later find out that the attack was launched by a mercenary group known as Apollo's Chariot.
Front Mission Evolved provides examples of:
- BFG: Played straight to a somewhat ridiculous level with Evolved's bazooka weaponry. It resembles nothing so much as an enormous sewer pipe with a grip, and has the ability to destroy anyone unfortunate enough to be at the open end. Naturally, the more dangerous enemy units tend to carry it.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: Evolved has a bunch of these, but it's most evident during one of the Antarctica missions when Cornelius uses the power of E.D.G.E. on some destroyed wanzers, resurrecting them (yes, resurrect). These "zombie" wanzers are completely shot up, with the skeletal frames beneath their armors showing.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: May happen in Evolved because in wanzer, if you use two-handed weapon, you use left click (or z) to zoom and right click to shoot, while on foot you use right click to zoom and left click to shoot.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: S.C.I.O.N., the final boss of Evolved.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Evolved uses this trope very frequently. Enemy characters, such as Marcus Seligman and Gloria Leguizamo, can get knocked down and disabled in combat... but still functional enough for a tactical retreat in the cutscene that immediately follows.
- Corneillus Werner has two versions of this. The first is where he taunts Dylan Ramsey, and the second is where he outright knocks down the latter and captures Adela Seawell.
- Hover Mecha: One of the legs options is hover, needed to get through water sections more easily.
- It's Up to You: In Evolved... it is probably no surprise that not much will get done if you spend your time on all those 100% Completion scavenger hunts for sensor pods, emblems, and various pickups/item destruction bonuses. All allies will sit there waiting on you instead of taking most any part of the mission (save basic self-defense) into their own hands.
- Jump Jet Pack: The backpack includes jump jets that allow for skating, jumping and hovering, or a quick dodge.
- Limited Loadout: Although technically limited, the loadout is rather generous. The wanzer may be equipped with four weapons and can have armor changed. The player is more likely to be limited by cash or weight instead.
- Psycho for Hire: The Apollo's Chariot. EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM.
- Space Elevator: These are created by superpowers for expansion into space. They're also attacked as within the first act, but have some point defense to protect against incoming missiles.
