Front Mission 3's graphics engine is, unfortunately, relatively blocky and outdated, even compared to its predecessor, FM2. The shadows are pretty laughable, and the camera jumps and shakes as if the person handling it was on a permanent caffeine high. Fortunately, the mecha models are properly detailed, even if they suffer from a bit of pop-up, and they actually change during the game depending on what they're equipped with. This is a pleasant change from the typical game where the characters look amazingly static. The still backdrops are quite gorgeous in and of themselves, and the FMV is just as gorgeous as any Square FMV, albeit often cryptic. The explosions are nice, if rather sprite-based, and the between-location maps are quite nice. The websites on the Network are very, very nice-looking as a whole, even if suffering from a bit of Jap-lash. On the game maps themselves, the Wanzers are little sprites, but it's not all that bothersome.

The sound is a mixed bag. The music ranges from forgettable to somewhat catchy, but it's not something that stays with you. The various weapon sound effects are very nice, however, with proper booms and bangs.

But you're not here for good graphics, right? A Strategy/RPG is all about gameplay.

And my God, does Front Mission 3 have gameplay. I haven't had as much fun playing a Strat/RPG since, well, Front Mission 2, and me and my friends had to make up dialog for that game since it was in Japanese. FM3's a little weaker than its predecessor, but since FM2 deserved something like a 110%, this isn't bad at all. You're Kazuki Takemura, a Wanzer (the Front Mission universe's mecha, or walking death robots) test pilot for a company that sells their products to the Military. After throwing you into a test session, you're given a choice of following your friend Ryoga or not. This is where the game diverges in plotlines -- one about your sister, Alisa, and one about a girl you soon meet, Emme. Each plotline has hours of gameplay, and they're both different enough to warrant playing it through both times.

And believe me, this game is long. The case promises 150 hours of gameplay experience, and although I'm not sure that I'd go that far, FM2 took about 60 hours, and this one seems even longer. Perhaps Square's right about the time. Nonetheless, the game's fun enough to keep you entranced throughout the game, with its often-campy plotlines not getting in the way of the good, clean mecha (er, Wanzer)-fighting fun.

And boy does this game have fights. You get to beat the snot out of other Wanzers with melee weapons, shoot them with rockets, grenades, rifles, shotguns, flamethrowers, and machine guns, and try to block with shields. Moreover, the Wanzers are fully customizable, a la Armored Core, letting you take parts and pieces from various mecha, or buying parts yourself, upgrading them, and assembling them piecemeal into the ultimate death machine.

In combat, your shots hit random parts of the body of whatever you're fighting, and if a part goes to 0, it blows off. If the body goes to 0, it's dead. Sometimes pilots get ejected, in which case you can kill the pilot or hijack his Wanzer. This game offers tons of gameplay possibilities, and everyone will play it differently. I find myself leaning heavily towards melee weapons, while I have friends that favor long-range rifles and missiles. It's all in how you play it.

And then there's the mighty sub-game. There is a Network, which is a rough approximation of the Internet. You can send and receive e-mail or browse sites that you know of. e-mail, sites and even people in the game may give you new e-mail addresses or web sites to visit. Often, places on sites are protected with passwords that you have to either find or guess. I've found myself almost spending more time in this mode than in the 'real' game, with its literally hundreds of pages and self-references. It's a lot of fun, if a bit tedious for those not as geeky as me, but it's not all that necessary to the plot of the game. You can simply use the network as a way to get weapons when you're away from a store. Your choice, really.

No matter. This game completely rocks. I was shocked when I heard that it was being brought out in the States. The only problem with the game is the text, as has been the problem with many recent Square games -- it's a little stilted at times, and it often has breaks in the middle of words. But don't let that bother you. This game is great.

Most of the beginning levels are quite easy, with an occasional hard one. Some of the later ones are fiendish. Be prepared.

The pointer method used to select squares could use a little work, but once you've used it for a bit, it's second nature, really. The button use is consistent, and the menus are easy to navigate. The load times are occasionally annoying, but never so much as to be truly irritating.

Front Mission 3 is truly a great game, one that should be enjoyed by strategy and mecha fans alike. It continues the epic storyline of the previous four Front Mission games (and in English!), and it should be in every strategy, sci-fi, or RPG fan's library.