Unfortunately, new equipment and pilots are really all you have to look forward to. The entire mission-based plotline takes place in the span of about 90 days of game time; during that period, you're free to pursue missions, take a few days to repair and customize your mecha or just sit around waiting for the war to end. It will, eventually, regardless of what you choose to do; battles happen whether or not you choose to fight in them, and most are time-sensitive and will become unavailable if you wait around too long. The good news is that, once the war ends, you can start over and play through the missions you missed while keeping all your souped-up robots and pilots.

That's about all the story you'll get out of Crossfire, though. There are no real characters to speak of, and the skeletal plot seems to exist only to pull you from one mission to the next. That's not unusual for hardcore mecha games, but the customization and action might seem a little too simplistic for fans of Chromehounds or Armored Core.

It doesn't help that, beyond its polished robots, Crossfire 's visuals fall flat. Some of the environments are really pretty, but overall the lush jungles, splashing rivers and barren deserts of the game look lifeless, artificial and - dare we say it? - low-res. It gets worse when you consider that most of them have pretty low visibility, and even desert canyons and sunny tropical bays have an impenetrable wall of fog in the near distance that prevents you from seeing too much of your surroundings.