Armored Core 2 is a mecha video game in the Armored Core series. Sixty-seven years after the events of the first game, Earth's second largest corporation, Zio Matrix, acquires plans for a research project on Mars, dating back before the Great Destruction. Using these plans, Zio sends a research team to Mars to begin the Terraforming Project, which causes the Martian surface and atmosphere to approximate that of Earth. Other corporations quickly learn of the project and quickly follow Zio, bringing with them the competitive environment that existed on Earth.

Similar to the first game, the player starts off with a basic AC and is expected to complete a trial mission which consists of destroying several MTs. Completing the mission will register the player's character with Nerves Concord, a "mediation" firm much like the Raven's Nest of the PlayStation era games. From that point on the player is relayed missions by their Nerves Concord manager and completing these missions will advance the game's storyline.

Codes

First Person View
While playing a game, hold Triangle + Square + Start. The game will pause. Press Start to resume the game with the new camera view. For the Japanese version of the game, hold Triangle + Square + Select.

Unlockables

Mission Unlockables.
When you compete all the missions for one crop, a new part is added to the shop.

ELB-XXE/LAPIN - Complete All Emeraude Missions.

HOY-B1000 - Complete All Balena Missions.

ZLR-ZIO/MATRIX - Complete All Zio Matrix Missions.

Pilot Enhancements
When playing through the missions, if you fail a mission, you are still charged for the wear and tear on your AC. If after losing several missions you drop far into the negative money range, your pilot will be forcibly ''upgraded''.

For each upgrade, you'll need to drop below -50,000 credits. Once this happens, the game will be restarted with your new powers (i.e. clean slate, 5000 Cr), although you'll keep any parts you had from your previous game.

260-Click Range Radar with Missile Display - First Enhancement

Cooling Rate Doubled - Eighth Enhancement

Fire Back Unit Weapons While Standing/Moving - Fourth Enhancement

Half Energy Use - Fifth Enhancement

Heat Reduction - Third Enhancement

Laser Blade Wave - Second Enhancement

Unlockables

Acquire Ranked AC Emblems - After defeating an AC in the Arena, when the ''WIN'' message is displayed, press Select and Start simultaneously to add the emblem into the pre-made list.

Allow Overloaded AC - After completing the game, load your cleared game data to be able to use your ACs with more than the allowed weight.

Secrets

Infinite Energy
While the game is unpaused, hit L2, R2, R3 all at the same time. If you did it right then a system error will come up saying Limiter Release. After a while though, that will switch to OB down and you cannot use any energy.

Set Camera angle
Hold Start + Circle + X during gameplay and the game will pause. Press Start to resume playing. The camera is now fixed at that location.

Here's the final mission of the game: