Unlike previous Front Mission titles which have a tactical role-playing game structure, players engage in combat in real time on 3D maps using giant robotic weapons of war known as "Wanzers."

The game features a story reboot of the Front Mission series and deals with the rising tensions in the late 22nd century between global powers utilizing orbital elevators to expand their reach into space.

Wanzer customization in the multiplayer mode of Evolved works similarly to Front Mission: Online in that the parts, auxiliary backpacks, and weapons the player can access is entirely dependent on their military ranking.

As an engineer for the weapons developer Diable Avionics, Dylan begins testing of a prototype wanzer on Long Island, New York.

In the midst of the wanzer test, unknown forces begin attacking New York City and its orbital elevator, Percival.

As he travels through the city to reach the National Strategy Research Laboratory (NSRL), Ramsey assists USN forces battling the unknown assailants.

After battling through numerous enemy wanzers, vehicles, and aircraft, Dylan makes it to the NSRL premises just as missiles are launched into the building.

After Percival collapses, Dylan is recruited into the USN Army as it prepares for war against the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU).

[14][15] Front Mission Evolved received mixed reviews from critics, and holds an aggregate score of 58 out of 100 on Metacritic.

[19] Brett Todd of GameSpot scored the game 5.5/10, saying that despite the attempt to appeal to a new audience, it "won't win the franchise any new fans", due to its "predictable, abbreviated campaign".

While complementing the sound design as "thundering and atmospheric", he stated that the combat quickly becomes "mind-numbing" due to its repetitiveness.

[27] The game's on-foot segments were also panned by critics, who compared them to a "sub-par third person shooter" due to their lack of a cover system.