Never seen a game sabotage itself so hard. For every good idea, there are three bad ones. Gave up on the 18th floor where everything is pitch black, and I was being stun locked by the increased enemy count. The lack of shortcuts from the 14th floor to the 18th was the tipping point for me.

The most frustrating thing is that there's an extremely well realized atmospheric adventure/exploration game here, but it's buried deep beneath a bunch of very (artificially) punishing mechanics that keep poping up at every floor.

played it in exploration mode cause I remembered hearing the game was way too frustrating on survival mode and that was one hundred percent the right choice

kinda slogged at first but eventually feel into a good rhythm, and then eventually got way too hard even in exploration

honestly kinda wish the game didn't have any combat, buuuuut despite all that I just loved the atmosphere, as cliche as it is

It kind of feels like this game was designed by an alien that has only ever played one video game (and that video game was Dark Souls)
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I cant actually figure out who the audience for this game is supposed to be. Its not for the roguelike audience, cuz the randomized elements dont extend to the player character. Its not for the survival audience cuz this game is extremely punishing on the action side of things. Its not even for Souls fans cuz the game wrings your neck over resource management. The games way too long to be this austere yet demanding of an experience.

Some thoughts:

- I think the only purely positive thing I can say about Below (and I wouldnt be the first to say it), is the Art Direction and Atmosphere are on point. This includes the macro things, like the smooth crisp “Geometry-Norwegian” graphics style as well as micro things - like when youre in a cave full of scrambling weird dudes but some of the weird dudes dont scramble on the ground. They stand up, stay at a distance, regard you with some sort of cautious intelligence, respond with some kind of comtempt for you killing the scramblers. Its pretty convincing. Many things were probably inspired by Dark Souls here but the attention to detail with the setting might be the one they interpreted correctly.

- The balance however, is incomprehensible. If the design of the game was a text, it would be written in some ancient Babylonian language. Im gonna break this down into finer points to try and articulate this wicked weave of bullshit.
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>>> Areas are way too large for a game that sends you back to the beginning of the island every time you die. Even with shortcuts unlocked, it adds alot of tedious travel (and therefore increases the punishment) to the process.
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>>> The crafting process is essential to your ability to survive the game and the size of the inventory makes this incredibly unsustainable. You will have a hard time holding on to everything you need and you will have a hard time recouping the cost of spending items - especially if you still end up dying.
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>>> The game had the balls to have survival mechanics in a world where you die in 4 hits. Your hunger and thirst drain empty every 5 minutes and you cant cook (craft with food) just anywhere. Everyone hates this, everyone exclusively recommends doing Exploration Mode but this doesnt get rid of the temperature component either.
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>>> The UI is simplistic (pretty) but incredibly aggravating for a crafting system where you need to heal or eat often. “Trial and error” means submitting to the tedious process of dying, respawning and then recouping more than you otherwise actually need to.
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>>> On top of all these base systems, the game is just a shithead. Tons of traps to complicate your survival prospects, for some reason they put a suicide run segment where you have to finish a gauntlet before freezing to death only 1/5th of the way through the game, they will starve you of essential resources (not figuratively essential either) for entire floors. There is a segment that represents an entire 20% of the game where combat is a guaranteed way to get killed and sent back up to the top. Some people call games like Dark Souls unforgiving but this game actually desires to spite you.

- With all that being said about the design, the game also has the balls to necessitate players re-explore every area to truly acquire all the items needed to complete the game. This isnt some optional true ending type shit, you need to fumble through the game twice in order to beat it at all. Luckily, fortunately, blissfully, if you made it down to the bottom once you likely have created enough stability for yourself that going through it again isnt as big an ask - but Im just floored by the ego on this game.

- The juice isnt even worth the squeeze. There isnt any real sense of reward for persevering in Below. I get the feeling someone at Capy played Dark Souls and went “Ahh yes…. mysterious….” and then made a game that was nothing but Vague. But that vagueness spoils the game, making crucial systems cumbersome and diluting any sense of achievement (cuz your reward is more Vagueness). Dark Souls “delayed gratification”, it didnt “delete gratification” - and this sucks so much more because of how unrestrained Belows sense of punishment is. Youre hit twice as hard for half as much and that sucks.


Minor Thoughts:

- Why does this lil mfing guy wake up and get up so slow? You have to suffer his slow ass wake up animation twice every time you go to the Dream Room (once when you enter and once when you exit), why did they do this? Why do they hate Gamers? Why do they hate me?

- I think this game expects you to care about the world way sooner than you actually have incentive to (a big no-no). BUT. It does get cool eventually.

- Why are all the cutscenes so slow? Why is everything so mfing slow??

- Damn the ending sucks.

This is basically baby's first survival horror, and I think that's sick. So many survival horror indies try to recapture the designs of Silent Hill and Resident Evil but sacrifice accessibility to do so. I think it's really cool that now there's a game meant to introduce people to the genre, and it's even cooler that it's super solid. It's pretty easy, but it controls like butter, the monster designs are top-notch, and exploration is encouraged and feels satisfying to engage with. A really great time; if you're a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to rediscover why you love it so much.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon should not exist. It's too perfect.

A series long forgotten by the masses and apart of a genre untouched for decades, it only makes sense that after Fromsoftware's third and biggest slam dunk in a row, Elden Ring, they would go off and make another Armored Core title.

If there is one thing that remains consistent with my favorite games, its giant robots. Metal Gear, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Titanfall, are all games that feature such. The issue, however, is that these giant robots are simply set pieces (sans Titanfall). Fires of Rubicon defies this, by letting you be the giant fucking robot, with total customization to boot.

Everything about this game bleeds pure action. Unlike the Souls genre, Armored Core does not ask you to sit and wait to I-Frame out of every move. Instead, you are pressing 6 buttons every frame, frantically dodging and weaving between intense storms of bullets and rockets, while returning your own fire, all at the same time. It's beyond exhilarating. In no other game would I have fathomed having my own personally customized gundam, fit with custom decals and it's own name. The number of builds are truly limitless and you can approach any boss any way you like, assuming you're good enough.

What makes Armored Core fun is that it is brutally hard. Not exactly soulsbourne hard, but it's tough. It's a bullethell with hitscan sized rounds, moving at a million miles an hour. It's a type of hard I haven't experienced in so long. I've become so used to Fromsofts formulaic "wait for it" difficulty that rides on making one perfectly timed hit that the idea of telling me to throw anything and everything at my enemy seems foreign. Boss's come at you with equally hectic attacks, from barrages of missiles to tracking laser drones to bullshit shielding. Losing is still fun, you always feel like you're engaging with the game, rather than waiting to get back to the point where you were.

So the combat is good. That's probably what most of you care about. If it is, stop now and go play it, no more words can describe how fun it is. It simply has to be experienced. But, there is more to AC6.

AC6 brings with it a fantastic and visually stunning story. Words do not express how good Rubicon-3 looks, and how equally cool it is to see your AC in all these exotic landscaping shots.

The narrative is branching, and it's good. The characters do everything the game needs you them to do, being very likeable or openly infuriating. Except, every character is equally likeable and dislikeable. It all works into this narrative about picking sides. As an independent mercenary, you end up seeing every side of the war, and are given the choice to pick based off your own true feelings. It's as engaging as it should be. You truly do start to feel like Raven, and the story feels like your own, rather than the same story everyone else witnessed.

However, this is where the one pain point comes from. AC6 has chosen to adapt NieR: Replicants way of storytelling, causing you to play through the campaign 3 times to see every ending. Though, it isn't as bad as it sounds. By the end of your first run, you barely get any time to play with your kitted out AC, and I found myself immediately jumping into NG+ to just play more. What's more exciting, is that with NG+ (and NG++) comes more content. New weapons, armor, missions, and a new ending become available to you in each run, leaving the experience to be refreshing. Despite replaying the same 20 some missions, they never get stale. The game is just that fun.

Never before have I played a game with such a comprehensive mecha system, and never before have I seen a non-human character creator this customizable. The game is outright fun, and the story is surprisingly meaningful. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon might be the ultimate videogame, and I highly recommend you play it if you're even on the fence.

Fromsoftware yet again proves that only they can fly high enough.