Despite being a Fromsoft fan since 2013 when I first played through Dark Souls, I had not touched their longest running series before: Armored Core. With the release of Fires of Rubicon, I was excited to finally give it a try. For a litany of reasons, there is no doubt it is one of my favourite games of 2023 thus far.
Reason #1: The customization. You start your endeavour on Rubicon in a run-of-the-mill AC unit. Equipped with an assault rifle, some lock-on missiles, and an energy sword you have just enough to get by. As you complete more and more missions, you earn credits or perhaps even find new weapons and parts to customize your AC to your liking. Do you like lasers, bullets, plasma, pulse, melee weapons, or shields? You have two arm slots and two shoulder slots to augment your build as you see fit. What about your legs? Besides the standard bipedal choice, there's also spider legs that let you hover, tank legs for driving around, and reverse legs for high-manoeuvrability and spring jumping (my personal favourite). Often different missions will call for different leg choices for an easier time, but you can make due with your preferences to be sure. Every other part of the AC can be customized too, from the head to the arms to the boosters to the generator. All of the components make up what your AC can support and is capable of. And once that is all out of the way, how about the look? You can paint, shine, and weather each individual part to match the look you want, with each part also having several different channels to paint. You can also even create your own decals to paste all over your mech as you see fit.
Reason #2: It is absolutely fucking cool. There aren't enough games that give a great sense of scale but AC6 is certainly one of them. Like Xenoblade or the old God of War trilogy, you really feel how small you are compared to other massive objects both in the map and in the background, but it also reminds you how massive you are when you take cover behind an apartment complex that just barely reaches your height. The visual effects are stellar too with lots of explosions and lasers going off that contrast the bleak landscape. The game also features a fantastic cast of characters that are both fun to fight with and against, and a very intriguing overarching story which has been the best story-telling I've experienced from Fromsoft to date (admittedly not a high bar).
Reason #3: The mission variety. There is a good amount of missions in the game which all have you tackling pretty fun objectives and a stellar list of bosses as well. Some of them felt either too hard or too easy at times, but I imagine that's really all up to different builds being suited to different things, and how willing the player is to adapt. Longer missions require larger ammo counts (or maybe a melee weapon to conserve), whereas certain bosses are more susceptible to certain types of damage so you must plan accordingly. The game also features multiple endings, and while that may feel like a big commitment, your subsequent playthroughs move lightning quick with your end game builds and prior knowledge. They also do a respectable job of keeping each playthrough feeling fresh. Maybe the only minor complaint I have is that the game features a ranking system, but only when you reattempt missions through the replay menu. I would have felt a lot more inclined to get better ranks on missions if even my NG+ and beyond playthroughs just ranked my story attempts (this is a really minor thing though).
Overall, AC6 is a very cool and very fun game. Tons of weapons and builds to choose from with low commitment if you want to try something else, and the missions are just the right length where none feel too long. It really feels like we don't get a lot of mission-based games like this anymore from AAA developers and I hope to see more like this again.
Reason #1: The customization. You start your endeavour on Rubicon in a run-of-the-mill AC unit. Equipped with an assault rifle, some lock-on missiles, and an energy sword you have just enough to get by. As you complete more and more missions, you earn credits or perhaps even find new weapons and parts to customize your AC to your liking. Do you like lasers, bullets, plasma, pulse, melee weapons, or shields? You have two arm slots and two shoulder slots to augment your build as you see fit. What about your legs? Besides the standard bipedal choice, there's also spider legs that let you hover, tank legs for driving around, and reverse legs for high-manoeuvrability and spring jumping (my personal favourite). Often different missions will call for different leg choices for an easier time, but you can make due with your preferences to be sure. Every other part of the AC can be customized too, from the head to the arms to the boosters to the generator. All of the components make up what your AC can support and is capable of. And once that is all out of the way, how about the look? You can paint, shine, and weather each individual part to match the look you want, with each part also having several different channels to paint. You can also even create your own decals to paste all over your mech as you see fit.
Reason #2: It is absolutely fucking cool. There aren't enough games that give a great sense of scale but AC6 is certainly one of them. Like Xenoblade or the old God of War trilogy, you really feel how small you are compared to other massive objects both in the map and in the background, but it also reminds you how massive you are when you take cover behind an apartment complex that just barely reaches your height. The visual effects are stellar too with lots of explosions and lasers going off that contrast the bleak landscape. The game also features a fantastic cast of characters that are both fun to fight with and against, and a very intriguing overarching story which has been the best story-telling I've experienced from Fromsoft to date (admittedly not a high bar).
Reason #3: The mission variety. There is a good amount of missions in the game which all have you tackling pretty fun objectives and a stellar list of bosses as well. Some of them felt either too hard or too easy at times, but I imagine that's really all up to different builds being suited to different things, and how willing the player is to adapt. Longer missions require larger ammo counts (or maybe a melee weapon to conserve), whereas certain bosses are more susceptible to certain types of damage so you must plan accordingly. The game also features multiple endings, and while that may feel like a big commitment, your subsequent playthroughs move lightning quick with your end game builds and prior knowledge. They also do a respectable job of keeping each playthrough feeling fresh. Maybe the only minor complaint I have is that the game features a ranking system, but only when you reattempt missions through the replay menu. I would have felt a lot more inclined to get better ranks on missions if even my NG+ and beyond playthroughs just ranked my story attempts (this is a really minor thing though).
Overall, AC6 is a very cool and very fun game. Tons of weapons and builds to choose from with low commitment if you want to try something else, and the missions are just the right length where none feel too long. It really feels like we don't get a lot of mission-based games like this anymore from AAA developers and I hope to see more like this again.