Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon – Review: FromSoftware is back and sharing the pain with a new action game

the of software He returns after many years to his roots with Armored Basic 6: Rubicon Fire, which today comes with updated graphics, lots of mechanics and of course a tutorial combat system. The Armored Core series was first released in 1997 by FromSoftware and Sony, for their first console, the PlayStation, and was one of the first FromSoftware games now known. Over the years, the series has gained many die-hard fans who have followed it for over twenty years and are eagerly awaiting the new chapter.

I dare say that when Armored Core 6 was announced I wasn’t personally excited because even though I knew the series from the beginning, I didn’t get a chance to try out the Armored Core that was released as I’m not the biggest fan of Transformers type mechs-robots. For God’s sake, I’m not comparing armored cores to transformers, I think you get exactly what I’m trying to say.

My opinion has almost changed with FromSoftware’s new game, because even though it doesn’t come close to the Souls games I love, it has something all its own, something unique that makes it stand out. I also want to mention that I entered the world of FromSoftware for the first time in 2010 when I borrowed the game Demon’s Souls for PlayStation 3 from a friend, and this was the beginning of something big blooming in my heart, especially after the first game Dark Souls and its sequels, but also from the last gem in my opinion , Elden Ring. However, I also tried Otogi on Xbox, but didn’t really get it.

Before I start talking about the game, let’s make it clear that the director here isn’t Hidetaka Miyazaki from Dark Souls, but Masaru Yamamura, who was the lead game designer on the also excellent Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Armored Core 6 takes place in the very distant future on a planet called Rubicon 3, where the story of the game centers around a newly discovered substance called Coral, which can be used as an energy source and as a form of data. Some companies rush to take advantage of it and do not take into account the population of the planet, nor the damage it can cause, and this is where we come – as the main characters – to take a stand.

The main protagonist is a mechanic named C4-621 and his operator is Walter, a pilot who fights for the good of everyone, but will fall into a lot of traps without realizing it, while others try to make him whatever they want. That’s more or less the story of the game, without me wanting to tell you anything more because of spoilers. What I will say is that it encouraged me from start to finish, without being overly impressive. In any case, I would venture to say that Armored Core 6 does not focus there.

What you focus on is undoubtedly its gameplay. And what is the gameplay… At first it seemed chaotic and I couldn’t get used to the gameplay at all, nor could I get used to the very demanding handling. Armored Core 6 is a solid action game with fast-paced combat focused on bots and lots of customization.

Η of programs Really provided gameplay for the tutorials And I can tell that it pulled me in from the first moment I started playing the game. In the beginning, of course, I didn’t have a lot of gameplay options, but as I progressed through the missions I unlocked a lot of gear and was able to build my machine the way I wanted without restrictions. To understand this, the mech can hold two weapons, in the right and left hands.

For example, in my right hand I always carried a high-damage rifle and in my left a plasma-type rifle that cast beams to remove enemy shield faster or a gauntlet that charges and carries a very powerful melee ray attack. However, the equipment doesn’t stop here, as the mech can also equip missiles and other weapons on his shoulders, right and left, as well as changing his head, legs, arms, and body in general. Imagine that from the early hours, I didn’t have a classic robot with legs, but had equipped “legs” brought in a tank and had wheels to move a little slower on the tracks, but with more endurance and life. They made my machine look like a tank so it wouldn’t take much damage.

Fans of the series are sure to be very happy with this, as the customization has been taken to another level. There is also the option to change the color of the robot without restrictions and you can paint it from dark shades to very light pink, as well as put stickers on it.

In terms of gameplay, there’s the classic lock so you don’t lose it in battle and it needs a lot of study especially if you’re up against a tough enemy. Many enemies have an energy shield and this must go down first in order for them to take damage and their health bar to go down. Normally, this bar would drop faster using energy weapons like the energy sword that I equipped on my left mechanical arm. I must also say that there is a great variety of enemies, it has many bosses and many area paths that really impress you.

The missions sounded like Metal Gear Solid to me, and at the beginning of each mission there’s a briefing with the wizard talking about what’s going to happen while providing various information. However, there are a lot of missions that are similar to each other, and this bothered me a bit especially at first. Apart from the central quests which are the core of the story, there are also arenas, where there are many 1v1 duels with NPC mechanics and they are a way to collect money if you want to upgrade for example.

I must also say that if you are not familiar with FromSoftware games and especially Armored Core, it would be good to know, before you buy them, that we are talking about a very difficult game. The game made it really hard for me especially in some of the boss fights which several times I found it “sadistic” and said to myself “there’s no way they can do that now”. I can think of a certain boss in the first 10 hours of the game who wreaked so much havoc on my screen with missiles and other projectiles flying at me that I thought it couldn’t be that hard.

I was literally screaming at the brutal difficulty of it. However, I think this is also the charm of FromSoftware games, the prostitute does not coddle the player and holds his hand to pass him through a difficult stage. He wants you to learn the mechanics and study your boss in depth so that you can take him out. I should note somewhere here that I played in Performance mode on the PlayStation 5 to maintain 60fps and can say it had slight differences compared to Graphics mode, which even activates ray tracing through a button in the settings. The game looks visibly better in 30fps graphics mode, but in a game like this, with a lot of intense combat, I think there’s no arguing that it’s better to have smoother motion. As for its sound, FromSoftware does not disappoint here and the game delivers amazing tunes, especially in the boss fights, which are accompanied by fast music to keep you on your toes.

Finally, let me say that I have not encountered any errors and the game is very impressive in every way. The title also supports online PvP squads, which means you’ll be able to play with other players’ machines online, but I wasn’t able to test that.

The only thing that put me off a bit is that the haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features are not supported – at least in the review code I have. I don’t want to imagine how the game will improve its experience if it supports these two features…