Worth: $15.00
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Intro:
… fast-paced but fiddly …
It’s hard to believe, but before clever Japanese development studio, FromSoftware, created the Soulslike genre with the likes of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and of course Elden Ring, they had a niche but well-liked series of mech combat games under the banner of Armoured Core. These games were known for their impenetrable stories, complicated mechanics and high difficulty ceilings and, much like nerd obsessions such as Warhammer 40K or Dungeons & Dragons, tended to appeal to a very small and focused demographic. However, this is 2023, a time when Warhammer is mainstream and the most popular video game in the world is D&D based. So, what better time for FromSoft to launch the latest iteration of their long dormant series in the fiddly-but-fun form of Armoured Core VI: Fires of Rubicon?
Armoured Core VI: Fires of Rubicon takes place in a grim dystopian future. Sure, humanity is now an interstellar civilisation, but it’s also a violent, mechanised one, where corrupt, venal megacorporations battle one another for control of the precious and dwindling resource called Coral. Combat tends to take place via the medium of human-controlled mechs beating the scrap out of one another in various landscapes that look like Front 242 songs sound. You, the mysterious player character, flog the mercenary licence “Raven” and start doing various missions for a number of different factions, slowly revealing a narrative that’s told mainly in opaque exposition drops via voice over. It’s the sort of storytelling that works well to establish a premise but isn’t exactly enthralling over a longer period of time.
Still and all, Armoured Core VI is about one thing and one thing only: mechs. You will build, upgrade, rebuild, remix and reconfigure your mech a dizzying number of times, often on the fly, trying to best various tricky bosses or specific mission objectives. You can make fast mechs that use laser swords, medium sized mechs bristling with rocket launchers or tanky behemoths that shoot plasma out of every orifice – plus every combination in between those extremes. If you’re the sort of person who loves to min/max builds and obsesses about the ratio of weight to manoeuvrability, ACVI is going to completely take over your life for at least one or two playthroughs.
More casual players, however, may find Armoured Core VI a bit fiddly and lacking in rewards. The story is so slight and the overall point so obtuse, that anyone without at least a little bit of enthusiasm towards gigantic robots cutting sick will probably find this package a little dry.
The graphics are solid but the art direction is merely serviceable. There’s a couple of standout levels – like one, where you fight a horizon-dominating walker or another where you tackle invisible enemies – but overall, the gameplay does skew a little samey. You’ll rarely come across an environment that makes your jaw drop and spark your imagination, so an inbuilt love of tech-heavy sci-fi yarns will be a must here. Put it this way, Armoured Core VI is probably the most accessible game in the series… but friends, that is a low, low bar to clear.
Armoured Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is a fast-paced but fiddly title that demands you spend some time getting to grips with the nuanced mechanics and occasionally dramatic difficulty spikes. In return, it gives you engaging combat, a decent premise and 10-15 hours of gameplay. For some, this won’t be enough for the amount of patience and dedication required. For those who occupy a position on the mech nerd spectrum, however, ACVI will feel like the triumphant homecoming of a much-missed old friend.