HomeReviewsArmored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon review: FromSoftware’s full spectrum mech experience mostly deliversThe less celebrated series packs a punch
The less celebrated series packs a punch
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
How do you like your missiles? Do you prefer ones that fire straight up and then swoop down like birds of prey, or the kind that jet off to the sides, trapping the target in a pincer formation? How about a single missile that splits into a swarm of smaller missiles? Perhaps a zig-zagger that leaves a trail of explosive charges in its wake, detonating them like dynamite dominoes once it impacts? Well, whatever your fancy,Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubiconhas a loadout for every occasion. With as many combinations as Dolly Parton’s wardrobe, it’s almost a scandal to equip the same gear twice.
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Dressing the part for each self-contained mission is as crucial as the execution itself. Your mech carries four weapons at a time: two in the hands, two perched on its shoulders like a pirate’s parrots. Your selection determines your effective range, fire rate, damage, accuracy and the type of fire – bullets, explosives, lasers, plasma and so on – while switching in different body parts, boosters and energy cores alters your speed, weight limit and more. Even early on, before you’ve dropped millions of credits in the parts store, the potential combinations are a tinkerer’s dream, as long as you can find a balance that works. Perhaps you want those springy reverse-kneed grasshopper legs, for example, but that might preclude you from heavier weapons that require sturdier support.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
With all this heavy metal, once you head out to trash corporate facilities, dislodge mech squads from ruined cities, or explore great ice fields, it’s a little disappointing to find that even the beefiest set up lacks a real sense of weight. There’s no thunderous thud when you land from up high, and paddling through obstacles such as cars and security fences feels a little like setting a puppy loose on a model train set. Nor is the visual fidelity quite up to the level that FromSoftware has elsewhere achieved with the likes ofElden Ring.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
Sure, we know From does big, bad bosses, but Armored Core VI doesn’t lay the groundwork and they tip the game off balance. The time spent learning their patterns threatens to dominate the experience, and the more imaginative level design in between really doesn’t deserve to be upstaged. But also, for large chunks, Armored Core VI isn’t some kind of mecha-Sekiro for From boss worshippers at all. There are a couple of sticking points in the first third and another much later on that really does feel like a nuclear-assisted Elden Ring escapee, its move set seemingly designed with intent to confound your view of the action, but no comparable challenges in between.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
Indeed, in the middle and later parts of the game, the majority of set-piece battles put you up against a stream of NPCs piloting their own armored cores. You’ll also be fighting these in Arena mode, a one-on-one battle simulator that rewards you with a unique currency to spend on upgrades. Yet most fights against rival ACs, whether simulated or live, follow similar patterns. You may have to adjust your loadout a little for some, but a lot of strafing and blasting can get you surprisingly far.
The number of AC fights in the second half of the game, in fact, triggers a sense that the campaign is plodding on too long (it took me some 35 hours to reach the end), even when the stages around them continue to serve up unique scenarios. In the first half, there’s every reason to repeat completed missions, to earn more cash for parts and higher ranks for better performance – the dangling carrot of S-ranks for exceptional play is hard to resist. Later, the draw weakens, as those AC fights get samey and your enhanced firepower makes experimenting with builds less essential.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
I’d like to think that Armored Core VI deliberately outstays its welcome a touch. Its story does, after all, leave you to consider the obscenity of the whole endeavour on Rubicon, as you profit from the mass waste of human and technological resources in the corporate war, growing ever more powerful and destructive in the process, forcing them to expend even more. It prods at the sickening mundanity of your ‘job’ within the escalating violence and genocidal competition, and shows how the two sides learn precisely nothing even when they’re forced to work together temporarily. Once the interminable nature of the feud becomes apparent, it makes sense that the war seems to drag.
After the initial thrill of learning to control your machine and kitting it out with bolder weapons, and the bombast of the power fantasy, ultimately one pitiful casualty or sacrifice follows another. Perhaps the repetitive AC battles and the waste pile of deadly hardware you accumulate are designed to bring home a gut-wrenching nihilism. If not, Armored Core VI is a frequently brilliant action game that makes the most of its mechs, but also curiously at odds with itself and a little overstuffed.
