REVIEW: Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is a return to From Software's origins

It's not just for Dark Souls that From Software it's known. Long before exploring the gigantic open world of Elden Ring or fight the most epic samurai battles in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the renowned Japanese developer was the home of video games. wick, thanks to the Armored Core series.

Tradition above all

In hibernation for over ten years since the last release, Armored Core is back with its sixth volume, not counting the various spin-offs of the franchise. In Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, you will be part of a mercenary group looking for work on the remote planet Rubicon 3, where a Coral Vein was discovered, a valuable natural resource with an almost infinite capacity for energy applications.

As a mercenary, and in particular a human genetically engineered to be a pilot of the armed robots known as ACs, it isn't long before you find yourself working for virtually all of the many factions present on Rubicon, including the Liberation Front, made up of colonists. long established in the place. 

A large part of the game boils down to completing missions for any client who pays the costs of your services and it is not uncommon in one phase to fight certain people and later, in another opportunity, to join forces with them. After all, that's the nature of a mercenary, and that Armored Core 6 does a lot of good, showing that there is no loyalty when money is on the table.

And you as a pilot will need a lot of money to keep up to date, as the in-game store will receive increasingly expensive and powerful updates for your big robot as the campaign progresses. There's an ever-increasing variety throughout the game when it comes to parts to install on your AC, and it's up to you to decide how to specialize your way of playing.

Flexibility for beginners and veterans alike

Luckily, for anyone feeling at a loss as to how to address this and other aspects of Armored Core 6, there are a series of tutorials that unlock at the same pace as new game features are presented to you. And right away they prove to be incredibly useful, teaching the basics of the game's control system, which at the beginning of the game seems to be limited, but is anything but.

This complexity shows its face in the first hours of Armored Core 6, when you gain the ability to fight in virtual arenas against opponents designated by the AI ​​of the mercenaries' automated system, not to mention other players, upon reaching chapter 2 of the story. 

In it, you have to fight against a series of enemies of all possible formats, which in addition to teaching you how to deal with them during missions in fact, also presents you with chips, the current currency for purchasing updates to the operating system of the your wick.

With these new features, you are able to further refine the AC specialization, in addition to increasing the range of available skills, such as adding new jet attachments, which in turn bring greater flexibility in movements when gliding in the air. 

Numerous game permutations

On the one hand, it's worth focusing on the specialty that you most identify with and come to like, but if you come to feel comfortable with multiple options, there's also a way to save more than one configuration of your robot, to bring it to the battlefield. when necessary.

In this, it is worth mentioning, of course, the delight that is to control this animal. Gameplay is by far the most important part of the gaming fun equation. Armored Core 6, and about that, you can rest assured, because the From Software did a lot of good in this game. 

Here we have a battlefield full of possibilities given the huge amount of permutations on which you can base yourself to arm your AC. The missions are short and take into account how efficiently you get the job done, how much you've spent on resources like ammo and repair kits, not to mention the damage done to the enemy. 

The better your performance, the more money comes into your account, and as we already told you back there, you'll need it to transform your robotic tool into a deadly weapon, to impose respect among your mercenary colleagues and rivals. Since you are a rookie, you will have a lot of ground to coin a name for yourself.

This rating determines the rate at which new items arrive at the game's store, not to mention the unlocking of new arena modes, the quality of contracts to be accepted and how much money you will collect at the end. 

It's the kind of thing that will make the most dedicated and perfectionist players repeat missions until they reach the maximum score, not to mention disputing the leadership of the world ranking, which rolls between everyone who is playing Armored Core 6 worldwide.

Many secrets to find

Now, this wouldn't be a From Software game if it didn't have its little secrets, and despite being a much more linear experience than the most recent releases from Hidetaka Miyazaki's studio, the sixth title in the series brings a series of collectibles that can be brought as souvenirs of basically all missions in the game.

Unlike much of the stuff that we tend to pile up in other games, those of Armored Core 6 fulfill an interesting function in the game, that of telling the background of the events of the story, in a similar way to what we see in Dark Souls and other of the company's current games. 

Such reminders, so to speak, can be obtained from the wreckage of enemy units that you shoot down during the game's phases, and it is up to your pilot to stop the killing for a second to look for these treasures. But keep in mind that it won't be any of your victims that will leave these memories behind, which requires you to be meticulous in the way you slaughter the opposition during the game, as not everyone in your path is counted as crucial objectives in the missions , with some well off the trail, by the way.

This pursuit makes there even greater value in replaying the game's many missions, as some of these collectibles are presented only once, in specific stages of the game. Armored Core 6. Obviously, not everyone will go after that, but for those looking to see everything there is to enjoy, the search will undoubtedly be a full plate.

A mouth-watering presentation

Armored Core 6, being a game of the current generation of video games, is a visual spectacle of destruction. Even with smaller environments that generate some confinement during the course of the missions, the game's unbridled action is delirious, full of light and particle effects, especially during the many explosions that you and your colleagues cause. 

As for the sound character of the game, all communication between your mute character and the world is done via radio between and during missions, as there is no cutscenes showing a single human in the game. The quality of the performances varies a lot, and his coach, Walter, manages to be more robotic in his reading of the lines than the wick that you control.

On the other hand, the sound design is generally excellent, making incredible use of different audio channels if you play using a sound system in home theater or a quality headset. Explosions and other sound effects work to alert you to dangers within and beyond your field of vision, putting you right in the center of the general chaos.

Our verdict

Even though it is a game in the most traditional terms and without all the mystery that permeates its most current sales and critical successes, Armored Core 6 it's a straight shot From Software and the game's publisher, Bandai Namco. 

The huge variety of game styles, combined with the fast pace of its phases, makes Armored Core 6 a game without even a tiny bit of fat. There's no fluff for action-seekers, and other players dedicated to extracting everything there is, the game also offers ways to have fun with your collectibles.

The newest release in the Armored Core franchise is one of the best games in the genre in recent times. There's a lot to enjoy especially for those looking to jump on the bandwagon of the series without any prior experience. On the other hand, veteran players will have a range of possibilities to make anyone envy when it comes to setting up their guys and go to war.

Armored Core 6 it has a little bit of everything for every type of player, from those who simply want to see the circus burn without any pretensions to those who are concerned with the smallest details when choosing new parts for their giant robots. This is a beautiful return of a franchise that has not seen news for a long time. Welcome back, Armored Core!      

Do you want to not miss a single novelty from the world of games? Stick with Showmetech!

Source: Wikipedia 

Text proofread by: Pedro Bomfim (20 / 08 / 23)