Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is a game that marks several returns for From Software. It’s a return to the series that they built much of the foundation of their legacy off of; a return to a series that they’ve not touched since 2013's Armored Core: Verdict Day; and a return to a genre that isn’t anything remotely close to a Soulslike. I got to play through the entirety of the first chapter of AC6, and if initial impressions are anything to go off, it’s a return that’s going to be triumphant.
My experience with soulslikes is vast, but my time with the Armored Core series is admittedly limited. I’ve played the first couple of missions of For Answer, but very little beyond that. Still, given that lack of experience, one of the things that stuck out to me when I first started playing Armored Core 6 was how easy it was to pick up and play. Your two arm weapons are mapped to the left and right triggers, your two shoulder weapons are mapped to the bumpers, X jumps, square does a quick dodge, clicking in the right stick changes your targeting mode to lock on, and clicking in the left stick engages your assault boost that basically acts like a sprint. If you’ve played a third-person shooter before, Armored Core 6 should feel very familiar, albeit much heavier and more “boosty”.
This is fortunate, because in typical From Soft fashion, Armored Core 6 put my skills to the test right out of the gate. The first boss fight against an AH 12 HC Helicopter was a real sink-or-swim moment; one that demanded I use utilize every tool at my disposal, from my rifle, to my energy sword, to my missiles, to my quick dodges, to my assault boost, and my ability to manage my energy output properly so I didn’t find myself unable to dodge the boss’s barrage of missiles. It was also a great introduction to the new stagger system, which encourages you to push the action and be aggressive in order to build a stagger meter that will briefly stun a large enemy once it’s full, making every shot against them while staggered a direct hit that deals much more damage.
Armored Core 6 maintains the mission structure of previous games, with every chapter coming with its own collection of main missions that progress the story, and side missions that provide you with an opportunity to earn some extra cash to spend on upgrading your mech. Both mission varieties impressed me. The side missions offered up a wide variety of objectives that forced me to take different combat approaches each time, like a mission that required me to destroy a series of transport helicopters in a limited amount of time, while also desperately trying to avoid a high powered enemy AC that was trained to kill me on sight.
The main missions, on the other hand, were lengthy, multi-part engagements that were almost always punctuated by a memorable boss fight. As an example, let me tell you about this Strider mission that I’ve been dying to talk about.
It began with me on the surface of Rubicon in the middle of a dust storm with the mission objective of defeating a Strider. Now, I don't know what a Strider is, so I just move forward and start to see, way off in the distance, the silhouette of what almost looks like a giant oil platform structure. As I move towards it, fighting some weak enemies along the way, all of sudden I’m shot by a giant laser coming from the direction of that giant structure. A bit frazzled, I look a bit closer and realize, “That’s not an oil platform, that giant 40-story tall structure is the Strider that I’m being paid to destroy.” What follows is an incredible sequence where I have to methodically make my way to the top of the Strider by first taking out its legs, destroying some generators, and hopping all across its side, until eventually I’m in a boss battle with the eye that’s been continuously making my life a living hell with its giant laser. After finally bringing it down, I’ve gotta do a dramatic leap off to avoid getting caught up in the explosion and can turn around to watch my handiwork as the mechanized giant crumples to the ground. This moment sold me on Armored Core 6, and was also the moment I decided that this was a series that I needed to dust off my PS3 for and at least go back and play the fourth- and fifth-gen versions of.
In another mission, appropriately titled “Operation Wallclimber,” I was presented with a wide-open combat arena featuring a giant wall lined with damaging turrets that made any straightforward frontal approach ill-advised, to say the least. Half of the challenge of getting through the level was charting the right path forward and weaving through cannon shots until I finally made it to the wall, and then I could hop up and systematically take out each of the turrets before dealing with the rest of the fight down below. And this mission really exemplifies what I’m most excited about for Armored Core 6 – it’s a game with open-ended combat design that truly allows you to come up with your own solutions to the problems a mission’s design lays out. Weaving through cannon fire and making my way up the wall was the solution I arrived at, but I also could’ve equipped a long-range rifle and tried to take the turrets out from a distance. Other players will likely come up with their own solutions based on how they equipped their mech.
Even in just chapter one, there was already a ton of flexibility in how to approach a given combat scenario, and given the fact that there will be more weapons and parts unlocked later on, I’m very excited to see what else From Software has in store as the player’s toolbox increases as the game progresses.
My demo ended with an exhilarating boss fight against an enemy mech that did the classic mecha anime thing of spamming literally hundreds of heat seeking missiles all at once. This was a fight that took many attempts, with me trying out numerous different build types before arriving at a double rocket launcher build that got me the damage I needed to just barely bring him down before he finished me off.
Armored Core 6 feels like a new beginning for this storied franchise, one that’s benefitted from the success and experience gained from From Software’s other titles, but one that is still true to the original vision of the series. I can’t wait to see what lies beyond chapter 1 when Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon releases on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on August 25.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit
