An instant all time favorite. An honest to god pinnacle of Video Games

I'm a relative newcomer to the series. I've poked around some of the games over time, and I was totally enthralled seeing the mech customization in one of the PSX games at a friend's house as a kid. But I only finally played through AC4 this year, finishing it just 30 minutes before 6 came out. Great game btw!

Armored Core 6 feels like a game I might have imagined from seeing bits and pieces of the old games and coming up with the coolest possible version of what it could be. It's unreal. The customization feels endless, the combat is chunky and visceral and smooth and elegant, the visuals take the gorgeous (and necessary) impressionism of previous games and expands it into breathtaking detail without falling anywhere near bland photorealism.

And the story! It's emotional and gripping and strange (and perverse) in ways I didn't think could be so effective with a 100% radio conversation game. I'm not too surprised since AC4 showed shades of it and I hear For Answer goes all in (and I'm a big Ace Combat fan), but AC6 seriously nails it. Even with the telegraphed twists and turns I was thrilled at how confidently it delivers everything, and the genuine surprises made me wyle the fuck out. And in true fromsoft form it gives you plenty of mystery to work through with no intent of explaining itself or providing any tangible answers. But none of this distracts from what it is: a goddamn sick video game ass mecha video game.

I know some people aren't really into this game's difficulty rollercoaster, and I can understand that it can be frustrating, but to me, it seals the deal on the mech power fantasy. Plowing your screaming death machine through a platoon of out of their depth grunts or picking apart a trained military until they're forced to roll out their big fancy hardware. Gritting your teeth through white knuckle slugfests with enemy ACs. Desperately fighting for your life against machines designed to kill you or people who understand the numbers it takes to wear you down. That's mechs. That's anime baybee.

On top of that it feels like pure video gaming in smaller ways too. Grid 086 is, to me, a kind of video game level you don't get in big name games much these days. I got distracted off the main path and couldn't figure out how to get to a chest that came up on a scan. I poked around every room in the area, searched around outside for a hidden entrance, and got straight up lost for a bit. Then I took a second glance at the pipes spewing molten steel that I mentally filtered out as set dressing, shrugged, and jumped into the mouth of one. Then I was rewarded with a secret path to a secret room with a treasure chest and got ambushed by a secret fight against a stupid idiot who has nothing to do with the plot. That's the kind of gamefaqs shit I adore, and that kind of thing is sprinkled throughout the game, completely missable, not totally necessary, but so rewarding.

I love this game. I'm still playing it for the S ranks and tinkering with build ideas and looking for new ways to tackle bosses and staging pictures of my cool toys and introducing everyone I know to G1 Michigan. This team had an idea and executed on it as if the concept of limitations didn't exist. No concessions, no cuts, no seams. It's perfect.