This game gives you everything you want in an Armored Core game; unlimited mech customization, combat that balances high-reflex action with patient methodology, and even an interesting story carried by its worldbuilding.
To start, the customization in this game is unreal. I'm not usually one to spend too much time on character creation, but this was an exception. I found myself meticulously editing the little things on my mech to make it exactly how I wanted. I even self-role-played by giving my mech characterizations that had little backstories that I made up in my head. And of course, the technicalities of it. I am also not usually one for complicated stats blocks, but for some reason this game gave me the want to min-max my mech in order to get the best possible results. There was something so inherently satisfying about losing to a boss fight a few times, customizing your mech in retaliation, and then coming back and walloping the foe.
As we all have come to expect from a FromSoftware title, this game is hard. It's been a while since I've played a game this challenging. For most of the game I wasn't dying, but I also had toput in effort which is the perfect balance for me. I get annoyed and don't have fun when I die too much, but I still want it to feel earned. It's a difficult balance to achieve, but this game does it well. There were some boss fights that gave me fits; the final boss in particular was absolutely, soul-crushingly challenging. Harder than anything else in the game by a long shot. I got very frustrated trying to beat it - it's been a while since I've gotten this angry at a video game, but honestly it felt kinda good. It makes it that much more satisfying when you actually win. I wanted to lower the difficulty on this final boss, but discovered there was no difficulty setting. FromSoftware, you sons of bitches...
In terms of quality, while it was overall good, it didn't quite feel like it was truly next gen; you could tell that they had to sacrifice a bit in order to appease the gen 4 consoles. The game ran smoothly and had excellent graphics, but there were also a ton of loading screens. Maybe I'm just a picky gamer who's grown accustomed to no-load screens.
I didn't come into this game expecting much in the way of story, to be honest. But I was pleasantly surprised that after the first act I was really into it. The characters, while admittedly not having a ton of depth, each lent their own perspectives on the world of Rubicon. FromSoftware put a lot of worldbuilding in descriptions and collectibles which, when written this well, definitely work for me. I mean, my favorite author is Tolkien, the greatest worldbuilder of all time, so anything like this that is Tolkien-esque definitely appeals to me and this studio does it like few others. It was cool seeing your PC rise the ranks, earn a reputation, and have a say in the fate of the world.
But of course, the bread and butter of this game, the glue that holds it all together, is the combat. Something about giant mechs beating up on each other with huge guns appeals to my dumb monkey man brain. I played around a lot with customizations until I found a build that I had the most fun with. My build ended up bulldozing over everyone (until the final boss...) in a blaze of explosive glory. The game requires high-reflex dodging and perfectly timed attacks, but also encourages patient analysis of each major opponent.
I did have a hard time accepting the "scale" of the mechs. I didn't necessarily feel like a huge mech bulldozing through a normal street, but rather I felt like a human-sized mech bulldozing through a small-scaled town. If that makes any sense at all. I think the lack of humans shown in this game (while I understand from a story perspective) made it harder for me to accept how big everything was supposed to be. Which is kind of a bummer, but doesn't take away too much from the rest of the game.
The boss fights in this game were hit or miss. I did feel most of the bosses were just another AC pilot, but there were a couple very memorable ones that I will remember for a long time. I also love that games are doing the "cinematic boss fights" at the end of games now. Dunno if there's an actual term for it, but a boss fight where the goal isn't to be challenging, but to be freaking awesome and make you feel like a boss. This is usually right before the final boss, or even the final phase of the final boss after the challenging bit. I hope video games continue this trend because they lend to some of my favorite moments in the last few years.
Overall, while this is usually not the kind of game I look for, I thought it kicked so much ass and provided me with epic moments, satisfying combat, and a good story. It delivers on its promise. Can't wait to see what the series does next.
82/100
To start, the customization in this game is unreal. I'm not usually one to spend too much time on character creation, but this was an exception. I found myself meticulously editing the little things on my mech to make it exactly how I wanted. I even self-role-played by giving my mech characterizations that had little backstories that I made up in my head. And of course, the technicalities of it. I am also not usually one for complicated stats blocks, but for some reason this game gave me the want to min-max my mech in order to get the best possible results. There was something so inherently satisfying about losing to a boss fight a few times, customizing your mech in retaliation, and then coming back and walloping the foe.
As we all have come to expect from a FromSoftware title, this game is hard. It's been a while since I've played a game this challenging. For most of the game I wasn't dying, but I also had toput in effort which is the perfect balance for me. I get annoyed and don't have fun when I die too much, but I still want it to feel earned. It's a difficult balance to achieve, but this game does it well. There were some boss fights that gave me fits; the final boss in particular was absolutely, soul-crushingly challenging. Harder than anything else in the game by a long shot. I got very frustrated trying to beat it - it's been a while since I've gotten this angry at a video game, but honestly it felt kinda good. It makes it that much more satisfying when you actually win. I wanted to lower the difficulty on this final boss, but discovered there was no difficulty setting. FromSoftware, you sons of bitches...
In terms of quality, while it was overall good, it didn't quite feel like it was truly next gen; you could tell that they had to sacrifice a bit in order to appease the gen 4 consoles. The game ran smoothly and had excellent graphics, but there were also a ton of loading screens. Maybe I'm just a picky gamer who's grown accustomed to no-load screens.
I didn't come into this game expecting much in the way of story, to be honest. But I was pleasantly surprised that after the first act I was really into it. The characters, while admittedly not having a ton of depth, each lent their own perspectives on the world of Rubicon. FromSoftware put a lot of worldbuilding in descriptions and collectibles which, when written this well, definitely work for me. I mean, my favorite author is Tolkien, the greatest worldbuilder of all time, so anything like this that is Tolkien-esque definitely appeals to me and this studio does it like few others. It was cool seeing your PC rise the ranks, earn a reputation, and have a say in the fate of the world.
But of course, the bread and butter of this game, the glue that holds it all together, is the combat. Something about giant mechs beating up on each other with huge guns appeals to my dumb monkey man brain. I played around a lot with customizations until I found a build that I had the most fun with. My build ended up bulldozing over everyone (until the final boss...) in a blaze of explosive glory. The game requires high-reflex dodging and perfectly timed attacks, but also encourages patient analysis of each major opponent.
I did have a hard time accepting the "scale" of the mechs. I didn't necessarily feel like a huge mech bulldozing through a normal street, but rather I felt like a human-sized mech bulldozing through a small-scaled town. If that makes any sense at all. I think the lack of humans shown in this game (while I understand from a story perspective) made it harder for me to accept how big everything was supposed to be. Which is kind of a bummer, but doesn't take away too much from the rest of the game.
The boss fights in this game were hit or miss. I did feel most of the bosses were just another AC pilot, but there were a couple very memorable ones that I will remember for a long time. I also love that games are doing the "cinematic boss fights" at the end of games now. Dunno if there's an actual term for it, but a boss fight where the goal isn't to be challenging, but to be freaking awesome and make you feel like a boss. This is usually right before the final boss, or even the final phase of the final boss after the challenging bit. I hope video games continue this trend because they lend to some of my favorite moments in the last few years.
Overall, while this is usually not the kind of game I look for, I thought it kicked so much ass and provided me with epic moments, satisfying combat, and a good story. It delivers on its promise. Can't wait to see what the series does next.
82/100