From Software is perhaps my favorite game developer at this point, but, admittedly, I don't really have any experience with their series past their more recent output of Souls and Souls-adjacent titles. Armored Core VI comes to rectify that, a passion project through and through, it marks the return of a much more experienced From Software to a very beloved but dormant series. And well, thankfully, this series happens to revolve around mechs, which is particularly appealing to me. Armored Core features mission based levels instead of having an interconnected world, and I'd argue the entire design philosophy of the game relies on that. Missions are very short, from a couple of minutes to around fifteen or twenty minutes for the longer ones, and usually they have a couple of objectives you need to accomplish in order to beat them, like reaching a certain point, killing a group of enemies or facing a boss.
The two main aspects of the game are the preparation before a mission and the replayability of them, the former being pretty much the signature of Armored Core. Various aspects of the mech are customizable, and they can affect the way you play to a great degree. The obvious ones are the weapons, two for the arms and another pair for the shoulders, but the legs are also equally important, while parts like generators, boosters or arms can also complement the build you're trying to make. While deciding on them, you're bound to make some decisions, like how to handle your energy output, or how to accommodate heavy weapons, or how much mobility and flight capabilities you'll need, among others. There are also a lot of options for fluff as well, like colors and custom decals for the various parts, that really help in making your creation feel personal.
While this might sound like a taxing process, it's actually a fun first step to the game's loop, because as they say "Victory is never decided by mobile suit performance alone, nor by the skill of the pilot, alone.", and that's something which is generally true with Armored Core. After a sortie, you finally get control of the mech you meticulously built, and it’s up to you to take advantage of your assembled mech and clear the objectives of the mission. What I love in all the From Software games is how smooth the gameplay feels. The movement and dodging is very tight, no attack lacks weight, and all the ranged weapons feel great to use as long as you take advantage of them and their peculiarities. The stagger mechanics also work surprisingly well, with no enemy ever feeling tanky, pacing the combat very well. The action is fast, a lot of things can be on the screen at the same time, the camera and the auto-lock sometimes can be more of a hassle than help, but despite the chaos you feel you’re in complete control of the situation.
Of course, just beating a level is rather easy most of the time, the challenge lies on how to beat a level efficiently. The topic of its difficulty and challenge is rather interesting by itself. While there are builds that can probably tackle the whole game, as Armored Core 6 has some really glaring balancing issues after a while, once you've cleared a mission you're bound to wonder what you could have done better, or how you can improve your current build for this specific mission. The levels are full of checkpoints and you get to heal before a big fight, so it is certainly a much more forgiving experience than any Souls game ever was. The DNA of the Souls series is undoubtedly there though, and it presents itself through the various boss encounters, which spice things up significantly compared to the average level, and are going to be the main road blockers for a lot of people. Epic, challenging fights, sometimes featuring their own gimmicks, they're right out of the Souls series and are perhaps some of the high points to the game.
Other than the bosses, there are a lot of fights with enemy Armored Cores, which have their own set of arena fights, though I'd say they're never quite as challenging as the proper bosses, though I enjoyed these short-lived duels. The other challenge is trying to S rank a mission in subsequent runs, and it mostly comes to being fast enough and receiving as little damage as possible, though some missions' requirements are a bit wonkier. As mentioned, replayability is a big aspect of Armored Core, but it doesn't concern just the ranks, which are more of a side activity, it's part of the story structure as well.
While most of the missions are presented in a linear fashion, sometimes you need to pick one among two or three of them, getting locked out of the rest. Seeing all the missions, and everything the game has to offer essentially, requires three playthroughs, each one with its own ending based on those decisions, and a lot of missions exclusive to New Game+ and New Game++. As for the story itself, most of it happens through pre-mission briefings and in-mission conversations. That kind of presentation is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I actually found the dystopian world of the game with its multiple opposite corporate factions rather interesting, and I enjoyed seeing how some of the decisions would affect the flow of the story. You get to meet a lot of characters, and while you never see a human face, you get to know them quite well through their actions, whether they’re being best buddies with you or mercilessly backstab you.
And I’d like to focus a bit more on the world of the game, because this is something where it really excels in my opinion. It’s not really a cinematic experience or anything close to that, and yet it delivers some fantastic cinematic moments just through its atmosphere and its use of set pieces. The loneliness as you explore a seemingly empty weapon factory only to be ambushed by some mysterious enemies, seeing a huge mechanical construct in the horizon and eventually actually destroying it piece by piece, teaming up with friends and enemies to achieve a common goal, or having an epic duel in the vastness and emptiness of space. The game has a certain kind of elegance in its presentation which you don’t see often, and honestly, maybe it’s partly because of how much I replayed those missions, but so many of them feel extremely memorable to me. I should also really mention that the music plays a big role in all that, either it is a bombastic fight, or a more solemn and personal encounter that it accompanies.
To conclude, I’m really glad to see From Software produce such a game despite, or because, of the massive success of their other titles, and had a lot of fun going through it. I can’t really judge how it compares to the previous Armored Core titles, but I know it’s a fantastic action game that offers an experience you rarely see today, and despite having nothing to do with games like Dark Souls, I feel fans will definitely see some hints of them in it. Highly recommended and while it might not necessarily be the best game this year, it definitely is one of my personal favorites.
The two main aspects of the game are the preparation before a mission and the replayability of them, the former being pretty much the signature of Armored Core. Various aspects of the mech are customizable, and they can affect the way you play to a great degree. The obvious ones are the weapons, two for the arms and another pair for the shoulders, but the legs are also equally important, while parts like generators, boosters or arms can also complement the build you're trying to make. While deciding on them, you're bound to make some decisions, like how to handle your energy output, or how to accommodate heavy weapons, or how much mobility and flight capabilities you'll need, among others. There are also a lot of options for fluff as well, like colors and custom decals for the various parts, that really help in making your creation feel personal.
While this might sound like a taxing process, it's actually a fun first step to the game's loop, because as they say "Victory is never decided by mobile suit performance alone, nor by the skill of the pilot, alone.", and that's something which is generally true with Armored Core. After a sortie, you finally get control of the mech you meticulously built, and it’s up to you to take advantage of your assembled mech and clear the objectives of the mission. What I love in all the From Software games is how smooth the gameplay feels. The movement and dodging is very tight, no attack lacks weight, and all the ranged weapons feel great to use as long as you take advantage of them and their peculiarities. The stagger mechanics also work surprisingly well, with no enemy ever feeling tanky, pacing the combat very well. The action is fast, a lot of things can be on the screen at the same time, the camera and the auto-lock sometimes can be more of a hassle than help, but despite the chaos you feel you’re in complete control of the situation.
Of course, just beating a level is rather easy most of the time, the challenge lies on how to beat a level efficiently. The topic of its difficulty and challenge is rather interesting by itself. While there are builds that can probably tackle the whole game, as Armored Core 6 has some really glaring balancing issues after a while, once you've cleared a mission you're bound to wonder what you could have done better, or how you can improve your current build for this specific mission. The levels are full of checkpoints and you get to heal before a big fight, so it is certainly a much more forgiving experience than any Souls game ever was. The DNA of the Souls series is undoubtedly there though, and it presents itself through the various boss encounters, which spice things up significantly compared to the average level, and are going to be the main road blockers for a lot of people. Epic, challenging fights, sometimes featuring their own gimmicks, they're right out of the Souls series and are perhaps some of the high points to the game.
Other than the bosses, there are a lot of fights with enemy Armored Cores, which have their own set of arena fights, though I'd say they're never quite as challenging as the proper bosses, though I enjoyed these short-lived duels. The other challenge is trying to S rank a mission in subsequent runs, and it mostly comes to being fast enough and receiving as little damage as possible, though some missions' requirements are a bit wonkier. As mentioned, replayability is a big aspect of Armored Core, but it doesn't concern just the ranks, which are more of a side activity, it's part of the story structure as well.
While most of the missions are presented in a linear fashion, sometimes you need to pick one among two or three of them, getting locked out of the rest. Seeing all the missions, and everything the game has to offer essentially, requires three playthroughs, each one with its own ending based on those decisions, and a lot of missions exclusive to New Game+ and New Game++. As for the story itself, most of it happens through pre-mission briefings and in-mission conversations. That kind of presentation is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I actually found the dystopian world of the game with its multiple opposite corporate factions rather interesting, and I enjoyed seeing how some of the decisions would affect the flow of the story. You get to meet a lot of characters, and while you never see a human face, you get to know them quite well through their actions, whether they’re being best buddies with you or mercilessly backstab you.
And I’d like to focus a bit more on the world of the game, because this is something where it really excels in my opinion. It’s not really a cinematic experience or anything close to that, and yet it delivers some fantastic cinematic moments just through its atmosphere and its use of set pieces. The loneliness as you explore a seemingly empty weapon factory only to be ambushed by some mysterious enemies, seeing a huge mechanical construct in the horizon and eventually actually destroying it piece by piece, teaming up with friends and enemies to achieve a common goal, or having an epic duel in the vastness and emptiness of space. The game has a certain kind of elegance in its presentation which you don’t see often, and honestly, maybe it’s partly because of how much I replayed those missions, but so many of them feel extremely memorable to me. I should also really mention that the music plays a big role in all that, either it is a bombastic fight, or a more solemn and personal encounter that it accompanies.
To conclude, I’m really glad to see From Software produce such a game despite, or because, of the massive success of their other titles, and had a lot of fun going through it. I can’t really judge how it compares to the previous Armored Core titles, but I know it’s a fantastic action game that offers an experience you rarely see today, and despite having nothing to do with games like Dark Souls, I feel fans will definitely see some hints of them in it. Highly recommended and while it might not necessarily be the best game this year, it definitely is one of my personal favorites.