As my first Armored Core game (but a long-time souls fan), I knew to expect something different from this game than what I was used to. I ended up pleasantly surprised from start to finish. AC6 isn't a very long game, with my first playthrough taking less than 20 hours, but it's a very enjoyable one, and I immediately dove into ng+ as well (and will eventually do ng+2 to see the full story).

The main highlight of the game for me was the fantastic voice acting and characterization. For a game where you never see the face of any characters, the voices carried a lot of weight, and made you care about both your friends (Rusty, Ayre, Carla, Walter) and foes (Snail). With the different story choices at the end of the game, different endings felt very impactful, especially due to how different characters are affected. This game also does an incredible job of making it feel like your progress as a mercenary, and growing reputation, make a difference, with excellent dialogue from enemies and briefings that reflects that.

Combat was very enjoyable, though using both shoulder and trigger buttons constantly took some getting used to. It's a very high-paced, frenetic experience, with epic encounters and setpieces from start to finish. Balteus was the peak of boss design, with some close contenders in the late game. By ng+, I was able to blast through my opponents, feeling like a badass who earned the Raven callsign.

A few missions were annoying, especially those defending inanimate objects. I wish the game had about one more chapter of content, and wish you could S-rank missions on ng+ without having to separately replay them. Those are my small complaints.

Overall, this game makes you feel like an absolute badass, and is worth playing even if not experienced with the genre.