this is the first armored core that i've played to completion, and it's the first time in a while i've played a game and felt compelled to squeeze every last drop out of it that i could
50 hours and 100% completion and i still want more

what i hoped for amidst the hype of this release was for it to capture what made armored core as a franchise compelling while testing what fromsoft has learned during their years of making the same great game over and over
the end result is what most people are going to consider the best entry in the franchise, but it's likely not gonna replace anybody's fervor for games like 4A

in many ways it is exactly what the franchise probably needed if it were to exist within the current gaming landscape
it is very accessible in more ways than just difficulty
the control scheme is intuitive and doesn't really recquire any commitment to mastery, but you can fully rebind it if it doesn't suit your needs
there's a great balance between speed and weight while making even the heaviest of ACs feel smooth to control
there are auto saves, missions have checkpoints, there's allotted repair kits
the majority of missions that warrant it have resupply points
dying and not immediately using the pause menu to restart from checkpoint lets you change your assembly mid mission
there are explanations for what stats mean what (which are generally reliable) and videos that show how a part that does a thing is gonna function
the only thing failure costs is score, and even so it's very hard to not profit enough to buy something after a success
it's impossible to go into debt even if you manage that
this game isn't the first to do some shit i mentioned here, but the general approach to just being as accessible as possible is great

because, while i did not have a particularly difficult time with a lot of this game, a lot of people have and i can see why
this is still armored core, it has everything that makes the series appealing while having very little of what could keep people away from it
there's a lot of build variety and the visual customization is fucking amazing (especially with things like uploaded emblems, paint jobs and build presets)
and you'll need to customize in order to figure out what works, especially for late game and getting s ranks
there's mutliple story paths and each are worth playing through, which isn't a massive investment since missions are universally under ten minutes and overwhelmingly under five
but the game is demanding in the exact ways it should be
while mastery is not required for completion you'll need to know how to fuck around proper so you don't find out when chasing s ranks
and there's enough of a skill ceiling that the pvp is a LOT of fun
the story is also pretty fucking great
like classic fromsoftware, the potency of this narrative comes from the details that the game never really throws in your face
it's derivative, i don't think this does anything i haven't seen before
nor do i think it's elevated pastiche in the same way as something like Bloodborne is
but it's just really fucking good, and it shows that the writers at fromsoft are still at the top of their game

this is an overall fantastic experience that never felt like a chore or that it was bullshit
frustration is very minimal, only a couple missions i can actively think of (and it was really only when s ranking lol)
and i feel exactly how a great game should make me feel
i want MORE, i want more of THIS specifically
but this is not the pinnacle, not yet
a 6A or 7 could be that, and i hope it is because this series deserves to flourish
but while i think it brought everything from the older games that made them appealing, this isn't the greatest example of what makes an armored core fan foam at the mouth for these games

the build variety is pretty damn expansive but you'll mainly excperience how much you can do in pvp
which is to be expected, but even in pvp there is a dominant strategy
stagger and punish
there are a bunch of ways to get there but your success, especially when you're going for s ranks, is to embrace this strategy and act accordingly
if you need to be fast: dual zimmermans, songbirds and some kind of high punishment melee weapon (pilebunker or double trouble, probably) and a lightweight ac build otherwise
if you need to tank hits: dual gatlin guns, dual stun needles (if you don't have them songbirds work fine) and the heaviest motherfucker you can muster
i've made a bunch of custom builds with custom color themes in this game because it was fun to do that, but nearly all of them revolved around this
and when they weren't that, there are clearly parts that are better than others
what this game has is an unfortunate amount of redundancy
there are a lot of missile parts, a lot of plasma/laser rifles, etc but there are few that you probably wanna use outside of testing pvp stuff
and while i do think there's a pretty high skill cieling, it doesn't hold a candle to something like the movement or part selection of 4A

which is partly a good thing, i'm the cunt AC6 was designed for because i feel like on all levels it appeals specifically to me
my tastes and my sensibilities
but it doesn't fulfill all of my wants with this series
i not only want more because i loved this game as much as i did, but i want more of the potential of what the next game(s) in this franchise could be

i'm in love with this game, but it's tempered
i know what fromsoft is capable of, i think the people who make games there are extremely talented
and while i think they need a fucking break (Elden Ring came out last year dude)
i have high hopes that whatever comes next for this franchise has the potential to be THE Armored Core
the one that everyone can certifiably, without any doubts, call the best one

but for the time being, it's my favorite one
at least until i stop getting filtered by 4A, that game feels so fucking good but tracking NEXTS is a big bitch lol

a flawed gem that's greater than the sum of its parts but ultimately is held back by those scuffs

what is immediately obvious is that this game is less a tribute to max payne and the shooters of its time and more an ode to remedy as a creative force
it captures what makes their games so evocative while entirely being its own thing
right down to the full embrace of being a video game ass video game and not letting that hold back the work's ambitions
the little audio snippets that are solely there because the devs wanted to throw some funny shit in this otherwise overwhelmingly bleak experience
unless it's actually functioning as a narrative bolster, in which case
just as the majority of el paso, elsewhere's narrative
it's very effective

the reason to play this game is not because of its gameplay, not because that gameplay is bad but because it's simply pretty good in the face of some of the best story telling you'll see in a fully voiced indie game with like
two, maybe three voice actors
control rings heavy in the way shots are composed and the general approach to cutscene structure, but where el paso elevates is in its frankness
because while the story itself isn't necessarily the show stopper it's still got meat
james savage is addicted to painkillers, an addiction specified to have either started or have gotten way worse after leaving a harrowingly abusive relationship
unfortunately, his ex was fucking dracula(e)
in the pits of the void, she is conducting a ritual to take over the world, and the only person aware of it and able to do anything is the man she abused
fueled by a never ending, body destroying supply of opiods and experience as a monster hunter, he plunges deep on a one way trip to stop her
this element of addiction, trauma, and how they often fuel or occur in reaction to each other is the game's most overt theme
it does not sugar coat anything about it
i could be flowery and describe this game's cutscenes, how great the neo-noir writing is and all that shit, but i saw just a random one on twitter and was immediately convinced to give this game a go - something i otherwise would not have done
they're good, and they are absolutely worth the price of admission on their own
the performances from both leads are fantastic in spite of some scant few scenes stepping into melodrama territory made somewhat more apparent by how both leads (the two voices you're going to hear the most) are definitely playing against type
the protagonist is a black man voiced by a white man and it is immediately and jarringly obvious that this is the case
my white ass doesn't have a word to really say about it ethically given that this game is written and directed by a black man, but i will say that it was
once again
very obvious

which also branches into the first of my two biggest complaints with this game
the score is, partly, pretty damn great
the partly is, unfortunately, tragicly because of many tracks being what i can only describe as e-boy rap
there's shit on here that sounds like corpse husband is rapping on it and i fucking loathe it
no, this is not because i dislike rap music, the year is 202X of fucking course i like rap my guy
on the contrary, i've heard significantly better appear in video games (rap in video games often having a nerdy vibe in the first place) so when the same fucking voice that plays your main character is rapping about breaking shit and both of these vocal performances are going on at the same time it's extremely distracting
so i just really notice that i do not like these songs
it's not even just the vocals, the production sounds noticeably worse on these tracks
i cannot get past it, it completely sucked me out of the experience every time one showed up
and that's primariiy why i'm frustrated: everything else is working in this game's favor in terms of presentation and tone (even when the game's being overtly ridiculous, that shit's just funny)
so when one singular element that was very easy to leave out is just proding my brain over and over it's just
very annoying
i commend the effort, a lot of work went into these songs and given that the person who made them was the sound designer and also voiced the main protagonist (among others), that's a lot of shit to do
i've heard WAY worse - corpse husband's music is so much fucking worse than what's in this
but the vibe is the same, and it absolutely does not fit
a massive shame

the game's other big issue is that it's way too long
this is probably thematically relevant given that there's a lot of talk of the endurance of this journey taking its toll on james
but when the game's level design rarely gets all that varied or interesting, you're left with a gameplay loop that's good
but simple
i said before you don't wanna get this for the gameplay and that's because max payne this really isn't
it reminds me more of painkiller with a shoot dodge in the backrooms
and just like painkiller and other games like it unfortunately can be, it's repetetive and gets long in the tooth
this is a six-seven hour game and it could've easily been about four
what carried maxy payne was great level design and spectacle, neither of which this game has (most of the time)
which is honestly okay, this is NOT a bad game to play
i enjoyed most of my time with it
but combined with how easy this game generally is, i was counting down the remaining levels
there are fifty of them
i started doing this at about thirty
i stuck with this game because i loved how this story was told and i enjoyed how this game nailed the fundamentals
it felt good to shoot shit, so it wasn't really a slog
but still, way too long

but really? this game being ovwhemingly praised thus far is deserved
what it does well it does extremely well, and that effort should be commended
a story that centers a victim of domestic abuse that is also a hardboiled neo-noir gunslinger isn't something that you often see, let alone something that takes the former element as deadly serious as this game does
it feels personal and i love that
this game overall feels very personal and i will always appreciate that over what you often see in video game story telling
this feels like the game everybody working on it wanted to make
i hope that's the case, at least

definitely one of the highlights of the year, just don't let the comments of "it's just like max payne!!!!!" mislead you
it's not the same, and it's not as good

but the storytelling is, if not better

tons of content, really fun to play, full of jank charm and b movie shlock
just as mk should be
its violence is still visceral but we're not to "we're trying to rival terrifier" levels yet, so it ends up feeling a bit quaint in comparison
something that i like in spite of being the exact kind of sicko that mk has always appealed to
the art style isn't quite to the uncanny valley yet, looking more comic book in a way that fits the overall saturday morning cartoon for adults vibe
the gameplay is expressive and broken in the good way, not that i could take advantage of any of that
this is a very fun game to watch people break i know that at least
the story mode is mostly well done with a narrative that's actually coherent even if it is still incredibly stupid - don't take this lightly it's a pretty big compliment
character designs look pretty damn great all around, though this game is exceptionally horny with its women
an mk staple, let alone a fighting game staple, but kof and sf feel tame in comparison to some of the designs in this
being mostly gay, i can appreciate this, but sonya blade continuing to get the quiet treatment is incredibly annoying
at least mileena revels in it
and shao kahn is just as bullshit as ever in 2d mk, as much as i fucking abhor the cunt and am glad that he's bad in mk11
yeah yeah i suck i don't give a shit fuck him, i know he's exploitable but i don't like having to do that kind of shit

oh and raiden still fucks up a lot
so yeah it's mk all the way baby, play it