Wake the dog up
It’s been quite a while since the last Armored Core. FromSoftware has been steadily working on successful Souls and Souls-like games, but the first Armored Core is one of its oldest titles. And now, years later, FromSoftware is returning to mech action with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. And the series is certainly back.
We were invited to view a hands-off demo of a stage in Armored Core VI, where the player’s mercenary needs to infiltrate and take command of a catapult held by a hostile faction. This means flying in and doing a whole lot of blasting. The progression still looks to be very Armored Core: it opens with a briefing, with lots of intel and screens, and then you’re into the thick of it.
Bridging the gap
It’s going to be very easy to draw comparisons between Armored Core and Souls. As I noted above, it’s been a long time since the last Armored Core game—a decade, to be exact—and the Souls series has reached astronomical heights in its absence. While there are plenty of AC fanatics familiar with the form factor of this series, I imagine there will also be people coming into Armored Core VI with a different set of expectations.
The reassuring thing is, even with that split in mind, Armored Core VI looks like it could bridge the gap. Sure, you’re piloting a mech rather than guiding a wandering swordsman or robed mage. But the weight and heft, the ballet of movement, is still here.
It was driven home when I saw just how Armored Core‘s mechs move. Boost options have been retained, including a blazing forward boost that feels like a charge maneuver. Small jets lining the mech can fire to create omnidirectional movement options, something the studio emphasized in our briefing. But when those rockets fire, there’s a moment of thrust and take-off; when the mech lands, there’s a thud and skid, especially if it came in at high speeds. There is a feeling that, even if your mech feels normally sized on-screen, it is hulking and heavy in the world.
Taking up arms
Weapons carry a similar tangibility. Missiles fire in big plumes of smoke and detonate with resonance. Guns spray empty shell casings out the side, and you can see your ammo count start to dwindle as the mission carries on.
Yet there’s also a definite speed to the action. Our demo driver was boosting around, dodging to the side, and then blasting headfirst into the enemy with a sword attack. At one point, they slammed an enemy off an edge and let gravity do the work for them. There is a stagger meter that can build up over time, leading to big damage opportunities against enemies vulnerable to this style.
The mission layout will feel familiar to Armored Core fans, as the mech dives deeper and deeper into the complex. A voice over the radio taunts along the way, commenting that it seems like no ordinary merc has shown up today. This ends in a big boss battle with a cleaner unit, which I feel needs to be described as a Roomba-like tank with massive arms. It rules and is a kind of spectacle I can really get into. We didn’t get to see much of it, but “armored Doom-Roomba with grinder arms” is intriguing enough as-is.
Building for war
Of course, the really good stuff was found in the menus. Part of Armored Core‘s appeal is its almost Gran Turismo-like approach to customization and design. As our demo player opened the menu, we could see tons of options, ranging from parts and weapons to aesthetics. The mech garage is accessible, too. In our demo, the player was able to head back to the assembly, reconfigure, and then start back from a checkpoint after death.
The draw for this, and what I think will rope many new players in, is all the options they can use here. Both the build-crafting of Souls and the recent inventiveness of Tears of the Kingdom players have me thinking that the general game-playing populace is ready for this level of customization.
And as someone who played a good deal of Armored Core in its PS2 era, I’m quite happy too. It’s hard to get a definite gauge on just how it all feels from a hands-off demo, but seeing Armored Core VI in action, it felt like seeing a polished and modernized version of the mech battles I’d envisioned as a kid. The garage full of parts and customization options, for fine-tuning the perfect mech for every situation, feels like it will be a Lego bucket of possibilities.
Suffice it to say, I’m very into Armored Core VI, and think this is the perfect chance for FromSoftware to parlay all of its Souls success into a classic, dormant franchise. But even if this just ends up being a labor of love for the Armored Core faithful, I’m still very glad we’re seeing it come together and come together well at that.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon arrives on August 25, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
