Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Review (HYPER MANIA DRIFTER)
"this isnt my armored core!!!"
your armored core probably died after 3 when they made 4 and 4a too fast for actual levels and whatever the hell verdict day was.
outside of obvious shortfalls with what good and bad weapons are (zimmerman shotgun lol) build diversity is there with 0 commitment to a "build" like other games by from software. the game is almost concealing itself until the end of the first chapter and the third, with traditional "armored core" missions being fewer compared to more traditional "soulsborne" boss fights - whereas the equivalents in prior titles were typically large, scale-able quadrupedal warships or other ACs, AC6 introduces what one would expect: Brutus Thumbman the 9th with a healthbar that occupies about 5-10% of the top of your screen.
early on your biggest struggles will be "getting" the flow of these boss fights, spliced with learning how to drift through increasingly-complex spaces while blasting, slashing, and exploding enemies while preserving health and ammo (although usually you're given a chance to resupply before boss fights). as the game progresses and you nearly fear your mercenary work becoming "topple this large souls bossfight", you're introduced more constantly to proper missions - and even the boss fights feel more naturally designed around moving your mech and finding your own solution to fights.
the assembly and its options, being natively on PC (a first for the series), feel fluid and easy to navigate. contextual menus tell you what each individual stat means, with no obscure "center of gravity" to consider and look for on gameFAQs posts from 10 years ago like AC4. the array of weapons is acceptable, although certain weapons feel like they're outshone as entire categories (plasma rifles, linear rifles, etc) unless you're trying to meet specific weight requirements. certain weapons become a go-to for other ACs and shorter stages with boss fights, and others become daily-drivers for dealing with enemy MTs.
that is to say that you're encouraged implicitly to choose the right weapon for the situation, of course - but you can also brute force with your favorites in most situations.
unfortunately, "impact" as a stat on weapons seems to be only second to raw damage (although the two often coincide). if you see constant mentions of songbirds and zimmermen, this is primarily why. impact is comparable to sekiro's posture gauge, and so when you deal enough "attitude" damage (i dont remember what the game calls it LOL) the enemy unit will stagger. this usually means you can melee the enemy for a massive amount of damage (with certain weapons this can be 80% of their HP). so weapons that give the best impact will ultimately give you the best performance in PVE content, which is primarily what AC6 is - a PVE game.
impact's current dominance (unless FROM adjusts it) shouldn't discourage you from experimentation, however. the game is designed to be played through a total of three times (with my playtime at the game's conclusion being about 38 hours, and even that's a bit over par). as such, you can learn exactly what weapons you want to take for what mission since you'll be doing about three laps, outside of replays for S-ranks or missed combat logs/items.
gameplay aside, i think this is the most active storytelling in an armored core - compared to 1, 2, and 3 where a majority of the information given to you is implicit or through mail/mission descriptions. you meet mercenaries that are both independent and with corporations, and some of them even serve as wingmen on important missions. to go into too much detail will spoil the excitement i personally felt in certain missions, but it's comparable to ace combat in how you'll love seeing familiar faces - although from software's current "storytelling" leaves some things unexplained, and there are some instances where you're left confused without any means of piecing things together. if you let yourself be suggestible and get immersed into the role of 621, you'll likely hesitate when offered branching mission paths and decisions on the outcome of the game's central conflict.
while I think career Dark Souls Documentary Makers will dig heels into the ground and insist that this is a "soulslike" game (to preserve their subscriber count probably) over similar boss fights and repair kits, I'd rather consider it From Software reconciling old with new. it feels like some concessions were made compared to prior armored core games (how the game deals with mission ranks and payouts for missions, for example), but it seldom detracts from AC6 as an entire experience, and even less does it feel like a Souls game with armored cores. after the game's second chapter, there are few instances where you feel like fromsoft is taking you on a familiar ride - mostly thanks to the armored core series' linearity compared to something like Dark Souls.
as far as what's dogshit? no consideration for logistics or taking certain weapons to conserve COAM. no map/radar so you can't keep track of enemies or projectiles that are to your sides/back (REALLY TERRIBLE IN PVP ACTUALLY). choices in FCS seems superfluous. chapter 2, even if i can go through it really quickly, is still a fucking slog to do. it's a PVE focused game but PVP feels like it could've had more attention given to it - maybe this'll change, but even if it doesn't i don't doubt there will be a niche community for it for a while. or maybe they'll get tired of impact meta, so maybe not.
overall, probably my favorite fromsoft game to date. looking forward to ARMORED CORE VI: Fires of Rubicon 2.
thanks,
HYPER MANIA DRIFTER