Armored Core VI: The Fires of Rubicon [2023]
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CR: 76
“I’ve got a job for you, 621.”
Armored Core VI: The Fires of Rubicon is the first entry into From Software’s longstanding Armored Core franchise in almost exactly a decade. Armored Core [AC] is a game series about the intricate customization of your mechanized suit, fast paced gameplay, mostly unintelligible stories [a From Software staple], and spreadsheets of data just to decide which of the sixteen “Standard Rifles” are better than the one you have or what the difference is between “EN output” and “EN capacity” and why you should care. I’ve been playing Armored Core since I was about 10-years old and have played nearly every title that’s been released so, I have some experience with the franchise. That said, the long awaited Fires of Rubicon is very… interesting.
In AC6 you play as the nameless 621 who inherits the callsign “Raven” through the command of your handler, Walter. You’re an independent mercenary fighting for whoever pays the most and you’re doing it over the scorched and ravaged surface of the planet, Rubicon, while various corporations struggle for control over a resource known as “Coral”; a strange red energy that the planet produces. 50-years ago, an event known as “The Fires of Rubicon” wiped out all who lived here and in nearby sectors as the Coral “burned the stars”. Now, however, it’s returned, and everyone wants a piece of the pie.
If you’ve played any From Software games in the last decade, this all sounds very familiar to you, and that’s because it is. This familiarity, in fact, is the crux of my criticisms about the game. But, before we get into that, I want to spill some accolades. First, it runs superbly smooth and launched doing so; FromSoft continues to be one of the few companies I think deserves full-price purchases. Second, it’s very fun to play. Though it can also be immensely frustrating at times, the general feel of the gameplay is fast — without falling into the frenetic like Armored Core For Answer — and heavy — without feeling clunky or rigid like Armored Core V/ Verdict Day or most of the earlier titles. Laser and plasma weapons are bright on screen and envelop enemies in interesting effects, grenade launchers blast huge areas and incinerate MT’s, missiles swarm opponents and pepper the battlefield while you rush in to chop them down with your immense energy swords. AC6 is an undeniably cool game and will make for some excellent streaming. That said though… it’s also an undeniably confounding one in ways that I have a hard time accepting in 2023.
Gone are the classic AC options of computer voice, UI color/ content, or ability to go into debt. While the last one is probably preferrable to a general audience, it was always something that added a tension to AC that is wholly absent here. I think that FromSoft has taken on the “difficulty slider” argument mostly well with the ability to swap builds mid-mission on death, but it’s strange things like, not being able to access the shop, that leave me mostly confused in terms of design. Why force me to exit all the way out to buy a new part when you’re already allowing me access to my garage? One thing is not less narratively illogical than the other. If you’re going to make player-friendly choices… make them all. Likewise, the lack of UI color choice is not only odd because it’s been something you can do in every AC game, but with how commonplace good accessibility features are becoming, it’s an extremely strange omission. It’s little things like this that really dragged my experience of AC6 down. While this might sound nitpicky [similar to my complaints about RE4r’s confounding shop design], small choices make big differences.
In classic AC fashion, your missions all come from extremely colorful characters with vibrant expressions to help distinguish them from one another. In classic AC fashion, each of these characters serves a single purpose and has no personality beyond their singular missions. In classic AC fashion, much of the story is relayed via mission briefings and snippets of conversations to a silent protagonist. These things are all well-and-good, but feel extremely out of place in 2023 and make it difficult to engage in, care about, or otherwise notice the intricacies of the story. At one point a character says to you — with no prompting at all —, “You’ve got a real sense of humor 621” and then simply flies off. It’s all very silly and sums up my largest general complaint with the game: Armored Core VI: The Fires of Rubicon released August 24, 2023, but it feels like it released on that same day in 2013. Nearly everything about AC6 feels like a PS2-era game. In some ways this is super fun and refreshing… in others it’s very jarring.
I think that AC6 will be most well received by already established members of the Armored Core community. Most of its coolest moments have to do with nostalgia-fueled callbacks to the old games. I don’t think it has deep enough play, engaging enough narrative, or wide enough options to really entrance audiences foreign to the series, and that’s too bad. Don’t get me wrong… those callback moments had me legitimately exclaiming, “Man… that’s so fu***n’ cool” sitting at my desk… entirely alone and, as someone for whom Armored Core has been a huge part of my life as a kid, this experience has really taken me back in a lot of ways I appreciate. However, without that connection, I don’t think it’s going to draw new players into the fold. This game is no Elden Ring in terms of grand scale, and it’s no Soulsborne in general in terms of creativity, unique design, or deep story. These things are certainly present in AC6, but they’re all very watered down. And “watered down” is almost exactly how I’d describe the game in its entirety.
While there are bright moments within the various storylines that you’ll play; once you solve Rubicon’s puzzle, there’s not much more to it. I built my AC very early into my first run and have only modified it only ever-so-slightly [basically one rebuild] in my 3 runs of the story. I’ve fought against tons of opponents and every fight is done essentially the same way; I see no reason to ever build into a different style. The only change I see value in is a single left-hand option that I use for a couple of specific boss encounters. Parts upgrade in an extremely linear fashion with many being entirely and obviously obsolete in every way [the generator I use has been available since chapter 1], and the general selection of parts is very limited even without taking this weirdly linear upgrade path into consideration. In my 3rd run of the game I started to unlock some extremely cool parts but, “cool” is basically all they were. Even the last few things the game could give me were “interesting” more than they were “good”… and I’ll certainly never equip them.
All in all, I’ve put 38-hours into Rubicon’s struggle. I’ve maxed all versions of the arena with the same suit, been the destroyer, the liberator, and the unifier, but I probably won’t be revisiting the planet anytime soon. I’ve seen its corners, fought its battles, and I find that the satisfaction the game brings comes mostly from its simplistic rhythm and general familiarity to those I played growing up. Rubicon is comically easy at times and infuriatingly difficult at others… but I don’t regret a single minute of my time spent here and the smile on my face couldn’t have been more genuine when I finally got to be a Raven once again. No more Lynx, no more Next, I’m finally back in the pilot seat of a franchise that formed so many of my interests and will forever stand as one of my favorite series of all time.
“Raven, let’s meet this new age… together.”
