Armored Core 6 Preview: Get in the robot

Trial by fires... of Rubicon.

Giant mechs are objectively cool – despite a lack of practicality. Even if you don’t personally enjoy a large, pilotable, anime-esque mech, you can still appreciate the sheer size and power of something so imaginative. Souls-like games are similar. They’re difficult and frustrating, but a game that challenges the player to push themselves beyond their limits is an objectively cool idea. FromSoftware has taken these two things, and in their fashion, created something frustratingly difficult in the best way.

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon makes piloting a mech feel real. From the controls to the customisation to the sheer size of your own Armored Core in comparison with enemy units, the experience is never watered-down. It’s tough and demanding, but ultimately satisfying and awe-inspiring.

Baby steps

Starting with the beginner training, you’re taught the basics of piloting an Armored Core. You’re given a pre-set mech to pilot, so the controls are taught according to this particular AC. Overall, it’s simple: shoot a variety of firearms, slash with your melee weapon, boost your speed both on the ground and in the air and dodge.

The basics of piloting the Armored Core become more in-depth when other game systems are added. EN (energy) is required to boost and fly. If you’re in the air and the bar depletes, you’ll fall straight to the ground (if there’s ground below you, that is). Once grounded, the bar replenishes quickly enough that you’re only forced to stay on the ground for a few seconds at a time.

As for weapons, they all have either a reload timer or an overheat timer when they’re out of ammunition or have been used too much. You don’t have access to the reload button until the second tutorial, which happens after an introductory mission and a boss battle. There are actually a variety of controls that you don’t get access to until you’ve completed the first mission and subsequent boss battle. This can be frustrating, but it feels like the game is testing you and teaching you in its own way.

The controls feel intuitive for the most part. Controlling an AC seems easy, but when you’re sitting in the pilot’s seat you can really tell how large, heavy and powerful these mechs truly are. As with other FromSoft games like Dark Souls, you’re ultimately wearing a huge suit of armor. Armor that can weigh you down immensely, making each swing of the blade be the difference between life and death.

Small strides

Thanks to the futuristic setting, Armored Core 6 doesn’t seem like a Souls-like at first. The first mission you need to complete is simple enough: go and find a license to be able to stay on Rubicon legally. At the very end of the mission is a boss battle against a transport helicopter. This is where the game starts to show its true colours.

You get trapped in an arena-like area with a giant transport helicopter that turns the game into a 3rd-person bullet hell. You’re expected to outmaneuver bullets and rockets while chipping away at the health bar of a helicopter that hardly stops moving. Your own bullets do minimal damage and the key is to get in close and melee the chopper. If you’re able to bring the mindset of someone who has played a FromSoft game previously, this boss battle is a challenge, but you know how good it feels to defeat an enemy you’ve spent an hour trying to best. That’s the experience that sits at the core of this game.

Each attempt at defeating the boss is an extra piece of information that’ll help you on the next attempt. Every time you feel frustrated you take a moment because you know it’ll be worth it when you do eventually defeat this transport helicopter. I have never played a game as frustrating as this, but the sense of achievement I got after defeating the boss after multiple failures was the reason I wanted to keep playing.

Big changes

Once the emotional roller coaster of the boss fight is finished, you’ll finally get access to the sortie where you can select missions – including the next round of tutorials, which teach you about reloading and other important mechanics that would have been extremely helpful for the previous boss battle. You’ll also be able to modify your AC with parts that you can buy in the shop or parts that are given to you as mission rewards. AC customisation is also available if you want to change the paint and decals of your mech. Changing parts around is also complex as you need to make sure your build doesn’t exceed the weight and EN limits. Each part also looks different, so you have the option to make your mech look unique.

After customising your AC and completing the tutorial missions, you’re given some real work to do. You need to destroy a weaponised mining ship. Because you’re piloting an AC which, according to previous games, can be anywhere between 5 to 10 meters tall, it sounds like it’ll be slightly more difficult than the helicopter boss, which was about four times the size of your mech. But the mining ship is massive. Immense, even. You need to climb it like a mountain to complete the mission.

This is where Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon manages to show the sheer size and power of the technology being used within its universe. The scaling of everything in the preview was so accurate that when you finally got to fight something akin to an AT-AT in shape but at least as big as a cruise ship. Seeing something so massive in a video game that uses scaling and size so well really does give an overwhelming sense of astonishment because it feels so real.

The reality of a world with mechs is far in our future, if at all, but Armored Core 6 Fires if Rubicon makes it seem possible. It brings forth the supposed difficulty of piloting a mech and combines it with the true difficulty of games from a studio that punishes every tiny mistake fairly. The sheer size and power of everything in the world of Rubicon is portrayed perfectly. While at times frustrating, the experience of Armored Core 6 has been marvelous and truly breathtaking.

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon heads to Windows PC via Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PS5 on 25 August.

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon 25 August 2023 PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC via Steam Buy on the Microsoft Store Buy on Amazon: PlayStation, Xbox