From the Ashes.

Back before the breakout success of the Souls games, FromSoftware released many other titles which ended up getting a cult following. Titles like King’s Field and Echo Night are brought up from time to time to this day by hardcore fans but the one that I most fondly remember is the Armored Core series. Having followed and enjoyed the series from its conception on the original Playstation, I had all but resigned myself to the idea that we would never get another entry in the series. Given the decade long absence and the simple fact that FromSoftware is no longer that small development team that no one knew about, as they have grown to become one of the biggest, most respected names in all of gaming.

However, there was that part of myself that couldn’t help but wonder.

“What if they made a new Armored Core game with all the resources and incredible talent that they have now? What kind of a game would that be?”

So, when I saw the reveal trailer for “Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon”- suffice to say, I was more than a little excited and now having completed the game in full, I now have an answer to the question that I’ve been pondering for all these years.

Welcome to Rubicon 3.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PC, PS, Xbox
Played on PC: i7 9700K, RTX 3080, 32GBs RAM
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
Played: 20~ hours
Steam Deck: Currently sits at “Playable” due to text being small but performs great overall

On the planet Rubicon 3, a substance called the “Coral” was discovered. As a new source of energy and much more, it was one of greatest scientific discoveries in human history. However, after a catastrophe known as the “Fire of Ibis” drowned the planet and the nearby star systems with lethal contaminants, it was thought that all existing Coral was wiped out from existence. Fifty years later, signs of Coral are detected on Rubicon 3 once more and various corporations and interest groups send their agents to the planet in the hopes that they will be able to monopolize the substance. As a nameless augmented human working under “Handler Walter”, designation “C4-621” infiltrates the planet in the guise of an independent mercenary, unaware that they will shape the future of Rubicon and uncover the mysteries surrounding Coral.

Despite the story mostly taking place during sortie summaries and within the missions themselves without ever seeing a human face, I found it to be intriguing and was eager to find out what would happen next. As I was able to make important choices during key moments that branched the story out and even led to different endings, I felt more invested in the outcome. Even though I never connected a voice to a face, their personality and ideals were plain to see through their actions and brought to life with excellent voice over work. As such, bonds between allies and rivals alike were formed which made it feel all the more involved as a mercenary, today’s ally could be tomorrow’s enemy at any given notice.

As such, after completing the campaign in full, I wanted to go directly back to those choice moments but due to there only being auto-saves, I was kicked back to the game’s first chapter as a new game+, which was a shame because those branching missions don’t come till a few chapters in so I had to replay the same content to get back to where I wanted to be. This could have been easily remedied by allowing for old fashion manual saves but as the game itself is a lot of fun to play and experiment with, it took the sting out of the potential tedium of having to replay the same content to get to the new stuff.

I got you.

In terms of the gameplay, Armored Core sits at a happy middle ground between fast paced arcade action and deeply customizable mech simulation. There are dozens of parts to be purchased, won and found throughout the game and by mixing and matching the different parts together can result in radically different performing ACs with their own strengths and weaknesses.

For example, I made an AC with a focus on defense by utilizing Tank-type legs. I was able to load the heaviest, most well armored parts that allowed me to shrug off hits that would devastate other lighter ACs. Given the load potential, I was also able to wield high-powered weapons with high sustained DPS. However, my general mobility and ability to dodge incoming hits with quick boost was greatly hampered.

AC named “Panzer”

On the other side of the spectrum was an AC I made for mobility and quick hit and run techniques. Being able to quickly traverse on both land and in the skies, this AC can fly circles around less mobile ACs, dash in with a quick melee attack to briefly stun the enemy and follow up with powerful shotgun shots before making their way out of their sight before they know what hit them. Unfortunately, at less than half the health of the Tank AC, it also meant that if my timing with the dodges were off even by a little, I would go down in a handful of hits.

AC named “Stinger”

I also unlocked the ability to carry secondary hand held weapons on my shoulders instead of being locked to using shoulder specific weapons which opened up the possibility even more in terms of builds. In fact, I found that quick swapping to dual shotguns for a devastating close range hit and swapping it back to let it reload was one of my favorite strategies.

With all the different types of parts available, I found myself spending hours experimenting with different builds which was all the easier to do thanks to the fact that all the parts that I purchased could be sold back to the store for the same amount that I paid for. I was also able to preview the parts in action in the menu with a little preview video which made the experimenting all the more fun.

As there’s no one “Best” AC for every given scenario, I was encouraged to save a few AC loadouts that I could load based on the mission at hand.

The quality of life touches makes the experience feel much more streamlined in a good way.

Armored Core has come a long way since its initial few entries that didn’t even have dual analog controls and now feels smoother to play than ever. Despite not having played an AC game in over a decade, I found the controls to be responsive and managing ammo, boost energy, lock ons and quick boosts for dodging felt second nature only after a few short missions. There were checkpoints during the longer missions and even mid-mission resupply points which usually followed a boss battle. I could also change the assembly of my AC during these moments which was most welcome for some of the tougher fights as I often found that the AC that I used to get to the fight was in no way prepared to take on the fight itself and ended up choosing a radically different AC type to get the job done.

While my performance wasn’t graded during the story missions (they are in replay missions), I was still always careful of wasting ammo or getting hit as the more ammo I expanded and hits taken, my mission reward would be reduced to pay for the resupply/repair afterwards. Even though there were some weapons which I found to be very effective, the cost of ammo made me hesitate to use it except for in dire circumstances which made the customization feel even more rewarding.

In terms of missions, there’s a good variety with different types of goals. In one sortie, I could be out surveying newly discovered ruins and fending off the meager automated defense force that remains. In another, I could be tasked with taking down a mobile fortress that fires devastating lasers at me as soon as I get out of cover. Even the most common mission of “eliminate forces” could offer surprises as on the battlefield, new enemies outside the scope of the sortie summary can appear.

The bigger they are.

Outside of story missions, I could also challenge the arena which is a staple to the series but I felt the one presented here was a bit barebones as I climbed through the ranks without much difficulty and completed it in full without feeling a proper build up in terms of the challenge nor rewards received. At least by completing the arena, I was able to get resources to improve my OS which unlocked new universal functions for my AC like the aforementioned ability to use the shoulder slots as a secondary bay for additional hand-held weapons or unleashing powerful AOE shockwave and generating a shield that lasts for a short while.

There are also online multiplayer battles which I was unable to test during the review period as I wasn’t able to find any games. It’s a shame because I was eager to test how effective my creations would be against human opponents but I’ll have to save bullying game reviewers for another time.

Besting an opponent in the arena lets me unlock their decal but more importantly, I could also load their entire AC build, given I had the parts/credits for it.

I was a bit wary about how well the game would perform after the rather unfortunate state of Elden Ring during release but thankfully, AC6 is well optimized and without any major technical issues. There was one specific mission involving the colossal mobile fortress where I saw noticeable drops but outside of that mission, I found it to run buttery smooth, running locked at 120 FPS. There weren’t any crashes or glitches during my playthrough either and as it even supported Ultrawide (partial), it was a good experience out of the box without having to fiddle around with any settings. Note that it currently does not have any DLSS/FSR options but it’s not a particularly taxing game to run so it should be fine on most gaming PCs.

Also, testing on the Steamdeck, the game ran very well and currently sits at an official “Playable” status due to the text being on the smaller side but overall, I found the experience to be great overall.

While not the most visually impressive game around in a screenshot, when the game is in motion and firing off from all cylinders, it looks fantastic.

Circling back to the question that I pondered for all those years- with all the great new talent and abundant resources in tow, FromSoftware has brought Armored Core back in glorious fashion with their finest overall entry in the series history yet. Whether you’ve never heard of Armored Core before or are a die hard fan that’s been waiting a decade for a new release, this mission to Rubicon 3 is one not to be missed.

Fun Tidbit – I really hope they will continue to make Armored Core games and this isn’t just a one time revival as there’s still so much potential for improvements to the formula in terms of Arena and Multiplayer.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.