Checking out Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
With the week formally known as E3 upon us, many game companies came together to reveal what they had been working on and that included FromSoftware and Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon. I had the chance to hear directly from the games Lead Producer, Yasunori Ogura and see roughly 15 minutes of the game in action and it was impressive.
While many gamers today will know the name FromSoftware, the name Armored Core and yes it is spelt the American way, is unlikely to be known. The series has been around for 26 years now, with the first title landing on PlayStation - note the lack of number, way back in 1997. Since then, there have been 15 additional titles/expansions released with the last one coming out in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. While FromSoftware have been the developers of the games, publishers have ranged from PlayStation and 505 Games to Ubisoft and Bandai Namco, with the latter taking up the duties again this time. The series was one of the first games to elevate the action and by that I mean that enemy attacks were not limited to the level you were on, but could come from anywhere.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect though, was that you could modify your mech in order to suit the playstyle you wante. If you stripped back the armour from the mech, you may have moved faster, but at the expense of protection. Take a few big guns into battle and you can deal out more damage, but the weight may have impacted your mechs movement options. Finding the right balance of what worked for you and still was able to take on enemy mechs and other units, was core to the series, pardon the pun. Now that the team have completed all their dodge-rolling and massive sword wielding games, at least for now, it is time to step back into the mech and dodge with thrusters and wield massive tech weapons.
Yes I am aware that I said that above, but that is because this new game is taking all that the studio have learnt from Dark Souls and Elden Ring, and applying it to their mech series. Ogura-san stated that there are 3 key aspects that they hope to imbue into this new game, the first being that the controls need to be smooth and responsive so that anytime you want to complete and action, the game doesn’t get in your way. The second aspect is connected to the maps, they need to be expansive and offer up a lot of dynamic gameplay potential and finally, originality. That might seem like a hard thing to justify when this is the 16th entry in a series almost 30 years old, but what they are referring to are new challenges, battles and more that players will not have seen.
In order to achieve those three aspects the team are taking what players know from the series and applying more to them. That means the maps are going to be massive, with lots of open space, natural and man-made platforms to make use of and more. When you couple that with the versatility of mechs that can be customised, providing different gameplay options, no two players will experience the same level, the say way. Mech customisation is a big part of the series, if you are entering into a battle where there are lots of smaller enemies, taking a big mech into battle might not work out for you. The game will let you customise almost every aspect of the more, from the head and arms to the feet and of course the main body. Simply swapping out the head might give you more information on enemy positions, swapping out the legs to a stripped down version, might keep you in the air longer. Coming up with a combination of parts, that provides you with a mech that is good for both offense and defence, will take time but that is part of the fun.
With all that explained, it was now time to check out the game in motion. After a briefing about the mission, taking control of a facility called Grid 086, the mech was placed onto a launch platform and then thrown into the air, boosting into the starting place. The first enemy units were a distance away and it was at this time we got to see how the boosting mechanics were going to work. A simple jump is fine, but holding it means flying and that uses up the energy stored in the mech. A bar at the bottom of the screen and every action in the air, dodging and boosting, uses part of that bar. Once the bar is empty the mech plummeted to the ground, thankfully it was only just above a platform. Getting around on the ground, the bar isn’t used, so you can easily speed around enemies. From here the demo showed the mech engaging in combat with enemies in front, but also dealing with missiles being shot at us from above.
Taking them out was simple, at least it looked that way to me and while the demo had progressed to hacking a door, an ambush put those plans on hold. After those enemies were taken down, the action moved inside, so instead of wide open spaces where every direction is an option, we were being shown a more linear experience. This didn’t mean that things went smoothly, enemies abound and a few more ambushes all took place and there was even an ambush executed by our mech. Once that ambush was successful, it was time to venture back outside and that meant more open space. Thankfully there are load platforms littered around the world, which gave us a massive boost to shoot us into the air. Upon landing it was discovered that another batch of enemy units were in the direction we needed to go, but as they hadn’t spotted us, it was time to make a plan.
The plan was just taking time to see what enemies were where and then it was time to jump into the fray. This group of enemies were easy to dispatch, however a boss enemy dropped in from above and destroyed our mech. Defeat didn’t just mean restarting from the last checkpoint, though that is an option, but instead in the menu there is the Assembly listing. Here is where you can make changes to your mech, and there is a lot of choice. I mentioned before about heads and arms being swapable, but what I didn’t mention is the rest, the guns and their placement, the boost systems, energy generators and more. The reason why swapping out a weapon is interesting is that each has their own specs, like damage but more importantly distance effect. So with a new kit out, we jumped back in and the boss was defeated and then moved on, a few smaller enemies lay ahead and then a massive boss. Sadly that is when the demo came to an end, so while we got to see a few moments of the fight, we didn’t get to see it end.
Over the years I have played a mission here and there in various Armored Core games and this latest entry seems to evoke that same feeling, big mech battles and all that. Of course, not being able to play it myself, I can’t say for certain how smooth it feels to play, but the scale of the game is impressive and it does move pretty fast as well, so I am hopeful all will be good in the finished release.
The game is coming out on August 25th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is a single-player adventure at its core, but there is a PvP mode for those who want to take their mech online and see how it stacks up against other players.
