Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

 PC
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 353 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 273 out of 353
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 353
  3. Negative: 46 out of 353

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  1. blaze_ironwood
    Aug 25, 2023
    2
    I hate the fact that I'm writing this review because for me AC6 could've become the title to save AAA gaming in 2023 along with BG3. Unfortunately Baldur's Gate 3 remains a lone soldier and AC6 fell flat 10 miles before the gates of success.

    Now before I express what I disliked I'll say that there are still a few good things about the game. One of those good aspects is the fact that AC6    I hate the fact that I'm writing this review because for me AC6 could've become the title to save AAA gaming in 2023 along with BG3. Unfortunately Baldur's Gate 3 remains a lone soldier and AC6 fell flat 10 miles before the gates of success.

    Now before I express what I disliked I'll say that there are still a few good things about the game. One of those good aspects is the fact that AC6 still looks like a videogame and not a photo realistic 6 hours movie with 20 minutes of gameplay unlike many other 3As. The destruction of the environment is on point and to be fair maybe on par with Hawken which is a good thing in my book. After all environmental destruction is a typical trait of mech games and ignoring it could've cost the game a lot. Missions are normally short and to the point. The game has a pretty ok customization menu and the mechs' designs are pretty neat. Voice acting fits the tone of the game and thank funk there was no trace of "do better" condescending Millennial writing.

    And this is where all the good stuff in AC6 ends, time for the mudwatter.

    As soon as I started fighting I felt that familiar Dark Souls clunk even though the game was pretty fast - paced and I don't really know how to describe that particular "clunk" but it was really off-putting and jarring to me as a person who dislikes souls-like games. There's an immensely huge power gap between the ordinary enemies and the bosses. Most of the fodder robots died in one hit while on the other hand the bosses tested your mechanical skills to the very limit. Moreover the flying enemies stand right above your head(that's when they're not running away from you and bombarding you with the whole US military power at once) and you need to stare at the sun for half of the duration of the fight. Weapons deal next to no damage to strong enemies and the only way to succeed in defeating them is get right up in their face and button mash the melee weapon which is absolutely stupid considering that this is a mech 3rd person shooter not Sekiro. The only way to "grind" for game currency is fighting 3 enemies that have the same rank as you do and after you defeat each of them once their bounty is halved, about 20K which is 8-10 times less than what you need for a single subpar component that, again...deals 0 damage to bosses. Feedback for controller is only for enemies, you get none from destroying silos, forests, trucks, shipping containers and it feels veeery underwhelming giving this game was arguably one of the most hyped titles this year and the one with the biggest studio behind it. Knocking down massive steel boxes felt like I was playing with cardboard honestly. Sound design which completely omitted the low spectrum surely didn't make interactions with props feel palpable either. And to top it all off - you don't have the option to save manually. Thank you Dark Souls for inspiring people to make games devoid of any fun! Is it even a proper game if you don't suffer through the entirety of its duration?

    There you have it. I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, this is not a joke - I enjoyed Hawken: Reborn more than AC6 and this says a lot. Thumbs down unfortunately.    … Expand
  2. skilly225
    Aug 26, 2023
    4
    It's a pretty great mech game with a high degree of difficulty, but if this didn't have fromsoft on the box you could easily imagine it being a game from 2010.

    Also, the difficulty, while high, isn't fun. There is nothing interesting about the current gameplay loop and it kills all momentum the game struggles to gain.
  3. visiblelight7
    Aug 27, 2023
    3
    Overly hard for nothing. Horrible experience. The novelty wears off and you are just ''working''. There's no fun. Just work. Who can finish this game without cheating and looking online constantly? Nobody. That's a terrible game design. This publisher is extremely overrated.
  4. ThinkLiveLife
    Aug 27, 2023
    1
    Its not an Armored core game at all. Someone decided to try to make it into a mech Darksouls with dodge dependent gameplay while removing so many of the good mechanics from previous games.

    The issue is not that its difficult at all. Its that they made the game difficult in a really unfun way with very little respect to what made the previous games fun. I am not sure who thought it was a    Its not an Armored core game at all. Someone decided to try to make it into a mech Darksouls with dodge dependent gameplay while removing so many of the good mechanics from previous games.

    The issue is not that its difficult at all. Its that they made the game difficult in a really unfun way with very little respect to what made the previous games fun. I am not sure who thought it was a good idea to just make the gameplay totally dodge dependent or add in a bunch of insta repairs. Or how about locking your mech customization to putting specific items on specific arms with throttled range. Literally one of their marketing points was that you could make a mech with diverse fight styles and then its like they did everything possible to force you to play one specific way. They even took out Radar which use to be a key strategy component so you could get a feel for the battlefield which turned some levels into a scavenger hunt for the enemy.

    The game cycle is you get a forgettable audio brief, slog through some mobs that you 1 shot, then fight a boss that 1 shots you. Dodge well and you get to win and repeat. Not your idea of fun? Too bad. Welcome to the 'new' Armored Core.

    At the end of the day I did not enjoy loosing as it that did not help me grow or learn, and I did not even enjoy winning. I wanted to win so I could unlock more parts and make a cool mech to fight mobs and in the arena but there literally was no pay-off to beating a brutal boss. Just a relief that I no longer had to endure such bad gameplay design.

    Maybe bad is the wrong word. Maybe call it 'Different.' Awful game if you want the Armored core experience. If you don't mind low effort repetitive gameplay with mediocre graphics in a lazy port I would say the game is worth a solid 20$. Grab it when its on sale.    … Expand
  5. M_Salgado
    Aug 27, 2023
    3
    Game was refunded on STEAM.

    Just feels cheap; bad animations, bad game loop... Regulars enemies are too easy, "special" enemies or bosses take you down fast and you have to enter "souls mode" and keep dodging and rolling and.... Game feels indeed like a PS1 game from 2001. Story is ridiculous.. just a bunch of text in white letters while you are shooting faceless and countless    Game was refunded on STEAM.

    Just feels cheap; bad animations, bad game loop...

    Regulars enemies are too easy, "special" enemies or bosses take you down fast and you have to enter "souls mode" and keep dodging and rolling and....

    Game feels indeed like a PS1 game from 2001.

    Story is ridiculous.. just a bunch of text in white letters while you are shooting faceless and countless enemies.

    STAY AWAY, i'm a huge mech fan and bought it instantly, but can't find it fun at all.

    You never feel like you are piloting a mech.. more like you "are" wearing a badly animated mech suit.    … Expand
  6. Ratingss
    Aug 29, 2023
    4
    The game is very casual with forced hard lock auto aim, maybe because they made the movement too fast for console peasants, this could have been solved if there was a first person mode. And to keep their image of "hardcore game makers" they made the bosses broken damage sponges.
    The visibility is awful because of the lack of coiors and the ugly giant crosshairs, but the presentation is    The game is very casual with forced hard lock auto aim, maybe because they made the movement too fast for console peasants, this could have been solved if there was a first person mode. And to keep their image of "hardcore game makers" they made the bosses broken damage sponges.
    The visibility is awful because of the lack of coiors and the ugly giant crosshairs, but the presentation is pretty good.    … Expand
  7. Dragon_Fly
    Aug 28, 2023
    0
    They can fake the review numbers but they can't fake the Twitch Stream numbers.
  8. KiefChris
    Aug 26, 2023
    4
    Repetitive gameplay. 2007'esk graphics. Dog-Water story with only a few cutscenes, mostly all by radio.

    90% of the good reviews are just lames gargling Fromsoftwares nutsack for their past games.

    Don't give into the hype.

    Edit: Also don't take reviews that say the "difficulty is hard, therefore bad review" seriously. Game is easy just isn't great & clearly made by Fromsoftware's C team.
  9. Tornan
    Aug 25, 2023
    1
    I haven't played much but after 5 hours it bored me to death , maybe some people might enjoy that kind of game but it is not for everyone.
  10. tonytiger
    Aug 27, 2023
    0
    I didn't realize I was buying a new Dark Souls. Instead of characters we have robots. Instead of rolling we have dodge. Instead of boss mechanics we have a spam fest contest.
  11. RicardoDavid
    Aug 26, 2023
    1
    Such a bad game. What a disappointment from FromSoftware. I finished playing Everspace 2 and it was much better than this crap.
  12. Lipstickpaddy
    Aug 25, 2023
    0
    Graphics are terrible, like a PS2 era game. Laughable. The controls are arcade-like awful. Strategy is rinse and repeat. A super lazy design, empty of newness to the series. Voice actors venderware. And fromsoftwares epic "it'll do" attitude all over the shop. Lacks moderism, polish and above all fun when playing this mess of a game.
  13. joanjett
    Aug 26, 2023
    0
    Right now it's too unstable but the main thing for me is the boss fights.....they suck!
    Maybe I'll give it another shot later but it's just not worth it right now. Oh well
    time to start another character in BG3 a real game that's fun!
  14. AhmedMobis
    Aug 25, 2023
    0
    Bad story, bad and unfair bosses, bad camera and controls، so much repetition, bad enemies design and variety, I am so disappointed from FromSoftware
  15. somniumest
    Aug 26, 2023
    2
    Great game if you live in mom's basement and have time to fight the tutorial boss over and over in hopes of seeing any of the games mechanics. They made a souls game not an armored core game.
  16. Anarkroft
    Aug 27, 2023
    4
    Fromsoft, faut VRAIMENT arrêter de sortir des jeux sur PC.
    Leurs derniers jeux étaient vraiment pas taillés pour le clavier/souris sur la version PC, notamment à cause d'une absence de localisation clavier FR (et je ne veux pas d'excuses, des jeux indés à 20 balles le font). J'ai lancé le jeu en clavier souris, tout fonctionne (enfin !) et je me suis dit que c'était prévu pour de la    Fromsoft, faut VRAIMENT arrêter de sortir des jeux sur PC.
    Leurs derniers jeux étaient vraiment pas taillés pour le clavier/souris sur la version PC, notamment à cause d'une absence de localisation clavier FR (et je ne veux pas d'excuses, des jeux indés à 20 balles le font). J'ai lancé le jeu en clavier souris, tout fonctionne (enfin !) et je me suis dit que c'était prévu pour de la manette (jeu issu de console en vue 3eme personne, normal). Je lance le jeu avec la manette officielle xbox et .... quoi ? la moitié des touches qui marchent, et qu'on ne peut pas réaffecter ?? Ok, alors on lance le jeu avec la manette en filaire usb car c'est différent, ça devrait fonctionner ! Et bah ... non : ils ont réussi le miracle de sortir le seul jeu non compatible avec une manette xbox sur PC. Bravo. C'est surement le seul jeu du monde à réussir cette prouesse !

    Bref, trêve de bavardage, et parlons du jeu en lui même : point fort (enfin, "fort", c'est en dessous de la normale mais presque normal) on peut enfin, nativement, faire tourner le jeu dans un framerate supérieur à 60fps ; certes on est sur des presets "60 / 90 / 120", mais c'est mieux que rien.
    Points négatifs : Comme d'hab, le doublage vocal FR tu peux t'assoir dessus (comme tous leurs jeux). Niveau visuel, les réglages indiquent qu'il y a du ray tracing, mais même à fond déjà ça tourne trop bien pour qu'il y a un RT en "ultra" (dixit les menus) et à l'oeil... on ne le voit pas. Du reste, les textures semblent avoir 10 ans de retard, le jeu est juste mouaif, mais en aucun cas BEAU.

    Pour la qualité globale de finition du produit, j'aurais dit "ha ouais c'est un remaster / portage HD d'un ancien jeu, avec tous les défauts de l'époque" => non, c'est officiellement un AAA sorti mi 2023 à 50 balles. Une honte, mais chacun y trouvera midi à sa porte.

    C'est sympatoche à jouer pour autant, mais il aurait tellement pu être mieux ! La tristesse du lancement des missions : un menu austère, une liste de missions. Pas de hub, pas de scénarisation ou de mise en scène, pas d'animation, le service minimum    … Expand
  17. pedazo
    Aug 29, 2023
    0
    stupid considering that this is a mech 3rd person shooter not Sekiro. The only way to "grind" for game currency is fighting 3 enemies that have the same rank as you do and after you defeat each of them once their bounty is halved, about 20K which is 8-10 times less than what you need for a single
  18. notacarebear
    Aug 27, 2023
    0
    Japanese developers really need to outsource art assets if they want to call their titles AAA and sell them for 60 in the near future. Or stick with the Switch which seems the reason it was created. Gameplay is worse than graphics.
  19. Shade72
    Aug 31, 2023
    2
    I already disliked FromSoft for milking souls, making money off the braindead gamers that will gobble up anything that plays marginally like dark souls and abandoning every other IP they had, they played AC fans for almost a full decade, 9 years and 11 months of "we're going to make AC6 we promise, we didn't forget about you guys", yeah right.
    As soon as I saw Miyazaki at the helm, I lost    I already disliked FromSoft for milking souls, making money off the braindead gamers that will gobble up anything that plays marginally like dark souls and abandoning every other IP they had, they played AC fans for almost a full decade, 9 years and 11 months of "we're going to make AC6 we promise, we didn't forget about you guys", yeah right.
    As soon as I saw Miyazaki at the helm, I lost all hope, they put the fans off for 9 years and then come in with the guy that directed the most controversial, most bland AC game of the franchise? This cannot go well, they WILL cater to the souls public and now here we are with mecha sekiro, I cannot express my heartbreak as a fan since Project Phantasma to see my beloved franchise be killed and then seeing FromSoft puppeting its corpse to put on a show for the soulslike crowd to soyface to, to consume yet another product that looks and feels like the previous 12, souls players are worse than the people that buy fifa every year, both do the same thing, pay AAA price for the exact same game as last time but at least fifa players won't argue to defend their game so hard in this cult like hivemind of buzz words that means whatever they want like "immersion" and "non intrusive storytelling".
    Explain to me in specific terms, don't say empty words that you heard a game critic spew about FromSoft, think for yourself, don't throw out "the immersion" because you can get immersed in playing battleships, say it in clear, specific terms and features why AC6 is great and deserving of an 8/10 and you WILL fail, the customization? Downsized and made near irrelevant, the gameplay? Recycled souls elements and uninspired bossfight simulator, the graphics? late PS2 at best, the story? Retconned most of the franchise, game feel? Souls just like the past dozen games.

    Kiss the good times of building a mech, experimenting with FCS, booster-gen combinations, unorthodox builds and hours balancing every detail goodbye, the list is as shallow as the franchise has ever been, feeling more bland than the PS1 era, the gameplay is a bastardization, any veteran of the franchise would feel at least sickened by these controls, and even more so with the estus flasks, reloads, target lock, pretty much every single aspect of the gameplay, but hey, screw us, the niche playerbase of a cult franchise, phase us out, kick us to the past, twirling thumbs waiting for emulation to catch up and try to relive something, there is a new and hip crowd now funding fromsoft and they like to argue pretentiously like snob art critics about fancy terms that mean absolutely nothing and play the exact same game with a slightly different feel untill their last day and will defend that is the objectively the best video game experience the world could offer.

    I am tired of all this, if you truly enjoy this game you are either blind and in the cult hivemind of the soulslike fanbase or you never gave a single **** about armored core, and let's be honest, most of people never did, that's why this game ranks so high, and you lazy pretentious bastards will refuse to see things another way, to try the rest of the franchise, or will just splash the surface with that same snobby attitute and say that AC6 changes were QOL improvements when you do not have the absolute single idea of even a shadow of what the franchise was, never again, I would rather have the franchise still in a hiatus than have it completely mauled, disrespected and served to the soulslike ghouls on a silver platter, it is dead for good now, never to come back and I hope with all my heart that the criticism of this game puts FromSoft back into making soulsborne ring 3 demons die twice remake remastered and never touch Armored Core again because I never want to see whatever this is, some stillborn puppet that was beaten, abused and abandoned coming back to mock me, this is another awful tale of corporate greed and you are delusional if you think otherwise.    … Expand
  20. shin777
    Sep 3, 2023
    3
    Having to complete the entire game 3 times to get all the finals is a mess. The game fells very repetitive at this point.
  21. Teleman
    Sep 12, 2023
    2
    Bad game. Stay away. Has nothing to do with FromSoft. Bad story full of tropes. Bad gameplay full off useless novelty.
  22. Ryetz
    Sep 10, 2023
    3
    Disappointed that FromSoftware has butchered AC with their Copy-paste Souls-like influence.

    A promise from the director that this "wont be another souslike game" is rather a betrayal to my expectations. What I was going to expect an immersive game play, scenery, and story turned into a massive hair puller of a "RESTART TO CHECKPOINT" of boss battles. Not only this immense    Disappointed that FromSoftware has butchered AC with their Copy-paste Souls-like influence.

    A promise from the director that this "wont be another souslike game" is rather a betrayal to my expectations.

    What I was going to expect an immersive game play, scenery, and story turned into a massive hair puller of a "RESTART TO CHECKPOINT" of boss battles. Not only this immense ridiculousness of the fights are frustrating, it pulls me out of my immersion too. I can't quite enjoy the story nor the atmosphere when the game gives you a massive middle finger and then shoves it up your rectum.

    Don't even get me started with the FromSoftware Community. They HATE and i mean HATE criticisms from their games. With nothing more than pure belittlement of "GIT GUD" or "You're wrong" and "You just suck". Rather than having fun and playing the game how you like, the game forces you to go META.

    If you are a long time AC fan just be cautious as this will just be another title for the SoulsBournSekiro-like fanatics. You will NOT RELAX with this title. Just emulate the older titles.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Best PC Game of 2023
13
#13 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 41
  3. Negative: 0 out of 41
  1. Riot Pixels
    Jan 28, 2024
    65
    Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is able to charm with artistic solutions, beautiful mechs, gloomy atmosphere of corporate wars. But there are too many of annoying factors in the game.
    Read full review
  2. Game Revolution
    Jan 9, 2024
    90
    Overall, Armored Core 6 is excellent for newcomers and longtime fans alike. It serves as a great introduction to the series, and you don’t need to be familiar with past entries to have a great time. On the flip side, the gameplay and mechanics are familiar enough that you’ll feel instantly at home here if you played AC5 or Verdict Day. Given the positive response to AC6, I hope we see more of the series sooner rather than later. It deserves to be one of FromSoftware’s cornerstones as much as the studio’s Souls games do.
    Read full review
  3. GameMAG
    Dec 13, 2023
    70
    Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is a great robot editor that allows all mech enthusiasts to create the fighting machine of their dreams, but a very down-to-earth game with short linear missions, boring environments and weak standard enemies.
    Read full review
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