“In Fires of Rubicon, death isn't discouraging - it's exhilarating"
PC | PS5 | PS4 | XBOX SERIES |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy.
STORY — 16/20
INTRO
The game opens with a view from space; augmented human C4-621 is entering the atmosphere of the planet Rubicon 3. 50 years have passed since the Fires of Ibis - a cataclysmic event that engulfed the entire planet and surrounding star systems in flames and left behind a lethal contaminant. At present, a war rages on between megacorporations who are all racing to find and protect a substance called Coral.
I've got a job for you, 621.
After dodging the planets orbital defence systems and crash landing on the surface, the first mission introduces the player to the majority of the game's mechanics. We discover that we've landed on Rubicon 3 illegally and will have to acquire a valid mercenary license if we plan on sticking around.
We're guided by our "handler" Walter, who communicates to us through radio. He will dish out strategies and orders to us on the journey. He's like our agent who gets us jobs.
CUTSCENES
There's a force at work here that is hard to describe. The cutscenes aren't just a way to break up the gameplay and advance the story - they command your attention. You can feel the speed, the power and the horror in every scene. The editing and the camera pans are a work of art. I was somewhat disappointed though, when I realized that none of those sick CGI cinematics they teased us with leading up to the launch of the game are actually included.
WORLD BUILDING
Fires of Rubicon has a fascinating world that makes great use of environmental storytelling. Occasionally, you will find data logs that will provide some back story. These were pretty minor and didn't offer a ton to the game, though.
OVERALL STORY
The story really surprised me if I'm honest. I didn't expect there to be as much depth and and lore in a game about robots. Characters were memorable, consequences were meaningful and like the gameplay, there is absolutely no filler.
GRAPHICS — 12/15
CHARACTER MODELS
I thought the designs of the ACs were fantastic. Customizing the builds, choosing paint jobs, applying decals, deciding how much weathering to apply to the frame. It was all satisfying and visually stimulating.
ENVIRONMENTS
What initially makes the game look so good is the fact that these environments are like nothing we've ever really seen in a game before - they're stunning. The sense of scale, the colour palettes, the imagination and art that went into this sci-fi world are everything and more you could hope for in a video game. Then, once I started poking around a little bit more and took a closer look I found some pretty questionable assets and textures.
You'll probably never take notice of it because the game moves at such a high speed but a lot of environments you play in are pretty suspect. Buildings, which comprise a big chunk of the game are flat and look like they were borrowed from a PS2 game. Then we have assets like cars, trucks and smaller structures which look more like monopoly pieces than things that belong in a AAA title.
What we have to do here is distinguish between graphical fidelity and art design. From an art design standpoint, Fires of Rubicon is an absolute smash hit. It's jaw dropping. Undeniable top marks. For me personally I think it sets a new standard. But with that said, there's no denying the dramatic contrast - that is in plain sight a lot of time - between the art design and the actual fidelity of what most people would just refer to as "graphics".
Here's a fun example: Ash Lake in Dark Souls. Even by PS3 standards that place looked like crap! Hazy tree trunks in the distance with their tops chopped off, some sand and pitch black water. But every single person who walked into that place for the first time went "WOW". It was special. You felt lucky to be there. This is largely the same effect that Fires of Rubicon creates.
I don't like having to point this stuff out because I totally loved this game, but at the same time, I don't think we can just dish out 5/5s for skyboxes and sunsets.
SPECIAL FX
Rockets leaves an impact blast on surfaces when they explode, fire - which is everywhere looks and feels intense and powerful, energy and plasma blasts are palpable and smoke and dust is believable. The game creates such a visceral sense of violence that I have never really experienced before.
AUDIO — 15/15
AMBIENCE
There's a sinister edge to the game that is amplified by the soundtrack. I felt unsafe. I haven't really got this type of game vibes since my first playthrough of Bloodborne. The sense that you're experiencing something pure and masterfully crafted but you can't quite put your finger on what is causing it; Fires of Rubicon gave me that. Atmosphere is a quality in game's that is so hard to achieve; the sense that things are coming together and creating an experience that moves you.
BOSS MUSIC
The soundtrack carriers a sense of consequence and paralleled drama, evoking terror. Industrial inspired tracks with dark synthesizers combine to create a vibe that is unsettling in the best way.
Not every single boss has a unique track. Some of them are reused from missions in the regular game. But the ones that hit are incredible.
SOUND DESIGN
This is where FromSoftware might be at their best. I think their sound design department is underrated and not talked about enough. Every sound in the game has a purpose. They match the visuals so perfectly. They conjur emotions in the player. Weapons are more fun to use because of how good they sound. Gigantic doors opening with metallic clanking sounds are genuinely intimidating. Voice acting is superb and delivered with emotion and intent.
PERFORMANCE — 8/10
FRAME RATE
Even in the busiest skirmishes and heated boss battles I never noticed any lag or drop in performance. The game comes with the option to prioritize frame rate.
STABILITY
I did encounter one major glitch where a boss battle involving two ACs went off script after one of them got stuck in the wall. I'll count this as a favour.
GAMEPLAY — 33/40
CONTROLS
The controls are responsive and intuitive. Shoulder buttons are used for your main 4 weapons. Healing is on the D-Pad. Action buttons where you expect. A game this quick would fail altogether without the atomic precision on offer.
MECHANICS
At no point in the game did I feel like something wasn't working or was poorly designed. Its all so rock solid. You can further customize your AC with chips to modify things like your repair kit effectiveness, weapon efficiency and some other cool bonus defensive abilities.
Supply sherpas are optional supply crates that appear in most missions and offer you full health and ammunition at no cost. From what I could tell, choosing to use these does not affect your raking on the mission either.
The stagger mechanic from Sekiro is made use of in Fires of Rubicon and in typical FromSoftware fashion is never explained to the player. This mechanic is awesome and I was so impressed it worked this well in a completely different game. Essentially, you have an additional bar beyond the enemies health bar that you can fill that will eventually stun them when it reaches its limit. This is an opening for you to deal massive damage. Filling the stagger bar offers a whole new layer to the combat and is deeply satisfying. On the flip side your own Ac has its won stagger bar and enemies has exploit this just the same way.
By clicking in the R3 button you and active auto-lock. This is described to you during the game's opening hours but is not on by default. I ended up playing a good two thirds of the game with it off and in retrospect this is likely why I died a often as I did. This simple mechanic is an absolute game changer and will allow you to lock-on so the enemy is always on screen and essentially right in front of you. It also gives you an additional reticle on-screen as a visual reminder that its activated.
PACING
The game progresses with mission-based gameplay. Often, you will have the choice between multiple missions at a time and depending on the order you chose to tackle these, your options going forward may change. Some mission are eliminated altogether once you accept others; this is the whole grapevine that leads to the games multiple endings.
The missions can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes long depending on your skill level and how many bonus objectives you chose to face. They're are all really snappy and completely void of unnecessary filler.
I especially appreciated the game including checkpoints. Some of these missions are longer than others and may have two or even three checkpoints along the way. Once you reach these you are automatically given full health again and full ammunition plus all your healing kits back. This was a massive bonus that illuminated any tedious run backs and just plain frustration. Once you get to the boss or climax of a mission theres always a checkpoint and you always get completely restored so you're in the best possible shape to succeed. Hell yes.
UI/UE
The UI gives you all the information you need without getting in the way. The bars on the left and right of the screen which represent speed or velocity were maybe a bit much as I never found a purpose for them in the game. Was it a bit cluttered? Maybe.
BOSS QUALITY
I'm kind of running out of adjective for FromSoftware bosses at this point. I'm truly in disbelief that they can continue to create such fantastic and inspired designs with each new release. The bosses in AC6 are some of the best I have ever seen and that is saying something coming from a fan-boy. I feel things when I'm in these fights. The mechanics and gameplay are mesmerizing. A couple of the boss fights are co-op with the games NPCs and the drama, the suspense and the action are all so superbly cinematic.
Dying in AC6 isn't discouraging - its exhilarating. We're talking double digit deaths here. I must have attempted some of these fights 30-40 times. But they never felt unfair. I always saw the finish line and knew that it was my own skill and dexterity that was holding me back. This is the beauty of the design. Its addictive. I literally fell out of my chair onto my knees in front of my TV when I beat one of these bastards. It was the most intense feeling of elation I have ever experience playing a video game. And even though I was relieved I could finally progress the story you know what a part of me said? "I kind of want to do that fight again."
ENEMY VARIETY
Enemies come in a wide array of shapes an sizes. Some look like tanks, some are tiny and fly around. Others are roughly the size of your own AC and some crawl around. They move with different patterns and velocities so you're constantly adapting. There are also many stationary guns you will have to take out ranging from plasma launchers to gatling guns.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
While the gameplay in and of itself is magnificent there isn't really much to do but fly around and shoot stuff. There are no puzzles in the game, no mini-games, no NPCs to talk to, no change of camera perspective and no crafting. But this is fine! It doesn't need any of it. I don't want this to come across as criticism. Customizing your AC is enough. The core gameplay is incredible and forcing or even encouraging the player to do anything else would have been a mistake. There is some minor collecting that is optional, however. Special parts are hidden throughout the game world that are not accessible any other way. These parts range from AC body part components to rare weapons. There's also a trophy tied to collecting all the data logs in the game.
Maybe just to throw one idea in there, instead of just having to worry about your health bar, give us some other mechanic like oil change or overheating or something akin to a status ailment to worry about; degradation that we have to manage between missions. Something. With that said, there are actually a couple of status ailments you will encounter known as AC ANOMALY (which the game never explains) but overcoming these is simply a matter of waiting it out while the gauge on screen empties out.
Finally I get to talk about the weapons! Man this is good stuff. There's a massive variety of weapons you can purchase with the credits from your missions that range from small handguns to rifles, bazookas, gattling guns and things that fire plasma. You can equip a total of 4 weapons at a time. One in each arm and then two on your back. The weapons on your back are a whole different category of weapon that mainly focus on large impacts but can also include shields. One little detail that I really liked was that in the shop you can press square and a short little video will play demonstrating how the weapon behaves in combat; essentially demoing the weapon before you commit to using your credits.
The weapons in AC6 are so fun to use, so creative and just plain awesome to look at. Continuing your game into NG+ and NG++ will unlock previously unavailable ones adding to the already humongous catalog.
Theres an Arena ladder system which is essentially a boss rush and you can always play against other humans online in 1v1 or 3v3 matches - but again, all of this is flying and shooting stuff.
Victories in the arena with reward you with OST chips which you can use to further customize your AC. This might include upgrades like repair kit effectiveness, melee damage or missile damage. One of my favourites was terminal armour which prevents death and leaves you with 1 point of health. This came in handy many, many times.
REPLAYABILITY
With three unique endings, a staggering amount of build customization and the option to replay the missions at any time to achieve the highest rank, I'd say there is plenty here to encourage you to come back a few times at least. I played through th e game two times while writing this review and really enjoyed my second playthrough. There were brand new missions the second time around and the story progressed in a slightly different way which was cool.
BONUS — 0/3
OVERALL — 84/100
GREAT
Armoured Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is like a really nice sportscar that only does one thing. You can't go grocery shopping in it, you can't drive to the mall in it and you can't pick your friends up in it. All you can do is drive 100 miles per hour on the highway. But you know what? I'm OK with that. Because the ride is so insanely good.
Playing Fires of Rubicon has totally sparked my interest in the Armored Core series - which I previously knew nothing about - and has inspired me to try out some of the previous titles. It might not offer a ton of variety but its how confident it is in its core strengths that make it so terrifyingly good. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon game impressed me deeply and reminded me of how lucky we are that we get to play games.
PROS
✅ Unbelievably refined gameplay
✅ Boss fights are incredible
✅ Super tight controls
✅ Atmosphere and soundtrack are superb
CONS
❌ Very little gameplay variety in the core game
❌ Difficulty can be off putting for some
❌ Some pretty suspect environmental assets
❌
TLDR: 84/100 (GREAT) In "Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon," the exhilarating experience of gameplay is highlighted through its captivating story, stunning environments, and exceptional sound design. While the game showcases impressive customization options for the mech designs and meaningful character interactions, it also grapples with issues of graphical fidelity in some environmental assets. The visceral combat and thrilling boss fights are standout features, captivating players despite a lack of gameplay variety. With three unique endings and deep customization, the game offers substantial replayability, leading to an overall score of 84/100, making it a remarkable introduction to the Armored Core series.
PICK UP (Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon) HERE:
PlayStation: https://a.co/d/7JxhOXt
Xbox: https://a.co/d/28Ro9bB
PC: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1888160/
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO REVIEW HERE
0 Comments