As the player, working as a mercenary, rises through the ranks, they must choose their own path through an unforgiving world with equally unforgiving people.

The two-time game of the year winning company FromSoftware has released their newest game, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. The introduction to the game sees the player taking money from the corporation Arquebus, one of many corporations reaping the natural substance “coral” from the planet Rubicon. The player’s goal is to cripple a resistance force trying to keep their planet alive. After the first chapter, the player can side with the different corporations, destroying others in the process.

With the theme of Armored Core being to find oneself through the decisions the player chooses, the player can be loyal to money, friends, safety or duty. As the story unravels, new details give the players a better insight into the corporations and resistance. The player’s ending is determined by a difficult decision at the end of the game. After the ending, the player is immediately placed into a New Game Plus, which is a more difficult version of the original story but with the benefit of all the player’s previously unlocked items. The New Game Plus also offers new choices and this extends to the next cycle.

While the amount of replaying may seem repetitive, Armored Core 6 offers plenty of mission variety, ranging from destroying objects to avoiding enemies across cities. A common mission objective is infiltrating enemy bases, alone or with non-player characters as backup. These are consistently the best missions in the game as each of the player’s tools gets its time to shine. Each map offers different tests of skill for the player to think on the fly and to adapt. Armored Core 6 offers the benefit of changing gear in between deaths, as there’s no build that fits every situation.

No matter what the objective is, missions are always fast paced without a moment to breathe. Luckily these missions are short, with about five minutes for normal missions. Special missions, such as chapter conclusions or missions that determine the player’s allegiance, can be up to 20 minutes long.

Boss battles are plenty, with nearly all of them offering something unique. One mission, the player can be jumping from rooftop to rooftop, attempting to shoot down an attack jet, and the next boss could be a massive robot worm. Boss fights will often have cluttered visuals, as hundreds of missiles can be chasing the player at once and after dodging as many as possible, the boss launches a final large missile that deals massive damage. While this attack may seem unfair, the game includes audio and visual cues beforehand, so bosses will never get cheap shots as they give players every opportunity to dodge incoming attacks. 

Determination is a key factor in beating Armored Core as players will need to learn attack patterns, how weapons affect different enemies and how to balance the weight of weapons and armor on the player’s armored core, the robot the player plays as. There are four different weapon types: kinetic, pulse, melee, plasma and shoulder weapons, with sub categories of shotguns, rifles, handguns, gatling guns and bazookas going with each main category.

While Armored Core’s single player is about creating a build that counters an enemy that can be replayed at any time, the multiplayer offers a different challenge entirely. Armored Core’s multiplayer offers one on one fights with other players, or teams up to sizes of three versus three. Since there’s no build in Armored Core that fits every situation, player’s will be at a disadvantage when facing build’s countering their own; however, defeating an overwhelming enemy through determination is what Armored Core is about and results in a satisfying feeling few games can match.

With the length of the story only being about 20 hours, which is relatively short compared to video games in general, Armored Core is dense with content at every turn, with secret encounters and secret endings. Persistence and experimentation is key to experiencing everything this game has to offer. Although Armored Core 6 is a difficult game to get into, once players are sucked in, there’s no leaving such an alive and engaging game.