DO NOT BUY Armored Core 6 - VERY Disappointing

So recently I've been playing the brand

new Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, and

as a massive fan of the Armored Core

franchise and mech games in general, I was

really looking forward to playing this

game. Unfortunately, I can't really

recommend it. So far it's been kind of

bland, boring, and uninspiring. As you

probably know, Armored Core 6 is made by

FromSoftware, the same people who made the

smash hit Elden Ring. But unfortunately,

if you were expecting a soulslike game,

then you're going to be kind of

disappointed with Armored Core 6. Armored

Core 6 is definitely not a soulslike game.

It plays completely differently to games

like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. So if

you're expecting something similar to

Elden Ring, then you're going to be

extremely disappointed. So first of all,

the combat system in Armored Core 6 is

extremely different to Soulslike games.

Whereas in Soulslike games it's very

slow-paced and methodical and all about

anticipating your enemy's attacks,

Armored Core 6 kind of plays like you're

skating around on a very slippery surface

whilst trying to avoid the constant

incoming barrage of missiles and bullets.

So there's basically 2 parts, 2 aspects to

the gameplay in Armored Core 6. There's

number one, the shooting your enemies part

of the gameplay, and number 2, the

maneuvering and mobility parts where

you're using your jet boosters to slide

around and move out of harm's way. And the

first aspect of the game, the shooting

aspect, is basically zero skill required

because you've got auto aim assist, auto

lock-on. And I just find the shooting part

of the gameplay to be extremely boring

because like I said before, it takes no

skill when the game is basically aiming

for you. There's basically zero input from

you when comes to trying to aim at the

enemy. You just get near the enemy and

then the auto lock-on kicks in, and then

all you have to do is hold down the fire

button and choose which weapon you're

going to shoot from. I just can't really

say that I felt mentally engaged or

stimulated with the shooting part of the

gameplay when it's basically doing it for

me and all I have to do is hold down the

fire button. This is not very interesting

or engaging gameplay for me. So the second

part of the gameplay is obviously the

dodging and the maneuvering and the

mobility parts where you're going to be

using your jet boosters and you're just

going to be dodging and constantly trying

to be on the move to get out of the way of

the enemy's attacks. And it's with this

mobility and maneuvering part of the

gameplay where the player's skill is

really going to be tested. So the game

isn't really about the shooting part,

it's more about the moving and dodging.

So if you enjoy kind of like ice skating

all over the place and sliding around

using boosters, then you might have a

great time with this game. But for me

personally, I didn't really sign up to

play an ice skating simulator. So what I

was personally hoping for with Armored

Core 6 was, okay, I wasn't exactly

expecting a complete copy of Elden Ring,

but I was hoping it would be kind of

similar to a soulslike game or Elden Ring

but with mechs and kind of like futuristic

weaponry. I was hoping it would be slower

paced with a focus on melee combat. I

thought it's going to be like this

cyberpunk dystopian future where resources

are rare and limited and ammunition would

be hard to come by, and because of that

they would be focusing on using melee

weapons and maybe using ranged weapons and

ammunition as a last resort in desperate

moments and desperate times. But

unfortunately, the gameplay in Armored

Core 6 is nothing like this. It's nothing

how I would hope it to be like. I thought

it'd be really cool if you could have like

a mech with a massive flaming energy sword

or some kind of massive hammer or ball and

chain that's somehow energized. And then

you can also have like massive shields if

you want to be a tank or defensive player,

or maybe like dual wielding 2 massive

swords like Optimus Prime in the

Transformer movies. There is melee combat

in the game. You can go up close to the

enemy and do like a finishing slash with a

sword, but it's very basic. The melee

combat in the game doesn't really feel

like it was very fleshed out or much

thought went into it. There's no heavy

attacks or light attacks or charge-up

attacks or combo attacks that you can do

with the melee combat weapons. It just

feels like the melee combat in this game

was very quickly added to the game. So if

you were hoping that this game would be

kind of like a melee-focused brawling mech

game, then you'll be very disappointed.

The gameplay in Armored Core 6 is very

fast-paced, and your mech moves around

very quickly, and the jet boosters boost

you around and fling you up into the air

sideways and back ways very quickly and

fast, and it kind of gives me a headache,

and I kind of get motion sickness with how

much the camera is moving around so much,

and all of these bullets and missiles are

coming at you, you've got to dodge out of

the way, and it actually does make me feel

kind of sick and nauseous. Now I have to

say, I do really like the ability to be

able to customize my mech and change out

the types of legs and the chest and the

head and the arms and the different

weapons, and I think that's going to be

the main reason why I'll carry on playing

the game for a bit longer, but

customization in Armored Core 6 is nowhere

near as good or in-depth as it is in Elden

Ring. When it comes to the customization

in Armored Core 6, you're basically just

juggling between 2 things. Either you're

very quick and fast and you choose the

reverse joint legs, which makes you very

quick and nimble but you have less armor

and less HP, or you choose the tank

tracks, which makes you slower and less

nimble but then you have more HP. So it's

basically choosing between being agile and

nimble but being more fragile, or being

slower and more tanky and having stronger

armor. There's a lot of different weapon

upgrades you can choose from, but

basically all of the weapons in the game

fall into 3 categories. There's either

missiles, bullets, or kind of like

energy-based beam weapons. So it's going

to be down to your personal preference and

playstyle which kind of weapon you want to

choose. Do you want to use missiles, or do

you want to choose mainly bullets, or

mainly energy weapons, or do you want to

have like a combination, a mishmash of all

of the weapons? But kind compared to Elden

Ring, it just feels like there's not a lot

of weapons to choose from. In Elden Ring,

there were so many different types of

weapons like claws, fists, whips,

spears, swords, hammers. It's just

everything you can think of was in Elden

Ring. And then you could also dual wield

the different types of weapons, like dual

wielding spears, dual wielding anything

really. Coming from that to now, oh, I've

only got to choose between missiles, beam

weapons, or bullets, just kind of feels a

bit bare-bones. So I don't really find the

combat or the gameplay to be very

enjoyable. I don't really enjoy sliding

around all over the place and having to

dodge constantly and flying everywhere.

And the shooting mechanics of the game is

just not really that enjoyable or

challenging or very satisfying. Also, the

level design is very boring. Everything

just kind of looks brown or gray. There's

like industrial complex looking levels

where it's just machinery and these kind

of warehouse looking factory-looking metal

things, and the landscape is just very

boring to look at compared to Elden Ring,

which had a very colourful, majestical,

whimsical kind of look. The level design

in Armored Core 6 leaves a lot to the

imagination, which is not very much.

Armored Core 6 is kind of like an ugly

woman— the closer you look, the uglier it

seems. And it definitely looks a lot

better during the darker nighttime levels,

and that's just because the ugliness is

just kind masked or shrouded by the

darkness. I really don't know how they

went from such beautiful and magical

looking landscapes and sceneries and level

design in Elden Ring to such bland and

boring flat looking level design in

Armored Core 6. And the game's not even

open world. I mean, it's 2023, how can a

modern game not have open world? It's like

a very linear mission-based game where you

start the mission, you finish the mission,

you get a score, and then you're kicked

back to the menu screen, and then you

choose the next mission. It's like very

old school kind of gameplay design, and I

think the game would be much better with

like a town hub and maybe like a space

station. You fly up into space and dock at

the space station and then upgrade your

mech in the space station, go back down to

do some missions, and it's like open world

kind of gameplay. But it's not like that,

and I don't like the direction they've

chosen for Armored Core 6 at all. So

unfortunately, for those reasons, I'm

going to have to give the game a score of

6.2 out of 10. I can't really recommend

it, especially at this price point. I feel

like the game needs to be fleshed out way

more. I think the melee mechanics of the

game need to be way more improved and

added more things to it. It's like more

weapon variety would be great as well,

but as it is right now, I feel like the

game is very bare bones and kind of

lacking in luster.