It’s been a while since From Software dipped a toe into its extremely long-running Armored Core series – almost a decade, in fact, during which time it’s become perhaps the single most revered developer working today.

Hot off the incredible success of Elden Ring, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon arrives to reinvigorate its previously niche franchise and show that its fast-paced combat and build tinkering can thrive in the modern market.

A ruined world

Rubicon 3 is the planet that gives Armored Core 6 its name, a wasteland that hosts a mysterious substance called Coral.

This stuff could be the next step in humankind’s evolution, but after a massive detonation 50 years earlier it’s also potentially too risky to use. In fly a handful of amoral corporations and you, a mercenary with a stolen identity trying to make a buck.

You’ll soon be running missions in your mech for a range of faceless corps, but also interacting with Rubicon’s resistance leaders as they try to push back on corporate control.

This is all delivered through mission briefings and chatter during sorties, meaning From Software is limited entirely to voice lines to tell a story of capitalistic disaster and dishonesty.

It works fine, although the temptation to skip briefings and get to the action does start to butt in at a certain point. With some nice nods to older games in the series and multiple endings to seek out, there’s plenty to enjoy for Armored Core fans.

More memorable are the vistas of Rubicon 3 itself, from ice-coated plains and crater-pocked deserts to abandoned cities and floating metropolises, all the way down to hidden crags deep under the planet’s crust.

It’s a gorgeous, desolate place that offers up the sort of backdrops that make your frantic firefights look as cinematic as you could like, especially when red flares of coral light up the sky at climactic moments.

Swapping in, swapping out

Armored Core’s mission-based structure remains faithfully intact here, offering you short slices of gameplay with generally clear goals that only rarely last longer than five minutes or so.

With each giving a payout (with repair and ammo costs deducted) you’ll use these both to progress the story and amass the money you need to buy new parts to experiment with your mech’s build.

There are four weapon slots to outfit, along with arms, heads, cores, legs (or tank treads), generators and chipsets that all have an impact on how your mech handles and what situations it can excel in.

Missions are almost puzzles at times – arranging enemies and ambushes in ways that challenge you to find a loadout that can get you through unscathed (or at least alive).

If you hit a boss fight that absolutely wrecks you (and you will), it’s almost always a simple matter of working out why you died and seeing if you can change your build to counteract that problem. This could mean more speed, more firepower, different types of damage, more hover time or any other number of options.

It’s a smorgasbord of choice that encompasses endless combinations by the time you’re in the final stages of the campaign, and that’s before you get to actually controlling your mech.

This is a tight and responsive experience that rewards constant movement and careful timing – there’s a stagger system here much like that from Sekiro that lets you wear enemies down and earn high-damage hits when you finally disrupt their energy systems.

It makes for a thrilling dance as you balance reloads and ammo reserves to hit hardest at key points, all the while spinning and zipping around at high speeds trying to stay locked on and dodge incoming fire.

It’s brilliant fun, and while there are plenty of punishing encounters I never came across a roadblock of the height that some of Elden Ring’s jammier bosses threatened.

Fires in the sky

Where the Armored Core series is concerned, speed and smoothness are the key, more than any resolution bump or graphical fidelity.

It needs to run at 60FPS, basically, and testing on the PS5 I found that Fires of Rubicon almost always did, with the tiniest of dips only in its most hectic moments.

That makes for a fluid and fast-paced combat experience that feels seriously excellent to control – even when you’re desperately scrambling to keep a quick mech in your sights.

Levels are nice and varied visually, and while they don’t always have acres of detail when you get up close to the geometry, that’s more than made up for by the real stars of the show – those big honking mechs.

From Software has perfected the art of making cool robots look cool, with dozens of entries into Armored Core. Joints flex, boosters pulse, guns absolutely crunch and melee weapons are simply awesome.

Whether it’s your own mech reverse-thrusting to cushion a fall, or a gigantic enemy changing its shape and floating above you to rain down missiles, there are just so many moments when animations and mech models come together to brilliant effect.

That these design changes are all reflective of actual gameplay options and changes is the icing on the cake – this is really a total success in the arena that Armored Core has to dominate: big cool robots.

Verdict

Armored Core 6 feels superb, looks great and offers a whole heap of missions to play and replay in search of every possible ending. Its mech fights are as satisfying as any we’ve ever played, and the degree of customisation available is incredibly impressive. It’s also the best entry point the series has ever offered.