Armored Core VI:
Fires of Rubicon

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023) is a fighting game where you create your own robot suits and then take them into battle. It's from the makers of Elden Ring but has more of a combat focus and without an open world. Fights are fast-paced and exuberant, taking place in the air and on land, with guns, swords, and missiles, but it's the nuanced and intricate mech creation system that really stands out. Energy generation, heat dissipation, movement, and attack capability all influence the ways you design your suit, making for a deeply strategic experience.

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In the distant future, a miraculous material dubbed Coral is discovered on the distant planet of Rubicon 3. After the first attempt to extract it ends with a cataclysmic disaster that renders the whole system uninhabitable for years, Coral is all but forgotten. When a second attempt is made to claim it, you are sent to recover it from the ruins of the planet, using your Armored Core (AC) mech suit to fight off resistance groups and treasure hunters.

Play involves constructing your AC suit and then using it to traverse the levels and defeat enemy ACs. When building the mech out of the parts you have, you need to carefully consider what weapons you want, how to supply them with energy, how to dissipate the heat they produce, and how you want your mech to move. There are multiple ways and parts you can use to address each issue, and experimenting with different parts and builds is essential to finding what works best. Combat is fast-paced and takes place in the air and on land, using your weapons to attack and quickly dodging incoming fire. Defeated ACs yield new parts you can use to upgrade your own suit, slowly increasing your strength and capability.

The result is a game where the fun comes as much from creating and designing your mech to suit your needs as it does from the fighting. Slowly iterating on your designs to address flaws and discover novel part combinations is a unique and rewarding challenge.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is the latest game in the Armored Core Series, all of which offer the similar gameplay challenge of designing your own suits and using them in combat:

• Armored Core (1997) PlayStation 1, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita
• Armored Core: Project Phantasma (1997) PlayStation 1
• Armored Core: Master of Arena (1999) PlayStation 1
• Armored Core 2 (2000) PlayStation 2
• Armored Core 2: Another Age (2001) PlayStation 2
• Armored Core 3 (2002) PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita
• Silent Line: Armored Core (2003) PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita
• Armored Core: Nexus (2004) PlayStation 2
• Armored Core: Nine Breaker (2004) PlayStation 2
• Armored Core: Formula Front (2004) PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
• Armored Core: Last Raven (2005) PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita
• Armored Core 4 (2006) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
• Armored Core: For Answer (2008) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
• Armored Core 5 (2012) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
• Armored Core: Verdict Day (2013) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023) PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon 9 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 11 weeks ago.