- Tested on wide screen PC with a RTX 4070 in 4k
- No technical concerns to report
- Code transmitted by the publisher
- Solo campaign finished in 29.7 hours shows in hand
- Photo captures and video house
- I didn't (yet) test the multiplayer
- Completed one out of three available after the new game plus
- Aveu : this is my first From Software game (yes it is possible)
- Mecha dream at night...
- NB: Wagner is not present among the casting mercenaries.
With licensing success Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro then Elden Ring, since each of them has been praised by the press as well as the public, it would almost be forgotten that From Software has not always realized soullike. Announced during the E3 2022 after ten years of absence, the return of the saga Armored Core had cut grass under the foot of Jason Schreier closest to the industry. At the end of a campaign of a little thirty hours of play under adrenaline infusion, what is the latest From Software worth?
Sick big core
Since 2013, the release date of the fifth opus, a generation of consoles has passed through it and a whole battery of Souls who knew how to forge the reputation of From Software for the harshness and rigor of its titles. Signature of a studio that never liked to take players for balls, the challenge is once again at the rendezvous. If Elden Ring proposed an open world, From Software returns to a gamedesign wiser with levels that chain at all speed after taking care to equip his mecha to go to the front. An essential mechanism of the title, dressing up his mecha literally from head to toe is the key to success to adapt to increasingly angry enemies.
The first step is to select each part of our armor before pouring its weapons in accordance with the weight and energy limits imposed by the properties of each equipment. In Armored Core VI, the gameplay mainly articulates according to the four triggers of the controller (lively recommended to fully enjoy the game). Each of them corresponds to an arm or shoulder of the mecha. The most reckless can choose 100% offensive combinations with two gatlings and multiple missile launchers on the shoulders. Others will prefer to trade a rocket launcher against a shield in order to gain in defense.
Do or don not. There is no try
In reality, if Armored Core adapts to the player's style, it is also and especially the player who has to adapt to Armored Core. The title was designed to vary approaches and if we start blocking in places, it is probably that the strategy adopted is not the right one. When we fail, we have to blame ourselves and nobody else.
As in the Souls, it is necessary to break a resistance gauge in order to inflict serious damage to the opponents. The whole flow of the game is based on the following triptych: dodge the attacks, do enough damage while keeping its weapons safe from overheating and then grab the short vulnerability shooting window during which the enemy squashes and suffers significant damage. However, it would be wrong to satisfy only a mecha tank which, at the cost of its slowness, would gain in firepower. Speed remains a crucial element of success.
Designed as a TPS under steroids, speed is omnipresent with the possibility to melt on the enemy as in a DBZ game in order to go straight slice the bougre from an elegant laser saber stroke. A guaranteed effect when you head towards an armada of interstellar cruisers that spit out a rain of missiles in response. Choosing a combination that generates enough energy to show endurance in the air or efficiency to surprise your opponent is a permanent dilemma. We like to try several combinations, the game being particularly generous in terms of arsenal and equipment. In the pre-mission assembly menu, you can also have a glimpse of the guns, ideal for making your choice before going to the box.
History of combining performance and style, we can even pomp our machine by choosing emblems or painting pieces of our armor in order to shine a thousand fires on the battlefield. The set is very complete in terms of options and should occupy the enthusiasts who can then play on the photo mode of the title. A meticulous care has been given to the modeling of weapons and to the striking animations of the mecha which does not have to be blushed against those of Pacific Rim or District 9. Work is all the more impressive as there are significant differences in animation between two changes in armor.
Guns of the Patriots
Between melee weapons, kinetic rifles, rocket launchers and pulsed or laser-ray weapons, the game offers radically different play styles both visually and in terms of gameplay and sensations. ingame. Worn by a magnificent realization, Armored Core VI almost takes the form of a boss rush with missions that can be shipped in just a few minutes once you master the gameplay. Once experienced, you can even subtract almost two thirds of a boss's life bar with the right chain.
« - I want to make you a street ad for the profitability of destruction. »
A staggering vivacity, impossible not to think about the improbable marriage of the cult Vanquish Platinum games and Bangai-O for the profusion of expensive on-screen missiles in Treasure. Two games that I wear high in my player heart. You have to have the controller in your hands to understand the fun of the gameplay dArmored Core VI. Cherry on the cake and reward of the achre, the acme is reached when you reach the slow sacrosaint automatically launched when you give the hit of grace to the boss. A saving ritual that possesses the player in search of unlimited power.
A good strategy is to wisely dose its ammunition to break an opponent's shield by keeping firepower under the elbow to cause maximum damage to enemies when they wave. Signature of the studio, there is always a balance to find between taking risks and defending to beat the (very) many bosses of the game, sometimes gigantic.
Playing the watch is exposing yourself to powerful attacks. In Armored Core VIIt is literally impossible not to suffer damage. The life bar was thought of as a constraint that is close to that of a time. The resistance of the armor gradually melts under the enemy's fire and the best defence is the attack, all the more so as a second constraint can cause problems in the long run: ammunition. Limited, these may come to be missed if one struggles to pierce an opponent's shield. It is therefore always necessary to integrate this component for endurance fighting or when arming the mecha before leading battle.
« - So what do you need, apart from a miracle? - Weapons, maximum weapons. »
Faced with the deluge of fire of the opponents, I opted for an approach totally focused on the attack. I won't be changed. Between the campaign missions, one can beat AIs and climb the steps up to the S row, a clever way to show the player the configurations of the mechas while forcing the player to change style to triumph. As rewards, we unlock OS upgrade chips that we choose to increase the specifics of our mecha: resistance, attacks, special blows, energy shields to regain life, return bullets or generate a massive explosion, etc.. The most reckless can even break mecha on-line.
Again, the player is free to choose recklessness or prudence. The one that increases explosive weapons and kinetic bullets exposes itself to an unprecedented brute force but or error is very quickly fatal. Nevertheless, increasing the damage while the enemy is stunned is an unmanageable one. Fortunately, we can reset the meters to zero by removing some of our loot. Overall the resale of equipment is not necessary and the economy of the game encourages experimentation. In this way, I changed tactics in the last quarter of the game where I gave up reinforced body-to-body attacks to favour grenade launchers and other explosives of all kinds as well as the resistance of armor.
Indeed, in the last third, the bosses will begin to go very quickly, or even to counter the offensives to the melee with for punishment the immediate death. Suffice it to say that after a few projections where my mecha was made to correct with a simple back of the hand, like a Bayrou slap At an abort, twice before attacking the chainsaw a tough enemy. Moreover, the reverse of the hybris, the most offensive formations expose themselves to serious risks in a failed laser gun fire. Hard to touch the fastest enemies and it is only by observing the patterns of the adversary that we will be able to place a double shot of large calibers at close range. Playful !
Choose your OS
Another essential component is the integrated SCT software that improves short, medium or long-range enemy locking. While most of the videos running on the net seemed to focus on the long distance, I for my part played almost exclusively with a proximity module, absolutely formidable as soon as one manages to make a way closer to the bosses and when one glides in the air just above his head.
Thus, a simple adjustment changes the movement, agility, resistance and weight of our mecha which forces the player to adapt constantly. Fortunately we can change our type of mecha in part after each death, something to invite to experiment. On this side, the game is generous in checkpoints and fortunately. And we come back with three treatments, his health and his ammunition to the max after every failure, which greatly limits the breakage. The difficulty is never insurmountable even if the game has some very arduous but always fair peaks.
You will understand, the part Transformers of the title explains to a large extent the fun of the gameArmored Core. It is even possible to equip four spider legs to our mechas or to transform it into armored. The soap side then takes over and it's quite destabilizing not to control a biped anymore. For my part, I left this type of gameplay too slow to my taste and dubious aesthetics!
If the gameplay is one of the most striking ones we've seen since VanquishIt may be criticized for not being able to release more special blows, since OS improvements are mainly focused on damage control or armor control. A beat-em-up dimension didn't seem so far away. Another rather questionable choice of gamedesign, the use of care that remains particularly laborious, since we cannot start repairing armor as long as we shoot with one of the four triggers. A constraint that can aggravate (euphemism) while one finds oneself blocked by an endless combo that often ends with a game over (and a moved juron), while one tried in vain to hammer the care button.
It's not MGS that wants!
Apart from these very meagre gamedesign reproaches, we will finally notice an unforgettable scenario. Intrigue reveals itself between two discussions which recall the codecs of Metal Gear. Too bad the story is so dispensable and catapulted to the face, the game never succeeds in involving the player, even when timid narrative choices appear. Hard to simmer when men are never seen behind metal armor.
On this subject, the game offers three ends, one of which is accessible only after the first two ends. It is also regrettable that choices are not presented with more dramatic and clear issues. Despite the artificial complexity of the narrative, these stories of rival factions and mercenaries for energy resource affairs hold the road as a backdrop, even if more serious narrative choices between factions would have stuck perfectly to the game, like the excellent Triangle Strategy For example. There was probably room to go even further in the Dark SF.
Last point, if the OST is very good, it will be "reproached" however not always to fly fully during the most intense fighting. There may have been reason to let go more towards the music of the arena fighting more oriented towards an electrofished. The hearts of From Software are a little short of calling even if they are heard shyly during the last boss. Anyway, you'll understand that we're looking for the little beast here, the game set has been done with remarkable care.
With this sixth opus by Armored Core, From Software strengthens its media hegemony by keeping itself among the best studios on the market. The Japanese publisher manages to renew the TPS with a new steroid game where our reptilian brain will be put to the test. According to its philosophy assumed of sincere, always just and therefore punitive involvement, the title guarantees a full-bodied challenge with the master word: action. Without time dead, demanding and visually beautiful, it's the slap that nobody expected. You need to review gameplay videos from the fifth opus to design the work done to rethink the gameplay of the franchise while respecting its legacy. Devilly addictive, Armored Core will have possessed the author of these lines who finished the main campaign in just a few days with as high as twenty-five hours of play in two and a half days. The sign of memorable works?
For
- Fast and demanding gameplay
- Grizzly in the muffle
- Top achievement
- Turns like a charm
- Successful OST...
- Arenas and feelings of gigantism
- Customized Armor System
- Richness and variety of approaches
- Game great show
- Animations in tune
- The Japanese VO
- Photo Mode
- Multiplayer presence
- New game plus
- Three Purposes to Unblock
- Feeling full after defeating a boss
Against
- System of special blows to be expanded
- The response time of care
- Very unreadable narrative choices
- Cardboard history
- ...but a little wise
- Minimal staging
After Armored Core, it motivated me to attack Sekiro!
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