Bandai Namco recently invited Wccftech out to a hands-on preview event to experience the full first chapter of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon ahead of its August release. Our sessions were all played on PCs with no limitations on what could be played up through the end of the first chapter, although the footage captured was held to some capture restrictions.

　　The opening acts of Armored Core VI start with a brief bit of player customization in terms of name and moniker before your mission handler sends you out on your first mission: to scavenge up a non-expired ID in order to gain access to mercenary opportunities. From that point on, the game opened up with a variety of basic tutorial missions, a story mission, more tutorials, and side missions until a total of eleven missions were available to play.

　　This was my first taste of seeing missions beyond that of the foundry mission that made up the bulk of the first hands-off preview session (which actually makes up the very first mission of the second chapter of Fires of Rubicon). Each story mission took place either on its own map or an expanded range on a prior map. Side missions, however, reused existing maps and would sometimes be played from end to beginning to feel distinctively different from the story centerpieces.

　　Assembling my AC was relatively straightforward, with only a handful of armor pieces and weapons to customize my ideal build. As suspected during an earlier preview, melee weapons are exclusive to the left hand. What I didn’t realize until recently is that weapons such as handguns and missile launchers have to be purchased in separate left and right-hand versions. I leaned heavily towards just a pair of straightforward missile launchers because of the high amounts of raw damage and stagger damages each should deal. Sure, the credit cost at the end of each mission would’ve been much higher than if I settled for a simple ballistic rifle but the beauty of Armored Core has been adapting to one’s playstyle. In fact, after unlocking the Arena and taking out enough combatants to unlock chip data, I purchased an expansion ability that would allow my AC to stock a second set of left/right-hand weapons in lieu of shoulder weapons. With some right-hand energy weapons having a single clip of ammunition, being able to purge that weapon in the heat of battle (dropping the encumbrance and energy drain, although this is also another customization chip that needs to be purchased) can boost the player’s mobility during arena or PVP battles. Sadly, no hints of PVP were visible during the preview session, but recent word has gone out for a possible six-player PVP mode.

　　Customization and experimentation have been a central focus of the franchise, and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon stays the course. Players can demo their custom build through an AC Test directly from the Garage without having to sortie on a mission. If players find that a new shoulder weapon doesn’t perform like intended or is too much of an energy vampire on their limited generator, there isn’t a downside to ditching those components and trying something else out instead. Any parts purchased from the shop can be sold back for a full refund. Players can still grind out as they see fit (which is something that I did on a side mission that was simply a duel against a low-skilled AC pilot and earned something around the tune of 30-50k credits on a given run) and work towards that shiny new set of tank legs that they might want for a mere 350k credits.

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　　The combat in Fires of Rubicon is just as fast-paced as the trailers have teased so far. Players have a full 360 of movement to approach combat and some fights seem better suited for an aerial approach (a truck-based enemy unit was all but impervious to attacks from straight ahead with its weak points located on the rear heat vents). Depending on energy consumption and the power of the equipped generator, players might be able to dash nearly indefinitely or in much shorter controlled bursts. The freedom to play Armored Core with as quick or slow of an AC as you want makes for a vastly different experience than the typical Souls games that From Software has been working on for the better part of two decades and Fires of Rubicon certainly feels tuned towards a faster, more mobile playstyle.

　　Loyalty isn’t an aspect that players should get too involved with early on in Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. There’s no need to be loyal to just a single brand of AC parts, just as much as there isn’t loyalty towards a certain faction in the world. Players will ally themselves alongside a variety of factions during the first chapter of the story and see the need for mercenary AC pilots across a variety of mission scenarios and different handlers along the way. Perhaps the introductory handler that provides the player with their first mission opportunities might not be the best option going forward.

　　It wouldn’t be a proper Armored Core title without an Arena to fight through. With the promise of more than thirty ranks of fights, players will face off against a variety of AC builds and enemies as they climb the ranks. Each AC bested not only bestows the player with a new rank but they can also take their emblem as their own. Chips are also earned through each Arena victory which can be slotted in as part of the deeper customization available to the player even as early as the first chapter. These chips offer both active expansions and passive abilities (such as the weapon purge and second-arm weapon sets mentioned above). Active abilities function more like shields of various abilities, whether you want to leave a dome shield in one place or surround your AC in a weaker shield that follows as the AC dashes about. One of my favorite abilities unlocked was merely giving my AC an attack at the end of a forward boost dash: a frontal kick that delivered a heavy amount of stagger damage. Another passive I tried out was the ability to launch into a sortie while over-encumbered, although I didn’t get to properly find a use for it as I would have in prior Armored Core titles. Whether these passive systems replace a proper Human PLUS system is yet to be seen.

　　The wait for Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon is nearly upon us, with the latest FROM Software-developed title ready to launch across both PlayStation and both Xbox generations of consoles in addition to PC on August 25th, 2023. Do you have a particular build you enjoyed in previous Armored Core titles that you want to assemble in Fires of Rubicon? Let us know in the comments below!