It's been a long time coming, and now fans finally have confirmation that the Armored Core franchise is returning. Announced at the Game Awards, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is the next mainline entry in FromSoftware's mech series, and it's set for release at some point in 2023. It's been quite a while since the last Armored Core entry, and during its hiatus, FromSoftware has become known for changing the third-person action landscape with its Dark Souls series and its successors.
Though it took a little while, FromSoftware's Dark Souls series has marked a significant turning point for the gaming world as a whole, with its unconventional approach to storytelling, its tough-as-nails boss fights, and its methodical combat all going on to inspire a whole new genre of video games, just as Doom and Wolfenstein did back in the day with the FPS genre. Over the years, FromSoftware has gained more and more fans, some who only know the developer for its Souls and Souls-adjacent series, so naturally, the announcement of a new Armored Core game has left some new fans a little confused.
How Armored Core Differs From Dark Souls
Armored Core features very different gameplay to FromSoftware's Dark Souls series and any of its successors. Players won't be locking on to a target, slowly strafing around it and looking for an opening to attack; instead they'll be piloting a giant mech, blasting away opposing mechs with powerful ranged weapons. Armored Core's gameplay is generally a lot faster than Dark Souls', and while combat does require some strategic thought, the emphasis is on destroying enemy mechs as fast as possible, before they destroy the player.
The Armored Core franchise also takes a different approach to general game structure. Dark Souls and Sekiro have an open-ended approach to level design, with players being able to choose which order they tackle some objectives and areas, and Elden Ring expands on this formula even more, providing a fully open-world. Meanwhile, Armored Core has always stuck to a strict mission-based structure, where players progress from mission to mission in a linear order. According to a recent IGN interview with FromSoftware, the same mission-based structure will be present in Armored Core 6.
Dark Souls fans should also be aware that Armored Core doesn't have any invasion-like mechanics. Instead of allowing players to invade each other during general gameplay, Armored Core 6 will have a dedicated multiplayer versus mode for players who want to duke it out in their mech suits. Apparently, Armored Core 6 is really focusing on the single-player aspect of the series, and part of that includes an emphasis on boss battles. While FromSoft fans know about boss fights all too well, Armored Core 6's boss battles might be a little different from those they're used to, with the gameplay mechanics requiring different strategies than Dark Souls' bosses.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is set to introduce a brand new gameplay mechanic that newer FromSoftware fans might be familiar with, though. According to the same IGN interview, Armored Core 6 will have a new posture system that feeds into combat. This will apparently function pretty similarly to the one in Sekiro, with players being able to build up an enemy's posture bar by repeatedly hitting them, leaving them open to a critical attack.
Armored Core's Story Is Just as Bleak as Dark Souls
One thing that might surprise Dark Souls fans is that the Armored Core franchise is just as bleak as FromSoftware's other series, if not even more so in some ways. While Armored Core has gone through several continuities, all share one glaring common theme: humanity is doomed to war with itself to the point of extinction, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.
In the original Armored Core continuity, started in the 1997 game and continued up until Armored Core 2: Another Age, humanity has been forced to live underground following a cataclysm known as the "Great Destruction." As humanity starts to rebuild the surface world, gigantic corporations start to stake their claim, and a war breaks out between them. These corporations hire mercenaries who pilot mech suits known as Armored Cores. Humanity eventually flees to Mars and colonizes the planet, though the war between corporations continues there.
The second continuity, beginning in Armored Core 3, starts off with humanity retreating underground due to a nuclear war. Underground, humanity has been ruled for centuries by an AI named The Controller, and when it starts to die, humanity begins repopulating the surface of Earth. Corporations pop up in this continuity too, though the Armored Core pilots fight for freedom here. Armored Core 4 is much of the same, but is technically another reboot, with the corporations' war leading to extreme pollution that causes the extinction of humanity.
No matter what continuity, the same message is present throughout the Armored Core series: humanity is doomed to obliterate itself. While FromSoftware's other games, particularly Dark Souls, often have similar themes of repeating inevitable, hopeless cycles, it hits a little harder in Armored Core, as there's no fantasy backdrop to mask the bleakness of the subject matter.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is going to be yet another soft reboot of the franchise, albeit with some pretty similar-sounding themes. Rather than fighting on Earth, players will be dropped on the planet Rubicon 3, where they assume the role of a mercenary Armored Core pilot that's trapped in the middle of a widespread conflict between local harvesters and big corporations. It seems as though Armored Core 6 might tell a bit more of an uplifting tale of resistance, but it'll surely have some pretty bleak moments too.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon launches in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.