Ted Litchfield: When I fired up Armored Core VI for the first time, I felt like Milhouse playing Bonestormin the Simpsons, the protagonist of every ’90s videogame ad physically blasted back into their chair by what they were playing. This is one of the best 3D action games I’ve ever seen, better even than FromSoft’s previous dinger, Sekiro. Armored Core VI is a generous font of flow state kills piloting a ten-metre-tall mech in between the crumbling tenements of an impoverished world. It’s also a surprisingly thoughtful bit of science fiction, casting you as this put-upon cog of an unthinking corporate war machine, the victim of indeterminate, life-altering augmentation surgery who slowly wakes up to their own potential to write the history of planet Rubicon. Armored Core VI has a similarly abstracted, surreal approach to the mercenary fantasy as Metal Gear Solid V, and Armored Core VI uses this simultaneously exhilarating and dehumanising setup as a launchpad for a twisting, mind-bending story that only fully reveals itself after multiple New Game Plus runs.
Wes Fenlon: During this year’s GOTY debate, Ted and I both joked that Armored Core VI should win Best Story. Neither of us were actually joking. The sci-fi dystopia vibes are impeccable, but it’s really the way every branching path plays out across three runs that makes Armored Core VI so memorable. The way FromSoftware rolls out new story options in your second and third playthroughs dovetails with the power curve, too, which works something like this: Cool > Ouch > Cooool > Fuuuu > Hell Yes > F@*# you > I. Am. Unstoppable > How the $#*% do I beat that??? > Now I am become mech, and my blade shall pierce the heavens By my third run, with my mech fully upgraded and my skills sharpened, I was absolutely embarrassing enemies that had once given me trouble. You have not seen a bigger clown than Baltheus, act one’s hard boss – I sent his Pagliacci ass to therapy. The real elegance – and thrill – of Armored Core VI is that it’s always hard to tell how much new mech parts are powering you up, and how much you’re sharpening your skills until you ascend to a higher plane of existence. Anyway, best mech game ever made.