‘Armored Core VI’s multiplayer is secretly the best part of the game’

FromSoftware has produced some great games over the last decade that have changed the landscape of game design and created an entirely new genre – Soulslike. And while the game likes Axe, BloodborneAnd alden ring Widely and justifiably considered excellent, FromSoftware has never been able to nail down the multiplayer experience. i.e. until Armored Corps VI.

sunk deep after spending the weekend late armored corps Hole, I found myself constantly putting the game’s main story on hold to pursue the multiplayer offering, which takes the title’s immaculately-designed mech combat and turns it into a strategic but adrenaline-pumping duel against real players. gives. This is a worthwhile effort in itself and will continue in future too. Armored Corps VIEqually incredible main missions.

Armored Corps VI‘s multiplayer feels like a perfect storm in many ways. The combat is even more fast-paced and action-forward than the extended timeline of FromSoftware, which created Soulslike Bloodborne come on Axe, lending itself to quick multiplayer matches that are over in a few seconds or a minute at most. It feels like a fighting game.

The mech style is also designed to encourage players to duel each other. Who doesn’t want to feel the rush of battling giant weapons of war and emerging victorious? It feels good to win.

Like a fighting game, Armored Corps VIThe multiplayer feels equally fast-paced and highly strategic. How you build your AC takes a lot of planning, requiring a lot of customization, from choosing each piece of your machine to the weapons you carry.

However, as soon as you are on the battlefield and staring down your enemy, much of that strategy disappears and it becomes a battle of instincts.

The boss encounters in the main missions are puzzles that require you to learn patterns and then change your build accordingly – multiplayer duels require you to quickly assess the enemy based on your accumulated knowledge of the game’s available weapons and builds. Force you to trust.

watch a duel Armored Corps VI It is a pyrotechnic marvel, when two huge machines speed across a field and keep track, firing several rounds a second. Some matches are over in seconds, with my opponent surprising me with an initial attack and forcing me into a corner from which I had no chance of escape.

There have been matches that seem excruciatingly long, when I take on my opponent but neither of us moves back an inch. Suddenly these moments end in the blink of an eye when they or I make a fatal mistake. Despite how it felt during the stalemate, the match probably lasted less than two minutes.

The most recent series of the iconic Gundam franchise, witch from mercury, primarily centered around one-on-one mech duels. Each duel begins with both pilots taking an oath:

“Victory is never determined by mobile suit performance alone. Nor by the skill of the pilot alone. The result is the truth.”

This reiterates the idea that the only thing that makes a winner of a duel is the one standing last. Anything can happen, even with the best skills or best mechanical configuration. This is what brings success Armored Corps VIThe conflict of. There is a danger in competing against another player as it always depends on luck. Anyone can win regardless of your preparation, that’s what makes victory and even defeat (which I have faced many times) so satisfying every time

I know FromSoftware has achieved something special Armored Corps VIThere’s multiplayer, because for the first time in a FromSoftware game, I feel like playing multiplayer even more than the main story. It doesn’t even matter alden ring Could complete.

Armored Corps VI: Fire of the Rubicon Now available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.