Everybody should have known that the combat in Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon was going to be good. This isn't FromSoftware's first rodeo. And it is good; it's real good. But as a newcomer to the Armored Core series, I was still surprised by how quickly and deeply I was hooked by the sheer kinetic thrill of it alone. It's a type of character action I've never experienced and I'm left wanting more even after beating it twice.
This is the first time since Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that I've immediately replayed a game specifically to flex the skill set I've painstakingly built up. To hammer home the difference that practice makes, I was able to beat Armored Core 6 again in half the time – 20 hours for my first clear, 10 hours for my second, and that was with a number of different bosses and missions. I liked Armored Core 6 a lot the first time through and loved it the second.
