Recent reviews by Renée

As a veteran who's played every (non-handheld) entry in the series: where AC4 and ACV (and For Answer and Verdict Day) took the series' design in fun directions, AC6 feels like a much-welcome return to form.

One major concern I had coming into this was the changes to FCS and targeting. I was worried that the addition of a hard lock-on was going to diminish the importance aspects of your AC's agility, like its turning speed, but there are two factors that saved this for me: First is that your firearm specialization and general agility do significantly contribute to your ability to continue tracking when enemies zip out of frame, or even behind you. Second is that turning off the target assist and centering your targeting manually produces higher weapon accuracy, so there's a high skill ceiling accessible for those willing to toggle the assist mode off when they can.

Another thing that seemed out-of-place for the series was the addition of checkpoints, and the ability to do some re-assembly (from owned parts; you can't shop mid-mission) on mission failure. However, I feel like this freed up the devs to make the boss fights much more brutal, much earlier in the game than we're used to, and that's a change I like. And for those who like playing without checkpoints/re-speccing: that's still a requirement for S-Rank mission completion, so the challenge of finding the right build to get you through the mission and the boss fight itself still exists :)

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Onto the stuff I like:

Graphics/aesthetic is phenomenal; I think this is what FROM always wanted AC games to look like. Environments are varied, even colorful. A treat for the eyes, but without being too visually overwhelming (Balteus aside, maybe, lol).

Variety of weapon types is good, but variety within certain weapon types is a bit lacking. The volume of melee weapon options is pretty cool. A few fun gimmick weapons, too.

As for plot: Armored Core isn't best known for telling good stories, but AC6 feels like easily the strongest narrative the series has given us to date: our handler Walter, and the supporting cast of characters like Carla, Snail, and Michigan are dripping with personality (even if Michigan and the Redguns could like... cool it a bit), and even the corps have enough personality (and plot relevance) that I'm understanding the implications and repercussions of the missions I'm undertaking, and feeling invested in certain outcomes for a change.

High replayability in the form of (spoiled for NG+ content) some alternate mid-mission choices to make after your first completion of the story, as well as some wholly-new missions, and new Arena matches. I'm not into NG++ yet, but I understand there's more to see there, too.

Anyway, I'm done raving. Easily recommended.