Unsurprisingly, with my unfamiliarity with the series really, the target lock problem seems to be mostly a PC port issue where moving the camera/mouse breaks the target lock. That doesn't really change my criticism, that's still poorly implemented design imo, but does confirm my speculation that it was intentional.
This is a very valid criticism because since day 1 I have been seeing people complaining about this. And, with a mouse, its not easy to press the mouse buttons and not move it.
@@estatodonodisponible On the other hand if you are playing with KBM I see no reason to use the hardlock at all ... granted I dont play PVP maybe its more usefull but since it has an accuracy decrease and with KBM I am very well capable of keeping up with targets I dont really see what hard lock on would be used for.
I wish more games had NG+ similar to this one where you get more content or unique decisions. I know it’s a risk to implement but it’s so rewarding for the player
Just getting in to baldurs and dying to get home while at work. I’m was and am more excited for baldurs but I completely forgot about it for the week ac6 was out before bg3. I have a PlayStation. Honestly getting wombo combo’d from the amazing games releasing recently I’m gonna throw elden ring in there too because that kick started me trying different games. So long cod 2k madden and assassins creed I finally found good games
@@josephjoy2245not op but personally I’d rank them as follows 1. Bg3 2. Ac6 3. Starfield 4. Re4 They’re all 9s and 10s to be fair but that’s how I would rank them
Just a quick correction for 17:40 - the quick boost has no i-frames at all. It will only avoid damage if it takes you out of the danger zone entirely. A tricky thing if you're used to dodging through attacks from Elden Ring!
@@Cricket101382Even if you loved the game it's pretty easy to see how the typical Fromsoft boss design with i-frames removed made people annoyed with the difficulty. The enemy attacks are also less telegraphed in this game, so you get less warning and less time to react. Depending on your build this game can feel much less fair than other Fromsoft titles, but it lets you change your build anytime to make up for that lack of fairness. Not everyone is gonna like that.
Ok but Im fairly certain SOMETHING silly is going on with the hitbox on quickboosts because while I KNOW there are no s on qb, some attacks just genuinely phase through my AC when I dash. My theory is that it temporarily displaces your hitbox farther in the direction of your dash initially when compared to your AC.
@@Cricket101382 A lot of people have forgotten that AC came before the Dark Souls series and it is completely unsurprising when that key fact is brought to light. AC has always had the " you get hit and it is your fault, no take backs" sort of appeal.
@@NivomandasrailI find it pretty easy to tell when I’m in danger. Missiles you can just see coming towards you, cannons and made launchers have a visual and audio cue you can use for timing your dodge, small arms fire is just knowing how to deal with what your enemy is using, and bosses are the classic just watching their movements. There is only one middle that I can’t for the life of me figure out how to dodge, don’t know the name, but it goes slow, heavily tracks, and the trail it leaves behind explodes after a few seconds.
If you want auto-lock to track enemy movements you should NOT move the right analog stick while it’s engaged; the game will assume you want to aim manually and break the auto-lock
pretty sure Mort refuses to play with a pad and only plays mouse keyboard so he probably was constantly losing his lock by moving the mouse around when he shouldnt. There are times to use hard lock so the boss can jump over or under you and you stay locked and firing. A lot of ppl dont understand that, this reviewer included.
With auto lock, once you've locked onto an enemy, it WILL NOT break unless you move the camera. The second you touch the camera, it will break; it will re-acquire a target when you stop moving the camera, if one is available and in-range. When your opponent moves past you, if you touch the camera, you will lose your lock and will not automatically rotate. If you keep your hands off the camera, you'll track with zero issues, every time. This is pain if you play with a mouse. Regarding the inaccuracy of auto lock, you can compensate for this by equipping arms with good Firearms and Recoil stats and an FCS that boosts the range bands of your weapons. As long as you fight within the proper engagement band for your weapons, the accuracy penalty will be relatively minor, especially on large targets like bosses. In general, MTs don't require auto-lock, bosses are much easier to fight when auto-locked, and ACs require a mix of both lock-on and lock-off depending on their abilities.
If you saw the earlier AC entries, you'd see that the challenge was a lot of the time about correctly tracking enemies in your firing rectangle. So yes, enemies moving behind you and making themselves hard to lock onto is very much a feature. Making lock-on track perfectly would perhaps make fast AC builds lose their edge in combat.
As an old AC fan I’m honestly really happy that target assist is suboptimal and that manually tracking is the way to go. In AC you’re not controlling the mech, you’re controlling the pilot. There’s a psychic distance there that the difficulty of keeping track of an enemy is able to sell, and really puts you into the mech fantasy. It might have been more accessible for newcomers if they just gave the ACs the avatar strength of someone like Dante and just turned the series into a character action game, but I’m really glad they threaded that needle well between action and a down and dirty mech sim. Like you said, it preserves that edge and I’m really happy with it.
@@ziggymcdougalIs hard lock really a huge debuff? Maybe because I play a very melee and close ranged build but I usually just hard lock on 1v1s both on PVE and PVP and I still have a great time
@@m.h-ar124la7 In my experience, the hard lock on in this game is actually the game balance tilting kind you wrote about. Even on mouse and keyboard, as long as I don't move my mouse too much, constantly left and right clicking and even using side buttons, no matter how fast or zippy an enemy AC is on pvp the lock on will always return to them at some point. The lock on ain't slow either, its still fast even if they get behind you/under you/above you.
I loved how NG++ was the most fun playthrough. It felt like a completely new story while already being invested from the start and having the lore knowledge to put everything together. Gameplay wise it’s already my goty but the story shouldn’t be underestimated.
One thing I really have to give to Fromsoft is how well the story is told and how effective the more emotional story beats are considering how little time/few lines of dialog we actually have for the characters. Like, there were moments when X or Y happens and it elicited pretty intense reactions from me (and pretty much all of my friends), and that's honestly impressive. Rusty and Carla (as well as Walter and Chatty) are some of my favourite characters in this game, but if you count the amount of lines they have/screentime they get, it's PRETTY minimal, all things considered.
The hard lock does track bosses fine but if you move the camera even a little bit while it is active that will break the lock on. This is more of an issue on KB/M then controller since it is easy to accidently move your mouse which will brake your hard lock.
KB/M is also a lot more forgiving with the soft lock on as you can just swivel so much easier with the mouse. Only bosses that are aerial gave me much of an issue with tracking when they would jump above my head. Otherwise, really easy to keep enemies on screen.
KB/M works pretty good in this game. When using it I don't even use hard lock much, but when I play with controller I flip between soft and hard lock quite often.
target assist lock on never breaks! if it breaks it means you are touching mouse (moving it even a little) / touching camera control stick. doesn’t matter what boss does, camera will catch up
This game, more than any other new release, should remind players that gameplay and fun trump anything else related to modern day gaming. Ive enjoyed all the bigger releases this year, but no other game hits the spot like this one. This takes me back to a simpler time in my life, and i really love it. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this Mort.
I still haven't played through it yet, but i stopped by to say that you are a madman for putting out this review when you said you probably wouldn't do this game. I'll come back to the review after I do my playthrough. 🤘
I also 100% the game and I am glad you gave the game a proper chance. All the point you raised were valid and true. Even after doing 100% I am sure gonna boot this game time to time just for the fun missions and combats. It's a game from heaven for mech nerds like me.
My first Armored Core game too, as well as the first mech game I've played since Mechwarrior 2 (yea I'm old). Love it! I'm fascinated by the story, really like the atmosphere, can't get enough of the gameplay and feel that the focused, narrow approach is really fresh after all the great and not so great open-world live services I've played in the last few years.
This has become one of my favorite games of all time. As someone who is a dad and has ADHD its hard to stick to the same game much less get time to play. I sit down for a bit before bed most nights and sometimes I'll just replay my favorite missions. NG+ is really cool so far as new things are popping up. I adore this game. MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries got me into mechs at an early age and AC6 is keeping the cinders ablaze in my mid 30's. What an amazing game! Now im just hoping for more! DLC or a sequel, ill take all of it!
Hell yeah. Highly customizable giant robots that I get to blow stuff up with, and it's a game that released without any notable bugs? Easy cop. I genuinely want to buy this game at full price just to support the devs on this one. We don't get bug free games on launch hardly at all anymore, especially not higher quality games like this, and as consumers we gotta speak with our wallets.
I'm like you, as this is my first Armored Core game. But also, this is my first Fromsoft game ever. I've been having so much fun, feeling myself get a little better as the game goes on. I'm starting my NG+ run now and I'm so excited. I loved the challenge of every boss, honestly only Balteus gave me trouble early on cause your early builds get outclassed later on. I tried the wombo combo of Laser Lance and Pile Bunker on cel 240 and every boss after and it was super engaging. Plus, the fact I used a Flightstick rebound to keyboard controls was really fun too. My favorite thing by far has been the customization and decals, I feel like the depth you can accomplish is amazing and people have been creating some incredible decals to share with everyone.
Really enjoyed your Review! Probably going to be my Game of the Year with how good the Gameplay is and how much i enjoyed the Story especially after multiple Runs. Theres something i really like about Stories that dont give u everything instantly. Finding Logs, Sketches and other Stuff while piecing together the Story while playing was alot of fun. I hope they are going to do a Expansion like they did with all the other AC Games. Thanks again for checking it out and making a good, comprehensive Review!
"The tutorial comes after the first boss" is the kind of trolling fromsoft has been doing since forever, and I'm kind of surprised that a decade and even a rise to riches hasn't knocked that instinct out of them. I personally love it, but the studio clearly doesn't care that it will turn some players away.
Target lock is only funky like that on mnk. It registers any mouse movement as you trying to select another enemy. If you use a controller and target lock without touching the right stick at all it'll follow enemies perfectly regardless of their move speed. Though it's still not ideal as target lock significantly reduces your accuracy. Also there are no I frames on the quick boost.
if you use controller... hard lock on and then let go of right stick and ive been able to follow and track enemies as they move 180 even in the ibis and ayre fights. the hardlock is really set it and dont touch the camera stick. toom me till near the end to realize that moving the camera while hardlocked breaks the hard lock tracking meaning you have to let the game track for you
@@michaelbentz1548 Hard lock works the same, you need to apply it and make sure to not move the mouse at all afterwards, otherwise the lock breaks. There is one technique where you set hard lock, then hold your mouse upside down so you dont accidentally move it.
Armored Core 6 has been my favorite action game in a long, long time. Probably since the first Devil May Cry on PS2. Maybe Zone of the Enders. I’ve played other Armored Core games, but this one felt more accessible and way more fun. I hope From gives us more Armored Core.
AC6 is, in my opinion, the perfect escalation of difficulty. It slowly cranks up the difficulty over all three playthroughs and never had that spike that so many games have. Yes, there are "filter" bosses but 9/10, they're a build problem not a skill problem. And you don't even realize how much better you've gotten at the game until you start a new playthrough and suddenly you're killing the chopper without getting hit.
Ahh, AC6 - my current game of the year. About the lock-on, using it is not as good as manually targeting and it will give you accuracy penalties, sure with the right arms and fire control systems it's not the largest penalty but it can give you severe accuracy penalties if your mech isn't built to use it (The stat is called Target Tracking). I didn't have issues with losing targets when locked on but I mostly used as light a mech as I could while still retaining reasonable firepower (and a reasonable lock on accuracy). There's also Recoil Control that means something if using rapid fire weapons and Melee Specialization if punching.
Mort regarding the target lock. When you have it on let go of the right stick and you will always stick perfectly on your target. Took me to NG++ to realize 😅. Unsure how it works on m+kb though.
More Armored Core tips for newcomers: - Some missles are classified as "pincers", because they pause / have an arc trayectory before hitting so you can use them for pressure tactics. The idea is that you get in range of your other weapon, trigger the pincers, charge in and slash or shoot as the pincers hit in order for them to track the pressured enemies. I used them for a while and they are definitely viable with practice. - Weapons show their "Ideal" and "Effective" ranges in the extended Stat section: Ideal is minimal chance to ricochet; the further from it you go, the chance to ricochet increases. Ricochet Hits can still be valuable though, while they inflict a minimum amount of damage and stagger they also briefly pause your target's stagger bar from draining. - In the shop, press Square to show a brief video of how a weapon fires. This will show all firing modes on any weapon. Good fast way to get an idea how long something takes to charge or how a missile will fly before you purchase it. You can change the name of your AC on the AC Data screen. By default it is named "Loader 4".
Im so glad you actually leaned into this game and really played it and finished 100% of it. I remember when Mort Was like "I dont like mech games, but it's Fromsoft mech game, So I will give it a try" seeing this 100% review means you were probably pleasantly surprised ...AC6 is one of my fave games of 2023 and that's really saying something because this was a HUGE year for games with some massive titles dropping some of their best work yet
Out of any game I've played this year this one was such a breath of fresh air for me, I had never experienced a mecha game before especially fromthis series, so to finally have an opportunity to play it in my lifetime is amazing, I'm not far in the game right now but I can at least say I made it further then most at the beginning, aka I beat the tutorial boss on my second try when I started to adapt to the control scheme
I love this game. I was looking forward to BG3 for 5 years, and for the most part, it delivered. But AC6 just has me in a vice grip, Ng+ and ++ are excellent
It is the first game where I adjusted the camera speed. Because I had a specific build with expensive ammo and the battle went long, I did have a success that ended with negative credits. So it is possible. One issue is if you respec your arena points and remove something like Pulse armor, any mech you had with pulse armor can no longer be loaded, even to remove pulse armor and correct.
I never lost hardlock against a boss. I heard hardlock is very brittle if you are using a mouse and keyboard, because if you basically touch your mouse, it counts as disabling hardlock since you manually moved you camera.
Yeah it does. It's the same on controller. If you nudge the camera at all it reads it as your trying to lock onto a new target. Which even on controller I didn't really start using it until chapter 3 and at that point it was too late to switch. It does help with tracking for kicking and melee strikes so I turn it on and off for that.
For those having issues with the sea spider, use the quad legs and hover above it for as much of the fight as possible. Makes the fight much more manageable.
I got by it with reverse joint legs, pulse missiles, shotgun and ye olde pulse blade. kiiiinda the same idea as why the tetrapod would work. I just like being fast and dodgy
*Very* different games, haha. But if you're a fan of RPGs at all, especially CRPGs or older entries like Dragon Age: Origins, I'd wager you're gonna love it.
lol I thought you were gonna leave this one, I certainly won't torture myself with that all S challenge😂 Anyway amazing job as always! (PS: I got stuck for a while on that second boss as well)
I’m finally getting to play this game! It is absolutely fun! Sekiro was my favourite but this is so much fun and did not have to break any controllers!
I'd play the hell out of this if it was turn based but I appreciate you giving us a peek nonetheless. Looks cool and I'm a FROM fan so I hope it did well.
@@ELREYULTIMO Thanks buddy. Enjoyed those games, especially the older version. I fire up Battletech every now and again as well to scratch my mech itch. Cheers.
Another thing to mention about lock on is that being fully locked on actually decreases your accuracy. This isnt as big on an issue for close range builds which try to be sub 200m from a target but beyond that the penalty is very heavy
Maybe they should add an option of breaking lock only by pressing the corresponding key, that would allow some camera movement without disabling lock on, the only benefit of breaking lock-on with mouse or RS is to boost away from the enemy when needed
It does this because the game takes moving the stick/mouse input as "I want to target someone else in that direction". It breaks lock with your current target, checks for the next closest target in the direction of your input, and then locks onto them if it finds them. This is unfortunate in 1-on-1 fights where all the input achieves is to break your current lock and look for another lock that isn't there.
Much of the challenge of the old armored core games where the controls, for some reason fromsoft never made use of both analogs sticks until ps3 xbox 360.
I do appreciate you done this review..non biased.. while the whole time it sounds like it's obviously you didn't like the game..but still pointed out the positives.. if that makes sense
its a great game. always been a fan of AC, but i can easily recommend to friends now...Fromsoft needs to learn to do tutorials better, they getting there. (must be their oly weak point). Having played all AC games since the beginning I can assure you ..they come a long way. Better gameplay. better controls. better missions and better story than any previous games. A game dev that actually builds upon their basics thats what fromsoft does, im really excited for their future games..they just keep getting better. Great thing the Devs love brought this franchise back from the past. Mortismal makes the only Reviews i can Trust lately. Hope your channel Hits 1 million subs, you deserve it.
Loved the game. It's not very deep, but the moment to moment is incredibly fun mainly due to the movement, and it has some cinematic set pieces that are incredible. They may seem to be going a more mainstream, user friendly let's say, direction, but Fromsoft's art direction is the best of the best.
Bosses moving fast dont brake the hard lock on, but hard lock on is very easily broken by mouse movement, so to keep target hard locked on bind shooting to keyboard switch to mouse less playstyle vs bosses or hold your mouse in the air to avoid mouse movement which will break lock on
I think Fromsoft intended for the target lock to drop on certain boss moves. Like everything else (except for a few cheese tactics that will probably get nerfed very soon) it is meant as a tool rather than a default thing you do. They even put a disadvantage to your accuracy in place while you are locked on the reinforce this idea. Just a shame that fromsoft doesn't communicate these things at all.
I started this yesterday I despise whoever decided making us fight a boss with the starter AC and whoever thought letting many boss enemies leave the boundaries the player is restricted too was a good idea. I'm thinking about trying a Tetrapod build once I can get some tetrapod legs I like because they seem to be the replacement for the old Hover legs that were my standard equipment in Armored Core 2 subseries Armored Core 3 subseries and Armored Core Nexus subseries Basically each numbered game before 6 had other games tied to it though not always each other and sometimes there were several decade or several century timeskips. The two Armored Core 2 games for example take place six to seven decades after the Armored Core 1 trilogy while Armored Core 3 is a reboot with Silent Line set a few years later then Nexus and Last Raven are in the same timeline but several decades later. 4 is either another reboot or a distant prequel (unlikely but not impossible) while 5 is set centuries later. And 6 is either a new timeline or maybe tied to one of the others very loosely because its the first game to take place beyond the Sol system with the earlier games being set on Earth except for the first game of the Armored Core 2 duology which is set on Mars. Edit: Another annoying thing I've found (I suspected it when I first commented but want to run experiments to test the theory) is apparently\ you have to pay ammunition fees for any ranged weapon now. In the older games you only had to pay if the weapon fired some form of Bullet, Rocket, Missile, or Grenade. So firing energy weapons like Pulse, Laser, and Plasma weapons didn't add to your ammunition costs. One of the reasons I've always favored Energy weapon focused AC builds.
Sir, why the hell the lack of tutorials is it a bad thing? Since we have your in-depth reviews, we already have a good basis to rely on for the understanding of game mechanics that prevents us from having to look for a guide for that with the risk of being spoiled. Thanks a million! By the way, in my case, I'll wait for a promotion on Steam or Xbox 'cause I'm allergic to mechs' stories and games. The only one I played was fun but it was far more of an arcade game at the time of the 1st Armored cores, Zone of the enders.
Bandai and fromsoft studios, 2 great companies. With that in mind if you've played ace combat 7. It's mission, then the menu, then rinse and repeat. So if you like ace combat and you like mechs. I'd call this "Ace Combat but with mechs"
Unsurprisingly, with my unfamiliarity with the series really, the target lock problem seems to be mostly a PC port issue where moving the camera/mouse breaks the target lock. That doesn't really change my criticism, that's still poorly implemented design imo, but does confirm my speculation that it was intentional.
This is a very valid criticism because since day 1 I have been seeing people complaining about this. And, with a mouse, its not easy to press the mouse buttons and not move it.
@@estatodonodisponible maybe an oversight as it's the first game to come out on pc?
@@estatodonodisponible On the other hand if you are playing with KBM I see no reason to use the hardlock at all ... granted I dont play PVP maybe its more usefull but since it has an accuracy decrease and with KBM I am very well capable of keeping up with targets I dont really see what hard lock on would be used for.
Can you tell what boss you were stuck at?
@@chidori0117 Even on KBM, hard lock is the easier way to use the boost kick and most melee weapons.
I wish more games had NG+ similar to this one where you get more content or unique decisions. I know it’s a risk to implement but it’s so rewarding for the player
Hades
Nier: Automata
video game that has ng+ shit in it
(even though that isn't the point the commenter is making)
Nier Automata and Fire Emblem games have this a lot.
@@PvMDiablo not into roguelikes
This game is top tier , i very much enjoyed other games like re4 remake , baldur's gate 3 and starfield but AC6 is my favorite game of the year so far
Same
Just getting in to baldurs and dying to get home while at work. I’m was and am more excited for baldurs but I completely forgot about it for the week ac6 was out before bg3. I have a PlayStation. Honestly getting wombo combo’d from the amazing games releasing recently I’m gonna throw elden ring in there too because that kick started me trying different games. So long cod 2k madden and assassins creed I finally found good games
@@josephjoy2245not op but personally I’d rank them as follows
1. Bg3
2. Ac6
3. Starfield
4. Re4
They’re all 9s and 10s to be fair but that’s how I would rank them
@@josephjoy2245not OP, but:
AC6
BG3
RE4
starfield
that being said both ac and bg are rare masterpieces and much better than the other two
Just a quick correction for 17:40 - the quick boost has no i-frames at all. It will only avoid damage if it takes you out of the danger zone entirely. A tricky thing if you're used to dodging through attacks from Elden Ring!
Yeah the lack of I-frames caused a lot of people to get real salty for a bit for some reason.
@@Cricket101382Even if you loved the game it's pretty easy to see how the typical Fromsoft boss design with i-frames removed made people annoyed with the difficulty. The enemy attacks are also less telegraphed in this game, so you get less warning and less time to react. Depending on your build this game can feel much less fair than other Fromsoft titles, but it lets you change your build anytime to make up for that lack of fairness. Not everyone is gonna like that.
Ok but Im fairly certain SOMETHING silly is going on with the hitbox on quickboosts because while I KNOW there are no s on qb, some attacks just genuinely phase through my AC when I dash. My theory is that it temporarily displaces your hitbox farther in the direction of your dash initially when compared to your AC.
@@Cricket101382 A lot of people have forgotten that AC came before the Dark Souls series and it is completely unsurprising when that key fact is brought to light. AC has always had the " you get hit and it is your fault, no take backs" sort of appeal.
@@NivomandasrailI find it pretty easy to tell when I’m in danger. Missiles you can just see coming towards you, cannons and made launchers have a visual and audio cue you can use for timing your dodge, small arms fire is just knowing how to deal with what your enemy is using, and bosses are the classic just watching their movements. There is only one middle that I can’t for the life of me figure out how to dodge, don’t know the name, but it goes slow, heavily tracks, and the trail it leaves behind explodes after a few seconds.
If you want auto-lock to track enemy movements you should NOT move the right analog stick while it’s engaged; the game will assume you want to aim manually and break the auto-lock
Careful with auto lock, it's more inaccurate than manual.
@@dentheadgaming4400just have to time the shots
pretty sure Mort refuses to play with a pad and only plays mouse keyboard so he probably was constantly losing his lock by moving the mouse around when he shouldnt. There are times to use hard lock so the boss can jump over or under you and you stay locked and firing. A lot of ppl dont understand that, this reviewer included.
With auto lock, once you've locked onto an enemy, it WILL NOT break unless you move the camera. The second you touch the camera, it will break; it will re-acquire a target when you stop moving the camera, if one is available and in-range. When your opponent moves past you, if you touch the camera, you will lose your lock and will not automatically rotate. If you keep your hands off the camera, you'll track with zero issues, every time. This is pain if you play with a mouse.
Regarding the inaccuracy of auto lock, you can compensate for this by equipping arms with good Firearms and Recoil stats and an FCS that boosts the range bands of your weapons. As long as you fight within the proper engagement band for your weapons, the accuracy penalty will be relatively minor, especially on large targets like bosses. In general, MTs don't require auto-lock, bosses are much easier to fight when auto-locked, and ACs require a mix of both lock-on and lock-off depending on their abilities.
@@Lintlikr1 👍🏾
If you saw the earlier AC entries, you'd see that the challenge was a lot of the time about correctly tracking enemies in your firing rectangle. So yes, enemies moving behind you and making themselves hard to lock onto is very much a feature. Making lock-on track perfectly would perhaps make fast AC builds lose their edge in combat.
As an old AC fan I’m honestly really happy that target assist is suboptimal and that manually tracking is the way to go. In AC you’re not controlling the mech, you’re controlling the pilot. There’s a psychic distance there that the difficulty of keeping track of an enemy is able to sell, and really puts you into the mech fantasy. It might have been more accessible for newcomers if they just gave the ACs the avatar strength of someone like Dante and just turned the series into a character action game, but I’m really glad they threaded that needle well between action and a down and dirty mech sim. Like you said, it preserves that edge and I’m really happy with it.
@@ziggymcdougalIs hard lock really a huge debuff? Maybe because I play a very melee and close ranged build but I usually just hard lock on 1v1s both on PVE and PVP and I still have a great time
@@battousaix4263 yeah lock on doesnt really affect close range weapons that much, mid-long range weapons is where you can really notice the difference
People just got filtered by having to manually spin the camera.
@@m.h-ar124la7 In my experience, the hard lock on in this game is actually the game balance tilting kind you wrote about. Even on mouse and keyboard, as long as I don't move my mouse too much, constantly left and right clicking and even using side buttons, no matter how fast or zippy an enemy AC is on pvp the lock on will always return to them at some point. The lock on ain't slow either, its still fast even if they get behind you/under you/above you.
I loved how NG++ was the most fun playthrough. It felt like a completely new story while already being invested from the start and having the lore knowledge to put everything together. Gameplay wise it’s already my goty but the story shouldn’t be underestimated.
One thing I really have to give to Fromsoft is how well the story is told and how effective the more emotional story beats are considering how little time/few lines of dialog we actually have for the characters. Like, there were moments when X or Y happens and it elicited pretty intense reactions from me (and pretty much all of my friends), and that's honestly impressive.
Rusty and Carla (as well as Walter and Chatty) are some of my favourite characters in this game, but if you count the amount of lines they have/screentime they get, it's PRETTY minimal, all things considered.
It's time, I appreciate the grind!
The hard lock does track bosses fine but if you move the camera even a little bit while it is active that will break the lock on. This is more of an issue on KB/M then controller since it is easy to accidently move your mouse which will brake your hard lock.
KB/M is also a lot more forgiving with the soft lock on as you can just swivel so much easier with the mouse. Only bosses that are aerial gave me much of an issue with tracking when they would jump above my head. Otherwise, really easy to keep enemies on screen.
KB/M works pretty good in this game. When using it I don't even use hard lock much, but when I play with controller I flip between soft and hard lock quite often.
target assist lock on never breaks! if it breaks it means you are touching mouse (moving it even a little) / touching camera control stick. doesn’t matter what boss does, camera will catch up
This game, more than any other new release, should remind players that gameplay and fun trump anything else related to modern day gaming. Ive enjoyed all the bigger releases this year, but no other game hits the spot like this one. This takes me back to a simpler time in my life, and i really love it. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this Mort.
This game in a nutshell: :Oooh I wonder what these do!? BABOOOM OH HELL YEA BABY
Glad to see you actually made a full review in the end. It's a great game.
Welcome on board, Raven. There's not that many of of us, tho if AC6 hits 3mil copies, we might see AC7 within 5 years using the same engine.
This is the first game where I actually WANTED to go through NG+/++ due to the changes and the extra unlockables.
Amazing game...
On my 4th playthrough trying to get S-grades for the platinum.
I highly recommend this game
Good luck all da best on Platinum my guy
@@seb2750 thanx my bruv...
30 missions to go 😅
Theres a good guide on steam that can help with the S ranks btw
@@MortismalGaming
Thank you mortim✌🏾
The lock on is is very useful when you specialize in melee build. Toggling them on and off takes a skill too.
I still haven't played through it yet, but i stopped by to say that you are a madman for putting out this review when you said you probably wouldn't do this game. I'll come back to the review after I do my playthrough. 🤘
I also 100% the game and I am glad you gave the game a proper chance. All the point you raised were valid and true. Even after doing 100% I am sure gonna boot this game time to time just for the fun missions and combats. It's a game from heaven for mech nerds like me.
My first Armored Core game too, as well as the first mech game I've played since Mechwarrior 2 (yea I'm old). Love it! I'm fascinated by the story, really like the atmosphere, can't get enough of the gameplay and feel that the focused, narrow approach is really fresh after all the great and not so great open-world live services I've played in the last few years.
This has become one of my favorite games of all time. As someone who is a dad and has ADHD its hard to stick to the same game much less get time to play. I sit down for a bit before bed most nights and sometimes I'll just replay my favorite missions. NG+ is really cool so far as new things are popping up. I adore this game. MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries got me into mechs at an early age and AC6 is keeping the cinders ablaze in my mid 30's. What an amazing game! Now im just hoping for more! DLC or a sequel, ill take all of it!
Dude I'm in a similar situation. What other games do you find keep you attention?
Hell yeah. Highly customizable giant robots that I get to blow stuff up with, and it's a game that released without any notable bugs? Easy cop. I genuinely want to buy this game at full price just to support the devs on this one. We don't get bug free games on launch hardly at all anymore, especially not higher quality games like this, and as consumers we gotta speak with our wallets.
I'm like you, as this is my first Armored Core game. But also, this is my first Fromsoft game ever. I've been having so much fun, feeling myself get a little better as the game goes on. I'm starting my NG+ run now and I'm so excited. I loved the challenge of every boss, honestly only Balteus gave me trouble early on cause your early builds get outclassed later on. I tried the wombo combo of Laser Lance and Pile Bunker on cel 240 and every boss after and it was super engaging. Plus, the fact I used a Flightstick rebound to keyboard controls was really fun too. My favorite thing by far has been the customization and decals, I feel like the depth you can accomplish is amazing and people have been creating some incredible decals to share with everyone.
Really enjoyed your Review! Probably going to be my Game of the Year with how good the Gameplay is and how much i enjoyed the Story especially after multiple Runs. Theres something i really like about Stories that dont give u everything instantly. Finding Logs, Sketches and other Stuff while piecing together the Story while playing was alot of fun. I hope they are going to do a Expansion like they did with all the other AC Games. Thanks again for checking it out and making a good, comprehensive Review!
It's nice seeing another entry in this franchise after so many years. I got started with the OG trilogy on the PSX way back in the day, great stuff.
This is a must play for any fast paced combat fans that dont shy from a challenge!
"The tutorial comes after the first boss" is the kind of trolling fromsoft has been doing since forever, and I'm kind of surprised that a decade and even a rise to riches hasn't knocked that instinct out of them. I personally love it, but the studio clearly doesn't care that it will turn some players away.
Pretty sure there are no s on the quick boost
Agreed, no s on quick boosts
No i-frames indeed!
Nope and I learned the hard way and put on more clothes
Definitely no I frames, but depending on the parts you use, your hitbox will change, can legit narrowly avoid a blade if you position right.
I was really hoping you were gonna do one of these. I love the in-depth nature of your coverage.
Target lock is only funky like that on mnk. It registers any mouse movement as you trying to select another enemy. If you use a controller and target lock without touching the right stick at all it'll follow enemies perfectly regardless of their move speed. Though it's still not ideal as target lock significantly reduces your accuracy. Also there are no I frames on the quick boost.
if you use controller... hard lock on and then let go of right stick and ive been able to follow and track enemies as they move 180 even in the ibis and ayre fights. the hardlock is really set it and dont touch the camera stick. toom me till near the end to realize that moving the camera while hardlocked breaks the hard lock tracking meaning you have to let the game track for you
he seams to be using mouse and keyboard, dont know if hard lock works on mouse as you still need to press the mousebuttons.
It's a really bad design. And it never tells you that you can't touch the stick after setting it.
@@michaelbentz1548 Hard lock works the same, you need to apply it and make sure to not move the mouse at all afterwards, otherwise the lock breaks. There is one technique where you set hard lock, then hold your mouse upside down so you dont accidentally move it.
@@TheMapleleague i saw someone do this in a video and it looks so dumb. really needs to be adjusted for mouse and keyboard
@@TheMapleleague Alternatively, just bind the attack buttons to something else (or something else too) and then yoiu can just not touch your mouse.
Armored Core 6 has been my favorite action game in a long, long time. Probably since the first Devil May Cry on PS2. Maybe Zone of the Enders. I’ve played other Armored Core games, but this one felt more accessible and way more fun.
I hope From gives us more Armored Core.
AC6 is, in my opinion, the perfect escalation of difficulty. It slowly cranks up the difficulty over all three playthroughs and never had that spike that so many games have. Yes, there are "filter" bosses but 9/10, they're a build problem not a skill problem. And you don't even realize how much better you've gotten at the game until you start a new playthrough and suddenly you're killing the chopper without getting hit.
Considering picking this up to break in between my sessions with BG3 :)
Ahh, AC6 - my current game of the year.
About the lock-on, using it is not as good as manually targeting and it will give you accuracy penalties, sure with the right arms and fire control systems it's not the largest penalty but it can give you severe accuracy penalties if your mech isn't built to use it (The stat is called Target Tracking). I didn't have issues with losing targets when locked on but I mostly used as light a mech as I could while still retaining reasonable firepower (and a reasonable lock on accuracy).
There's also Recoil Control that means something if using rapid fire weapons and Melee Specialization if punching.
I really appreciate you taking the time to 100% it before giving your thoughts. Very fair review, subscribed!
Mort regarding the target lock. When you have it on let go of the right stick and you will always stick perfectly on your target. Took me to NG++ to realize 😅.
Unsure how it works on m+kb though.
I love that this game is very inspired by Dune. A very strong GOTY contender for me!
More Armored Core tips for newcomers:
- Some missles are classified as "pincers", because they pause / have an arc trayectory before hitting so you can use them for pressure tactics. The idea is that you get in range of your other weapon, trigger the pincers, charge in and slash or shoot as the pincers hit in order for them to track the pressured enemies. I used them for a while and they are definitely viable with practice.
- Weapons show their "Ideal" and "Effective" ranges in the extended Stat section:
Ideal is minimal chance to ricochet; the further from it you go, the chance to ricochet increases. Ricochet Hits can still be valuable though, while they inflict a minimum amount of damage and stagger they also briefly pause your target's stagger bar from draining.
- In the shop, press Square to show a brief video of how a weapon fires. This will show all firing modes on any weapon. Good fast way to get an idea how long something takes to charge or how a missile will fly before you purchase it.
You can change the name of your AC on the AC Data screen. By default it is named "Loader 4".
bro, I gotta use that line "you either rise to the occasion, or you can't" - it sounds better than "git gud scrub.'
I love Armored Core. Been playing since the PS2 version
I'm impressed you got an S rank on every mission since they don't tend to be clear on what criteria makes an S rank i gave up on trying to 100% it.
There was a great guide on steam that broke it down by mission that helped a lot
such underrated review channel. your thoroughness in games makes you S Tier
Nice, this is my GOTY so far, amazing game
Indeed!
Thanks for this thorough review. It has definitely helped me decide if i wanted to purchase now or wait for sale
Your at 100 percent. Im still at the sea spider…. Got pretty close last night
Im so glad you actually leaned into this game and really played it and finished 100% of it.
I remember when Mort Was like "I dont like mech games, but it's Fromsoft mech game, So I will give it a try"
seeing this 100% review means you were probably pleasantly surprised ...AC6 is one of my fave games of 2023 and that's really saying something because this was a HUGE year for games with some massive titles dropping some of their best work yet
I really love that this game locks multiplayer behind the story. I think thats a dope direction.
I loved this game so much! Got the platinum and then started a new game 😅
I fucking loved AC6. It was brilliant. Adrenaline at 300% . Combat, music, story, I loved everything. My GOTY
Out of any game I've played this year this one was such a breath of fresh air for me, I had never experienced a mecha game before especially fromthis series, so to finally have an opportunity to play it in my lifetime is amazing, I'm not far in the game right now but I can at least say I made it further then most at the beginning, aka I beat the tutorial boss on my second try when I started to adapt to the control scheme
Good review
God I've enjoyed this game, pro tip, making different choices in new game plus is the only way to progress to the new missions
I love this game. I was looking forward to BG3 for 5 years, and for the most part, it delivered. But AC6 just has me in a vice grip, Ng+ and ++ are excellent
2:08 any landing you can walk away from... onward to 300k. All glory to the algorithm.
Best review channel on UA-cam.
It is the first game where I adjusted the camera speed. Because I had a specific build with expensive ammo and the battle went long, I did have a success that ended with negative credits. So it is possible.
One issue is if you respec your arena points and remove something like Pulse armor, any mech you had with pulse armor can no longer be loaded, even to remove pulse armor and correct.
I never lost hardlock against a boss. I heard hardlock is very brittle if you are using a mouse and keyboard, because if you basically touch your mouse, it counts as disabling hardlock since you manually moved you camera.
Yeah it does. It's the same on controller. If you nudge the camera at all it reads it as your trying to lock onto a new target. Which even on controller I didn't really start using it until chapter 3 and at that point it was too late to switch. It does help with tracking for kicking and melee strikes so I turn it on and off for that.
For those having issues with the sea spider, use the quad legs and hover above it for as much of the fight as possible. Makes the fight much more manageable.
Alternatively, bring songbirds and a rocket launcher. It’ll stagger it instantly, and if you have pile bunker it CHUNKS on a full charge
I got by it with reverse joint legs, pulse missiles, shotgun and ye olde pulse blade. kiiiinda the same idea as why the tetrapod would work. I just like being fast and dodgy
@danr154 usually I'm the same, the sea spider was just pissing me off too much lol
Aw yeah I'm really glad this game won you over for the 100% review. Thanks for the awesome review Mortem
Legit my favorite game of 2023 so far. Haven’t played Baulder’s Gate 3 yet tho…
*Very* different games, haha. But if you're a fan of RPGs at all, especially CRPGs or older entries like Dragon Age: Origins, I'd wager you're gonna love it.
@@Taliesin_ Dragon Age Origins was so epic. I can't wait for BG3 on Xbox X
Thanks again for covering this game!
lol I thought you were gonna leave this one, I certainly won't torture myself with that all S challenge😂
Anyway amazing job as always!
(PS: I got stuck for a while on that second boss as well)
Im late to the party but thanks to your review I’ll be purchasing this. Much love and blessings.💪🏾💙
Great review man. NG+2 now and really really enjoying the game
I’m finally getting to play this game! It is absolutely fun! Sekiro was my favourite but this is so much fun and did not have to break any controllers!
Just started playing AC 6, and I'm loving every second 🔥💯
Me logs in to Amor Core thinking my experience will help me.
Forgets I haven't played 10 years, proceeds to get thrashed.
dope game
Thank you for another awesome review!
Great Review!! Thank you very Much 😎
I found increasing the camera speed helped with lock ones.
You could also just not move the camera to make sure you keep hard lock.
Really don't understand how you have the time to 100 all these games but I really enjoy the in depth review
I'd play the hell out of this if it was turn based but I appreciate you giving us a peek nonetheless. Looks cool and I'm a FROM fan so I hope it did well.
You may be interested in the Front Mission series of games. The first one just got a remake not too long ago.
@@ELREYULTIMO Thanks buddy. Enjoyed those games, especially the older version. I fire up Battletech every now and again as well to scratch my mech itch. Cheers.
Another thing to mention about lock on is that being fully locked on actually decreases your accuracy.
This isnt as big on an issue for close range builds which try to be sub 200m from a target but beyond that the penalty is very heavy
FCS stands for Fire Control System which is a actual system used in irl war ships
Maybe they should add an option of breaking lock only by pressing the corresponding key, that would allow some camera movement without disabling lock on, the only benefit of breaking lock-on with mouse or RS is to boost away from the enemy when needed
Great review as always! 👍
The hard lock on does not break UNLESS you move your mouse/joystick first. I noticed this on accident, and it is a very weird mechanic
It does this because the game takes moving the stick/mouse input as "I want to target someone else in that direction". It breaks lock with your current target, checks for the next closest target in the direction of your input, and then locks onto them if it finds them. This is unfortunate in 1-on-1 fights where all the input achieves is to break your current lock and look for another lock that isn't there.
Wrong, it WILL NOT break EVER. Unless you press R3 if on PS4.
Much of the challenge of the old armored core games where the controls, for some reason fromsoft never made use of both analogs sticks until ps3 xbox 360.
I do appreciate you done this review..non biased.. while the whole time it sounds like it's obviously you didn't like the game..but still pointed out the positives.. if that makes sense
I’d be down to watch some Armored Core lore overviews if you make them!
you the man morty
Excellent video
I love this game and it's my first AC title. I hope it won't be the last.
its a great game. always been a fan of AC, but i can easily recommend to friends now...Fromsoft needs to learn to do tutorials better, they getting there. (must be their oly weak point). Having played all AC games since the beginning I can assure you ..they come a long way. Better gameplay. better controls. better missions and better story than any previous games. A game dev that actually builds upon their basics thats what fromsoft does, im really excited for their future games..they just keep getting better. Great thing the Devs love brought this franchise back from the past. Mortismal makes the only Reviews i can Trust lately. Hope your channel Hits 1 million subs, you deserve it.
"Nice Review, Buddy"
- V.IV Rusty
Finally a game that feels like a game
Loved the game. It's not very deep, but the moment to moment is incredibly fun mainly due to the movement, and it has some cinematic set pieces that are incredible. They may seem to be going a more mainstream, user friendly let's say, direction, but Fromsoft's art direction is the best of the best.
I get what youre saying, for sure but... this game can be incredibly deep. Its a hell of a lot deeper than any souls game mechanically
@@irockmajorly I'm comparing it more to Battletech etc than souls games. But maybe I shouldn't.
Perfect review.
Bosses moving fast dont brake the hard lock on, but hard lock on is very easily broken by mouse movement, so to keep target hard locked on bind shooting to keyboard switch to mouse less playstyle vs bosses or hold your mouse in the air to avoid mouse movement which will break lock on
it does break the hard lock which can be finnicky in the testing arena it breaks at 450m but at bosses it breaks at 600-700m
I think Fromsoft intended for the target lock to drop on certain boss moves.
Like everything else (except for a few cheese tactics that will probably get nerfed very soon) it is meant as a tool rather than a default thing you do.
They even put a disadvantage to your accuracy in place while you are locked on the reinforce this idea. Just a shame that fromsoft doesn't communicate these things at all.
Mecha Mecha! Good show sir
Baldur's gate, Armored Core and Starfield what a great year 2023 has been!
I started this yesterday I despise whoever decided making us fight a boss with the starter AC and whoever thought letting many boss enemies leave the boundaries the player is restricted too was a good idea. I'm thinking about trying a Tetrapod build once I can get some tetrapod legs I like because they seem to be the replacement for the old Hover legs that were my standard equipment in Armored Core 2 subseries Armored Core 3 subseries and Armored Core Nexus subseries
Basically each numbered game before 6 had other games tied to it though not always each other and sometimes there were several decade or several century timeskips. The two Armored Core 2 games for example take place six to seven decades after the Armored Core 1 trilogy while Armored Core 3 is a reboot with Silent Line set a few years later then Nexus and Last Raven are in the same timeline but several decades later. 4 is either another reboot or a distant prequel (unlikely but not impossible) while 5 is set centuries later. And 6 is either a new timeline or maybe tied to one of the others very loosely because its the first game to take place beyond the Sol system with the earlier games being set on Earth except for the first game of the Armored Core 2 duology which is set on Mars.
Edit: Another annoying thing I've found (I suspected it when I first commented but want to run experiments to test the theory) is apparently\ you have to pay ammunition fees for any ranged weapon now. In the older games you only had to pay if the weapon fired some form of Bullet, Rocket, Missile, or Grenade. So firing energy weapons like Pulse, Laser, and Plasma weapons didn't add to your ammunition costs. One of the reasons I've always favored Energy weapon focused AC builds.
"FromSoftware's popularity exploded thanks to all their Souls Likes " .... mmmmm
That's how I knew of them.
They’re the souls games, not souls like. Everything else made by everyone else is a souls like
Well, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring are souls like 🤔
Incredible game. Only thing I don’t like is that you have to finish it 3 times for real ending
Brilliant game...music, atmosphere, story......and the final bosses, well, FROMSOFTWARE
Sir, why the hell the lack of tutorials is it a bad thing? Since we have your in-depth reviews, we already have a good basis to rely on for the understanding of game mechanics that prevents us from having to look for a guide for that with the risk of being spoiled. Thanks a million! By the way, in my case, I'll wait for a promotion on Steam or Xbox 'cause I'm allergic to mechs' stories and games. The only one I played was fun but it was far more of an arcade game at the time of the 1st Armored cores, Zone of the enders.
There is whole, training area that covers from basic things to advance and it rewards you with weapons 🔥
Bandai and fromsoft studios, 2 great companies. With that in mind if you've played ace combat 7. It's mission, then the menu, then rinse and repeat. So if you like ace combat and you like mechs. I'd call this "Ace Combat but with mechs"