With FromSoftware's Armored Core VI still fresh on our minds, the often ignored Mecha genre of games is back in mainstream consciousness. The Armored Core series gives the player control of a highly customizable death machine, set in a universe ruled by a state of constant corporate war, Armored Core is rife with utterly hopeless undertones. The titular "Armored Cores" (or A.C’s for short) are ridiculously fast for their size, often pitted against hordes of smaller enemies (as well as a couple of huge ones) they are scarily efficient, usually wiping out entire small armies in a single mission. When the player isn’t tearing through mobile super bases, their time is spent scrolling through what often feels like an infinite pool of armaments, Shoulder mounted rocket launchers that could level a city block, Blades that radiate enough heat to slice through just about anything. Inhabiting a world in which Mech’s exist gives us a way to see just how much trouble we’d be in, if these things were actually blasting around.
Take Armored Core IV and For Answer; NEXTs for example. Arguably the fastest A.C’s in the series, the NEXT’s barrel through kilometers of crumbling dystopian wastes at shocking speeds, equipped with enormous boosters and the ability to remain airborne nearly constantly (if tuned correctly). Not only are the NEXT’s ridiculously fast, they also range from 9-30 meters in height, and have tools such as primal armor (which can negate fire from colossal machines). With how much money goes into the research and development of weapons each year, the prospect of anything close to an A.C stomping through a real-life battlefield is quite bone-chilling (however far-fetched it may seem). That sentiment is only reinforced by how the Armored Core series presents its content.
Missions are assigned to the player via contracts from the various in-game corporations, each with their own shady ulterior motives (or occasionally blatantly cruel intent), the player is usually briefed in an extremely cold manner, through what can be described as futuristic PowerPoint presentations. The manner in which you are told to cause mass destruction is painfully detached and cold, the player themselves is either a nameless slave, bound to their machine or an eager mercenary, simply trying to make a buck. The sterility of it all is constant, even reflected in the level design of the latter entries in the series, utilizing a color palette of metallic grays, pearlescent whites, and muddy browns.
Armored Core paints a poignant portrait of a world dominated by advanced weapons technology; it warns us of the dangers of corporate greed. We already live in a world where the threat of nuclear warfare is omnipotent, as science and technology continue sprinting towards new horizons, how far are we really? From weapons we don't have a chance against.