I gingerly step through broken glass, flanked by two world-weary teammates, entering a long-abandoned supermarket to hunker down as rotors whir overhead. We’d already wasted enough precious ammunition fighting a pack of flying ARC drones — the latest from an annihilation wave of killer robots responsible for wiping out most of humanity. As we poke around the burnt-out remains of cash registers and store shelves, a distinctly human voice shouts down a nearby hallway. I check my bullet count, raise my weapon, hold my breath and say a prayer as we prepare for another fight.
These emergent narratives are the bread and butter of ARC Raiders matches, in which squads of up to three players emerge from the underground to scavenge loot — either from the scraps of society or other players. As a so-called extraction shooter, each match requires juggling the risk of safely sneaking around the edge of the map or charging into the center for better loot before you make your escape. Meeting (and often dispatching) interesting people while robots threaten to rain hellfire on all of you makes for an addictive gameplay loop, one that often leaves me craving another match regardless of whether or not I just escaped with my life.
Beginner quests, skill point progression and free loadouts (that don’t risk your precious item hoard) exist so casual players have a way to improve their character without the stinging loss of loot from a failed run, which helps make early matches a little less daunting. But the truly exhilarating “a-ha” moment is when you realize that ARC Raiders has reprogrammed the way you see an in-game world.
Just when the experience is starting to feel too same-y, frequent map modifiers mix up the gameplay loop. If you’re lucky, you’ll log on while fruits ripen and natural resources are abundant on a map, or while a wave of ARC probes land for easy scavenging. Some variables serve to complicate or completely change the game, increasing ARC presence on a map or adding massive robotic raid bosses.
ARC Raiders feels like an extraction shooter to play, but it’s also like a multiplayer roguelike game. You’ll never know who you’ll run into, which ARC robots will block your path or what loot you’ll pick up that could change the course of a match. My early previews gave me the impression that ARC Raiders is at its best when it’s generating these emergent stories, and the full release leans into that full tilt to great effect.
Clankers, all the way down
It’s worth noting that in the full release, Embark Studios’ use of generative AI has become more readily apparent. Just like in its debut release, The Finals, the developer has used a mixture of human voice actors and artificial intelligence to create nonplayable characters and fully voiced cutscenes. While these aren’t a major part of the ARC Raiders experience, the stilted, robotic voices are extremely noticeable.
Some generative AI tools have been used to augment production, developers have said in interviews. Voice actors were paid to come in and give lines that can be tweaked with AI, which is helpful if Embark wants to introduce new items in the game later on, a design developer told PCGamesN.
The concern over the role of generative AI in creating games centers on its potential to replace human-produced work. At a moment in which more than 10% of game developers have been laid off in the past year, it’s more important than ever to be discerning about whether assets are human-made or AI-generated. In this environment — one in which players should protect a strong, experienced labor force that makes their entertainment — I’m more cautious to recommend ARC Raiders.
Become an apex predator or risk becoming prey
A lone raider sits atop a long-abandoned spaceport with a bolt-action rifle, taking pot shots at a straggler who is being harassed by ARC drones hundreds of meters away. A squad of three makes use of heavy rain to flank a team attempting to breach a communications uplink full of valuable scrap. A well-prepared scavenger sees a flashlight bobbing up a winding flight of stairs and pulls the pin on their high-explosive grenade.
Tactical thinking is a far more potent weapon than crackshot aim. ARC Raiders puts a lot of tools in players’ hands: Grappling hooks, ziplines, smoke grenades, makeshift explosives and noisemakers that draw in nearby ARC robots are just a few of the gadgets that help you turn the tide of battle against an opposing player. Rechargeable shields enable players to run and recover. While a longer time-to-kill (meaning players can take more hits than in some similar games) can feel frustrating for ambushers, it does inspire cat-and-mouse pursuits and dramatic revenge arcs.
The most recent build of the game concentrates more shiny weapons and crafting materials than ever in named points of interest around the map, with sparse loot around the edges, luring players toward the center. It seems Embark Studios recognizes that the best stories are told when players rub shoulders early and often in a match, so the developers have turned a few dials to make sure you always need to watch your back while breaking open the best containers in the game.
Whether I’m cutting down my foes or getting my lights punched out by a coordinated squad, every raider’s life is a tale inked in blood. The magic of ARC Raiders is that most matches tell a compelling story — you might make fast friends with a complete stranger or indiscriminately gun down man and machine as a one-man army. Either way, your personal narrative is never boring.
Grimy, cassette futurism vibes done right
While much of ARC Raiders’ appeal hinges on its intense moment-to-moment gameplay, the implementation of hulking robotic AI opponents and a more casual approach to the extraction shooter gameplay loop, it’s the pulpy sci-fi lore and grounded visual trappings that entranced me in the first place.
ARC Raiders developers say the game takes place in the “post-post-apocalypse,” a world where humanity has ultimately survived a near-extinction event. People persist beneath the ground as the natural world overtakes brutalist architecture, urban centers and even space launchpads. The synthesis of greenery and tech is absolutely beautiful, so it’s a shame that the game incentivizes you to turn down your graphical settings to have a better chance of seeing other players through dense foliage.
If the ARC are the endpoint of machine advancement, it totally makes sense for humans in this world to make makeshift guns out of what amounts to PVC pipes, paperclips and chewing gum. But even the ARC feel delightfully retro, a vision of the future that is more HAL 9000 than T-1000 Terminator. These clean, efficient killers are like twisted parodies of an Asimov book cover, built to fulfill specific purposes and aid mankind before they turned on their masters.
Embark Studios has captured lightning in a bottle once again with ARC Raiders. Other extraction shooters have had player-versus-AI elements to contend with in each match, like Escape From Tarkov’s scavengers and rogues and The Cycle: Frontier’s fearsome reptilian foes. None have ever felt quite as deadly, nor as intelligent, as the robots that roam the world of ARC Raiders.
ARC Raiders’ unique spin on the extraction shooter formula, though, is a voluntary wipe system. While other games delete players’ loot hoards on a regular basis, Embark found a way to incentivize the more hard-core players to reset their stash to access special cosmetic rewards, while assuring casual players they won’t ever have to give up their entire inventory. Knowing that I won’t have to lose out on my strongest weapons or the skill points I’ve invested in my character makes ARC Raiders feel more approachable as a game that I can play “long-term,” as opposed to something I’ll only play for a brief stint before blitzing the next big thing.
This system might need balance passes as the game evolves, but it’s a clear signal from Embark Studios that tells casual players that the time and energy they spend on this game will be respected.
This game nails the fundamentals of extraction shooters with its tight gunplay, exciting loot and map designs rife with ambush locations. Its special blend of player-versus-player-versus-freakishly-intelligent-robot gameplay will enrapture extraction-shooter fans and newcomers alike. While losing your loot is always deflating, ARC Raiders has guardrails in place to get a casual gamer back in the action quickly and easily.
Before release, after every press preview, playtest and server slam ended, the only thing I could think of is this: When do I get to play ARC Raiders again? While I can’t speak to the game’s overall staying power in what is a very difficult genre to successfully breach, I also can’t imagine this game is going the way of The Cycle: Frontier anytime soon.
Source: CNET.
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