Must Know
What’s it? A singleplayer and multiplayer third-person extraction shooter set in a post-apocalyptic Rust Belt-inspired setting.
Launch date October 30, 2025
Anticipate to pay $40 / £30
Developer Embark Studios
Writer Embark Studios
Reviewed on RTX 3070, Core AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer Sure
Steam Deck TBC
Hyperlink Steam
We shouldn’t be standing within the open like this. My pals could also be chill sufficient to get pleasure from rummaging by means of carcasses of rusted arcs and foraging for mushrooms, however Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter, and I do know what occurs in extraction shooters. Nothing is sacred and nowhere is secure.
Lastly, an extraction web site. A secure place? Flawed. It is a prime tenting spot; we’re in additional hazard than we have ever been in. My paranoia is vindicated when two different gamers come operating alongside the ridgeline, strangers able to strip me of all my earthly belongings and name me trash. Ready for warfare, I fireplace off sufficient pictures to take out one in all their shields, after which they only… depart. In the long run, the extraction elevate arrives, we get in, and we’re out. No shot at the back of the pinnacle from somebody mendacity in wait, no duel to the loss of life over the elevate. My amygdala had been working time beyond regulation, but it surely wasn’t till the top of my first tour in Arc Raiders that I realised not all extraction shooters must be like Tarkov.
Arc Raiders’ post-apocalyptic premise is acquainted, however the ’70s/’80s sci-fi fashion it casts it in manages to hit the candy spot of truly being cool to take a look at. The world has gone to hell because of robots and AI, so now all of the people are holed up in small communities underground, with you and different raiders sometimes popping as much as the floor to collect assets, create gear, and improve the crafting stations inside your base. And remarkably, the confluence of proximity chat and the oppressive overworld have successfully inspired gamers to assist one another as typically as they begin blasting.
The sport’s largest achievement is that it manages to make the Arc robots that patrol the floor as a lot of a menace because the human raiders who need to steal your stuff. In contrast to different PvPvE video games the place NPCs principally quantity to a nuisance, the Arcs’ pathfinding is as intelligent as you’d count on from world-ending robots, which spurs robust choices of your individual as you scramble throughout its beautiful, ruined maps.
Escaping Tarkov
As Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter, I went in anticipating one thing simply as worrying as Escape from Tarkov, however Arc Raiders presents a way more informal expertise for gamers (me) who maybe haven’t got the time or power for a steep and oftentimes unforgiving studying curve.
Tarkov appeals to those that have sunk a ton of time into studying its intricacies from fan-made maps omnipresent on second screens, and people who thrive in worrying conditions that always finish with getting shot at the back of the pinnacle by some dude perched who is aware of the place.
Whereas Arc Raiders simply sort of palms you a gun and a few shields, sending you topside to have some enjoyable. You even get a bit of pat on the again with bonus assets out of your ever-resourceful pet cockerel, Scrappy, and XP to work in the direction of ability tree upgrades even if you fail to extract. It is fairly forgiving, which can sound like a downgrade, but it surely’s really such a welcome reprieve for an previous battle-scarred Scav.
Positive, PvP could be a large a part of Arc Raiders, particularly if you’re ready for an extraction level to open, keeping off any aggressive raiders who could need to make one final play to your loot. However maybe because of the third-person perspective, even these tense moments really feel much less gritty and severe, and PvP does not really feel like the point of interest, because the group remains to be attempting to determine if shoot-on-sight is actually the way in which ahead.
Solo play specifically is extra peaceable. I’ve had loads of matches the place I merely do not see anybody, or if I do, I am greeted with a “do not shoot”, and we rigorously move one another like ships within the evening. You’ll be able to thoughts your individual enterprise, go topside, load your bag filled with mid-tier assets, battle Arc robots, after which extract with out seeing one other particular person. At instances the one indication that there are different gamers on the map is the sound of distant gunfire.
Leaping to conclusions
Arc Raiders does so much to calm the inherent teeth-gritting that extraction’s lose-it-all design provokes. It is not simply nice for avoiding abdomen ulcers, but it surely additionally offers me area to really get pleasure from myself. With the strain turned down, I’ve discovered myself partaking in additional fights, exploring each lavatory and desert, and simply usually popping my head over the parapet extra. It isn’t simply in regards to the vacation spot, attending to the extraction level; it is about having a genuinely satisfying journey.
The worry of getting ambushed and shedding all of your stuff hangs within the air, sure, however matches are snappy (you possibly can refill your stock and extract in as little as 5 minutes), motion and manipulating the UI could be very easy, and the maps, regardless of all of the decay, really feel variegated and lovely, avoiding among the copy-paste compound design seen elsewhere within the style.
As an alternative of Tarkov’s brutal kill-or-be-killed PvP cage matches, the point of interest in Arc Raiders is the Arcs—who would’ve guessed? Topside is stuffed with these evil AI robots, a few of that are enormous, can just about one-shot you, and take a hell of plenty of firepower to kill. My squad even needed to staff up with one other random group to take down the towering spider-like Queen Arc.
However I prefer it that manner. Some gamers have known as for the robots to get nerfed, however they’re incorrect. Having highly effective PvE enemies scattered across the map not solely encourages strangers to work collectively to take the beasts down, but it surely additionally presents an important problem for gamers to work in the direction of overcoming; in any other case, why are we levelling up our weapons and amassing extra assets?
Other than these monoliths, most Arcs are comparatively small, however not precisely innocent. Completely different variations pose new threats to raiders, that means you possibly can’t rely any of them out. The variety of instances I have been caught off-guard by a sneaky Pop or Fireball leaping at me and exploding in my face, depleting me of virtually all my defend, is sort of frankly embarrassing. However navigating all of those PvE threats is what saves the motion in Arc Raiders from being too uninteresting and the maps from being too empty.
Going topside
I actually cannot overstate how key a job the maps play in pulling me again to the floor for run after run of opening desk drawers and rusty automotive trunks for steel scraps. Dam Battlegrounds was my first style of Arc Raiders, and boy was I blown away by the size and sweetness. Rolling inexperienced hills peppered with derelict buildings; it is oddly nice to see an apocalyptic world that’s nonetheless good to take a look at. This map can be large enough for it to look as if there’s at all times extra to see and scavenge, whereas additionally being sufficiently small so that each menace appears too shut for consolation.
I am joyful to say that the uneasy vibe carries over into the opposite maps: Spaceport, Buried Metropolis, and Blue Gate. Buried Metropolis gives essentially the most distinctive expertise, as I spent most of my time leaping throughout the roofs of deserted homes, avoiding all of the Arcs lurking on the bottom, as an alternative of dashing by means of open fields, which take up many of the area in Dam Battlegrounds and Blue Gate.
A part of what makes the maps so cool is the artwork course in Arc Raiders confidently pulling off space-age retro, with brilliant colors and funky sci-fi fits that seem like they jumped straight out of a pulp comedian. Tonally, the entire sport follows this lead of being vibrant, enjoyable, and in your face in a reasonably charming manner, expressing it by means of the gun designs and the quirky enjoyable gear you possibly can craft. You too can put little hats on Scrappy—absolute cinema.
Go well with up
There’s a lot gear to be discovered and crafted, and Arc Raiders’ cobbled-together vibe is strictly what the magpie that lives inside my head needs. Rummaging round for rusted instruments (surprisingly worthwhile) or toasters (wanted to improve a workbench) shouldn’t be this enjoyable, however it’s. The randomly distributed loot compartments mitigate the tedium of combing the identical map. With all of the trinkets you choose up, you can also make useful gear like sound grenades, grappling hooks, and a photoelectric cloak that may disguise you from Arc enemies—this one actually turns out to be useful.
However in the event you’re like me and are frightened of shedding all of the cool gear you’ve got simply scrounged, all you actually need to carry with you is a free loadout. That is one other type characteristic from Embark which means gamers can take much more of the stress out of shedding their haul on loss of life by enjoying with gear that did not price them something. It is a good strategy to make Arc Raiders extra accessible for everybody, regardless of how a lot extraction shooter expertise you’ve got.
The perfect weapons in Arc Raiders are unsurprisingly the rarest, and naturally lured me away from the free loadout as I progressed. My standouts thus far have been the Hullcracker, a gun that launches projectiles which is able to explode on influence with an Arc, the Bobcat, a fully-automatic SMG that’ll fairly actually soften the competitors away, and the Arpeggio, a three-round burst assault rifle that does nice harm contemplating how low cost it’s to craft.
With weapons like these in your stock fights can get much more chaotic, in the most effective sense. Controversially, I like the sluggish therapeutic and recharging defend; it offers me the opening I have to push groups and ensure kills.
It is now change into second nature to hurry an enemy as quickly as I hear ‘defend damaged’ from any of my pals. Oftentimes I am operating right into a close-quarters battle with not plenty of well being, however the threat is as excessive because the pay-off. Being coordinated and aggressive places you forward of 80% of the squads you will encounter in Arc Raiders, however even then, you are enjoying on a knife’s edge. That is the sort of strain and the correct amount of adrenaline I need in extraction shooters, and an enormous purpose why the fights in Arc Raiders reach being thrilling and never irritating.
To date, the matchmaking has labored effectively sufficient, separating squads and solos. However I am nonetheless a bit of apprehensive of how the ability hole could widen between informal and extra severe gamers over time as high-level gear turns into prevalent. One second stands out after I fought somebody sporting a heavy defend. Armed with a easy single-shot, slow-loading Ferro rifle, I felt like I used to be throwing grapes at a rock. I did not stand a lot of an opportunity, and the participant in query did not hesitate to inform me that earlier than knocking me out.
That being mentioned, I am having far more enjoyable with Arc Raiders than I anticipated. It is a dwell service sport, so what works now could effectively not work in even just a few months, however I will make myself dizzy attempting to foretell the longer term. So I will put the unhealthy ideas of gamers turning Arc Raiders right into a sweatfest to the again of my thoughts. For now, I am joyful having fun with Arc Raiders for what it’s, and what works: the artwork design, the maps, and the weapons (more often than not).
