Killer robots have taken over the world, and now humanity survives underground like a bunch of rats, living off of the scraps brought down by a couple of adventurers with a death wish. At a surface level,ARC Raiderssounds like a blend of the Matrix films and theMetroseries, but with a much more colorful retrofuturistic aura to it.
ARC Raiders was first announced in late 2021 by Embark Studios, the Swedish developer that would later become known forThe Finals. The game has gone through a lot of transformations during its development,starting out as a free-to-play co-op shooter and eventually becoming a paid extraction shooter.
I’ve had my eye on this one since its transformation into an extraction shooter, because although the knee-jerk reaction to such announcements tends to be ‘not another one’, I feel there are very fewextraction shooters that are actually worth playing.
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I was excited to get the chance to play, not just because the game looked cool, but because it would answer a burning question I had: will we actually get another good extraction shooter soon?
The discourse around games in recent years has had a frustrating habit of falling into business model determinism. “This game will flop because it’s free-to-play, since that’ll mean microtransactions galore.” “Actually, this game will flop because it’s paid, since people don’t want to pay for games when there are free-to-play options around.” “Why is everything an extraction shooter? It’ll flop because of it.”
If I were a betting man, I’d sayARC Raiders can be a big hit, but that hinges entirely on whether Embark can properly manage some aspects that are foreign to the gameplay experience.
Immaculate Aesthetics
Let’s get one thing out of the way: ARC Raider is the best extraction shooter I’ve played among the modern wave, but it’s not the only one that stands out because of its visuals. In fact, it seems thathaving a fully original aesthetic is a requirement to enter the genre these days.
Bungie has been working hard onMarathon, which is predicted to launch in September 2025, and it rides hard on futuristic looks. Late last year, Fun Dog Studios came out with The Forever Winter, a game that goes hard in the opposite direction. Sure, it is also futuristic, but in a beautiful grimdark way.
I don’t want to waffle on too long about the visuals of other games, especially sinceRiloe can do it better on YouTube.
I entered this preview wondering how ARC Raiders would hold up against such titans, and was blown away by its performance.Embark also went down the route of futurism, but in the retro flavor that I love oh so dearly.Every little bit of tech depicted in ARC Raiders feels vaguely familiar, but in a way that acts as a bridge to the more alien parts of this dangerous new world.
I hadn’t felt such childlike joy from looking at costumes and little details in a world sincethe videogame adaptation of The Invincible. Go play that if you haven’t, by the way.
In ARC Raiders,the human race is nearly wiped out by robots originating from space. These mechanized menaces come in different shapes and sizes, but they are all ready to give a careless raider a bad time.
Embark put together a world that’s oppressive but exists side-by-side with an aura of hope and adventure—The indomitable human spirit and all that. While humanity bunkers down in the underground city of Speranza, raiders like you go out in search of loot and glory.
The surface of the Rust Belt is littered with the remnants of the future we dreamt of after the end of World War 2, withthat Jetsons air that makes you feel at home.These are the ruins of a fallen civilization, but ARC Raiders lets you have quiet moments to marvel at the world.
Fight For Your Right
ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter, so you should be familiar with its core gameplay loop:enter the world, pick things up, then get back homewithout a hole in your head. Failure to come back means losing your newfound spoils, but also the tools you brought for your raid on the surface.
The game doesn’t force you to kill other raiders, but the city is only paying the one bringing the goods, and in my experience,it didn’t take long for savagery to take over.
The first few trips to the surface were cautious, focused primarily on understanding the map and the flow of the game, deliberately avoiding combat.
After a couple of raids, I started making up excuses.“Even if that guy didn’t see me, if I don’t kill them now, they might get me on the way to extract.”
Of course, ARC Raiders set me straight soon enough. After stalking another raider for a couple of minutes and killing them without being spotted,I gleefully ran over to loot my victim… and got a bullet to the head from a third player in the process.
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Rather than send you packing to the main menu, ARC Raiders knocks you down. you’re able to try to crawl your way to safety that way, but enemies can approach you and put you to sleep so they can loot you.
Your microphone works fine during all of this, which leads to some great conversations trying to negotiate with your would-be killer.Wounded raiders can still extract and keep the goods so long as they make it to one of the elevators into Speranza, and you occasionally find people kind enough to let you crawl in with them since you’re no longer a threat.
Whether you die or extract, ARC Raiders gives you a handy after-action report that helps you rethink your life choices ahead of the next raid.
The aesthetic coherence here is enough to bring a tear to the eye. From the little report map to the vendor menus and the hub afterward, everything in the game keeps you immersed in the world that you’ve just crawled back from.
Mostly Sound Business
Since the announcement around 8 months ago that ARC Raiders would be a paid game, a lot of players have discussed whether this model is preferable overa free-to-play one. Embark plans to sell the game for $39.99.
Based exclusively on my experience with Tech Test 2,I’d recommend this to anyone wanting a game that’s equal parts a dynamic third-person shooter and a work of art.It’s been a long time since I had post-preview depression after trying a game out, and while ARC Raiders isn’t perfect, it is beautifully unique.
Now, not everything about ARC Raiders is an easy sell. Those incredible outfit options I mentioned a while back integrate with the game’s battle pass.You have three different currency types to juggle, which makes me wary. Is this a backdoor for potential monetization?Isn’t the whole point of making the title paid that you can avoid doing this?
The playtest period didn’t last long enough to get a feel for the long-term economy of the game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Embark is still fine-tuning the whole thing.
If you’re wondering, I did buy an outfit with in-game currency. Not because it was pretty, but because it was a nice olive drab that didn’t stand out as much among foliage compared to my default yellow suit. No, I didn’t die any less often because of it.
So far,Embark has kept a tight lid on the release date for ARC Raiders, but the vibes and backroom whispers are pointing toward sooner rather than later.I got to test it on PC, which I’ll forever defend as the optimal platform for any shooter games, but the game is also coming out for PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S.
ARC Raiders has everything it needs to prove that extraction shooters aren’t all repetitiveEscape From Tarkovclones. The only thing that’s left is for Embark to get it out there and make it clear that its long-term business model aligns with what the player base wants.
ARC Raiders Gets Six-Minute Gameplay Reveal Featuring The Extraction Shooter
ARC Raiders gets its gameplay debut and first official bits of info on how the game plays and more.
