Arc Raiders Review, Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

Arc Raiders from developer Embark Studios has bulldozed its way onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere to make a name for itself near the top of a niche yet blossoming genre.

A third-person extraction shooter playable solo or in groups of up to three, Arc Raiders is a PvPvE experience where players drop into a map and attempt to scavenge resources and escape before enemies, real or AI, take them out, risking all of their belongings in the process.   

The extraction shooter genre has been increasingly explored by games since The Division's Dark Zone and, perhaps most notably, by Escape from Tarkov. Bungie has pivoted from Destiny 2 to all-in on the upcoming Marathon, too. 

Arc Raiders, though, has a chance to not just make a splash upon arrival, but carve out some serious staying power, potentially even becoming the Fortnite of its lane. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Largely a multiplayer experience or not, Arc Raiders can be a breathtaking experience visually.

An incredible retro-yet-future design drips from every little thing in the game. Players can take old-school weapons like rifles into fights right alongside Star Trek-like shields for protection. 

There's some notable environmental storytelling going on even in the game's base area, where NPCs reside and players can take a breather. When players travel up to Speranza on the surface, varied environments, impressive draw distances and the expected AAA features like lighting and eye-popping firefight effects pepper the experience. 

It helps that Arc Raiders boasts some impressive sound design, too, from the pops of guns to the downright immersive ambient noise across its many locales. 

At its most basic, Arc Raiders nails down the fundamentals of the extraction shooter formula: Drop into a zone, engage with AI enemies in a diverse landscape while gathering resources and exploring while also risking it all during an altercation with other groups of real players. 

There are different types of Arc machines to fight, from smaller bots to massive tower-like enemies or flying silver monstrosities that are lethal if ignored. 

There's an impressive weight and urgency to it all thanks to the feel of the gunplay and the surrounding systems. Gunplay is punchy and loud, which demands players weigh whether they should risk drawing even more enemies to a location by engaging at all. And precision is a must, since most weapons have limited shots, ammunition and reloading can take a long time.

Players take loadouts into these expeditions, spanning weapons, gadgets, armor and more. There are many different weapon types and a staggering number of gadgets, too, running the gamut of distraction-based stuff like lures to travel things like ziplines. Inventory management is a tall ask: more medical bandages? Or gadgets that block doors in a pinch?

The gameplay loop is fantastic, too. Even if players lose too much loot on a run, the barebones loadout offered up for free is good enough to make do on a few resource-gathering runs. Experimenting is mandatory, in the best way, and some of those runs that start as risk-free efforts turn into some of the game's most memorable moments. 

By far most interesting of all, though, is just how cooperative Arc Raiders can be. Hopping on proximity chat and declaring peace with other Raiders to tackle a massive AI-controlled enemy in the name of survival is an uncanny thing to experience. Granted, it's an extraction shooter, so players have to worry about betrayal once the AI baddie is destroyed, but there's an almost odd camaraderie in the community at launch despite the underlying tension to each run.

It's up to the developers to find ways to keep this cooperative element in the game going over the long run. Others in the genre have started like this and had it quickly developed into PvP only. But Arc Raiders does feel uniquely positioned to make it work, especially if the community keeps embracing it, too. 

Multiplayer and More

There's not an outright campaign mode to Arc Raiders, but there are some important functions in place to scratch that itch for those wanting something similar. 

At its most basic, NPCs in Speranza provide players with quests that narratively make sense to the world. From a video game sense, they're the expected stuff like fetch quests or defeating a total number of enemies, that type of thing. 

Even without a serious campaign backbone, the mentioned worldbuilding found throughout makes it pretty easy to get invested in the whole thing. 

And it certainly helps that Arc Raiders has some surprisingly deep RPG systems as the core of its progression.

First, the expected stuff: There's a gunsmith and gadget shop in the base hub, among other needed locations. These are part of the core gameplay loop and fun to interact with while progressing. Through workshop stations, players can build advanced and upgraded gear and gadgets.

Elsewhere on the RPG-like front, experience points and skill trees in key areas like conditioning and mobility give players control of how their characters develop over time. 

This all keys into the mentioned loadout experience, where players can lean into different playstyles, meaning ranged vs. up close, plus the types of gadgets and just how much medical stuff to juggle. There's a careful consideration needed for weight of the loadout vs. player speed, forcing compromises. 

Raider Decks, a battle pass-like feature, lets players spend currency on cosmetics and otherwise. It seems generous for now, though premium currencies and time-gated and limited availability items are always something to be on the lookout for in live-service games and Arc Raiders is no different.

A Codex helpfully acts as a knowledge base about the game and its world, for those wanting more in the way of information about the backdrop, never mind game mechanics. As a whole, it seems to run well, too, despite some major things happening on screen in a lobby that loops in many players. 

Conclusion

Arc Raiders is the broad-appealing smash hit the extraction shooter genre has hinted at delivering for a long time now. 

Superbly strong in its gameplay and core concepts, the design has left an impressive wiggle room for the blossoming community to come in and encourage an unexpected PvE element to runs that is refreshing and hopefully here to stay. 

Regardless, Arc Raiders has staying power atop its genre in a big way, as the head start provides a foundation wide open for improvements and innovations as the years progress. 

Fun for casual players and the competitive side alike, Arc Raiders feels like the peak of what extraction shooters have to offer and what copycats will look to for inspiration for the foreseeable future.