ARC Raiders review-in-progress — Razed on the Rust Belt

I feel like every time I write about an extraction shooter, it begins with me talking about how the genre still is looking for its big break into the main live-service space. Escape from Tarkov is a great game, but it’s more of a founding member than a hit. What matters is where the casual audience can get in. ARC Raiders is the latest – and certainly most hailed – entry in extraction shooters, and it has a lot of momentum behind it. Now that I’ve had time to explore its crags and crevices in a recent event, does it land as the smash-hit the genre has been looking for? Or fall flat on impact?

ARC Raiders takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where machines rule the surface. Humans have absconded to the underground city of Speranza, and life is good. You know, until you have a need for certain items and whatnot. Thus, raiders are needed to return topside and scavenge, both to help their society stay afloat and maybe get a few upgrades for the next adventure. I have to say, I absolutely love the story being told, but I wish it were more prevalent outside of reading lore and short cutscenes. Perhaps as we progress further into the lifecycle, that will happen, but for now, much is left up to the imagination.

Of course, much of this is by design. ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter, and those tend to be light on narrative. What’s here will be familiar to you if you have played the genre. You’ll set a loadout and mission from a vendor, go into the map, collect items of importance to your task or random stuff to sell or use for upgrades, and hope to God you don’t die along the way. Whether fighting robots of all shapes and sizes or other players, getting home in one piece is always the preference.

Right off the bat, I’ve noticed a lot more systems built into ARC Raider’s initial lobby screen. While many extraction games focus on your inventory, ARC Raiders adds a lot to the upgrade experience. You can craft new weapons, ammo, equipment, medical items, and more, along with improving them at workbenches you’ll assemble from scrap. Maybe you want to customize your character, and you hit up the store for cool cosmetics (these are paid, optional DLC). You could visit a vendor to buy some gear to take on your next run, or get a new mission from one of them. There’s even a skill tree, something that I don’t usually see in a game like this. It contains a lot of upgrades as well, like better stamina or faster mantling speeds. Fusing a few RPG elements into ARC Raiders makes it feel fresh – and hopefully it continues being leaned into.

If you’re a newer player in extraction shooters, I think this design choice lends itself well to you. Everyone knows this is the “soulslike” of shooters, so it’s not easy to get into. ARC Raiders has a lot of small additions, however, that make life simpler in the genre. Scrappy is a rooster – yes, a rooster – that supplies random bits of crafting items after every run. There’s a free loadout option when infilling that gives you a random cluster of gear to take in. Sure, this takes away from your ability to add an augment that will help you in your quest, but that’s kind of the point? You don’t feel the risk nearly as much, which is a boon for anyone looking to begin their foray into extraction shooters. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any risk, but it does mean there are optional mitigations that assist in getting you back into the action, especially if a calculated risk of yours fails.

That said, ARC Raiders is still tough. While the systems are easy to learn, the gameplay loop may be a bit too slow for some, and the exploratory nature of your objectives may be obtuse. It took me almost three hours to find five wires to turn in for a quest, no joke. It’s an extraction shooter through and through, meaning you’re going to have to learn the hard way plenty of times – dying in stupid ways in many of those instances. Eventually, you’ll find your footing, but even as someone familiar with the genre, I found myself in a pickle quite often.

Once you’ve launched to the surface, you’ll find a vibrant and beautiful world awaiting you. ARC Raiders features four different maps upon release, each with a different difficulty level (this is more about the PVE experience than PVP). With this difficulty level also comes tiered zones, where you’ll find tougher enemies, but better loot as well. While there is still a lot of brown to the maps, the aesthetic is fantastic. It’s a believable post-apocalyptic expanse, and each one of these maps has its own vibe that I appreciate. 

Dam Battleground is more of a mixture of spaces, with an overgrown swamp, soggy lakes, and, of course, a broken-down dam. Spaceport is more of a deserted cityscape, lots of structures, and an equal number of tough machines. The Buried City might be my favorite of them all, a sand-covered metropolis that features a lot of dunes. You have to do a lot of exploration there, as you’ll be able to find a window here and there that will lead you into the side of a sand dune to find the building underneath. It’s almost dungeon-crawly, and in the best way.

The Blue Gate is the newest map, and this is a mountainous location that’s more luscious and bright, filled with rocky crags amidst a bevy of flora and fauna. There are plenty of complexes to explore, but this map feels more like a vacation area compared to its contemporaries. Every map has been so enjoyable to play, with a lot of variety. There’s a good flow to these maps, and the ambience of each abandoned locale is serene. Also, each map has a different kind of escape point. This is super dope, with a turbine on one, an elevator on another, a subway train in yet another, and so on. I hope each new map continues this trend.

All of these dystopian spaces also gain new conditions via time of day or weather changes. As with many other extraction or battle royale games, there are markers on the map designating different objectives for you to do throughout your time in the server. ARC Raiders doesn’t always mark everything, so you’ll need to reveal things as you go and pay attention to environmental indicators. What’s cool is that, depending on when you drop in, there could be completely different available quests or events on the map. This gives each map even more life and a reason to make sure you infill correctly if you’re trying to do a specific task. Night raids are also in play, and while they’re high risk, you can also be rewarded handsomely for braving them.

Playing ARC Raiders reminds me a lot of the Star Wars: Battlefront games, especially the recent ones. The weight at which you run, the over-the-shoulder third-person shooting – it all lines up. Given how much most people, including myself, love that series of games, it should be no surprise that the way it’s implemented in ARC Raiders feels really good. It’s fun to play, which isn’t always the case in this genre filled with stiff mechanics and real-world-inspired limitations.

Even so,  ARC Raiders still treads into the extraction side of gameplay, with weight restrictions that hamper your sprinting, finite stamina, and a backpack that only has so much space. Shooting your weapons also becomes an exercise in patience; you only have so much ammo, your initial weapons have smaller magazines, and you don’t want to attract attention with the sound of gunfire. Thankfully, your guns will accurately hit what you aim at, but at least in the beginning, I felt like I was using a peashooter. Upgrading is necessary, so your initial runs will probably be more pacifist in nature, avoiding the fights, scrounging for loot, and then trying desperately to escape.

Where you’ll benefit the most from your kit is in what equipment you bring with you. Medical stuff is important, just like shields. The augment you choose can give you a bigger backpack at the cost of your defensive and tactical ability, or have better shields, but at the cost of backpack space. Your throwables may be the most diverse of any game I’ve seen, with standard smoke and explosive grenades, but also things like rubber ducks for distractions, or even power cells from downed ARCs. It’s nice that you can use a bit of what you find on the fly, something that always needs to be standard in an extraction shooter. Other fantastic gear comes in the form of things like ziplines and grappling hooks, things that make sense in this world, but that are scarce. If you have one, it can completely change the balance of a fight.

Speaking of fights, ARCs are what you’ll be largely battling. These evil machines are really awesome, with an almost 70s space aesthetic to them. The drones can be a pain, the little spider versions will freak you out, and the huge ones aren’t going down if you don’t come in with a kit built to take them out. I’m sure plenty of you have watched videos of the Leapers jumping at raiders, and it’s no joke when you’re the raider in question.

When fighting other players… let’s just say you should try to avoid other players until you’re ready. I’ve already brought up how your initial playtime probably needs to be more about getting in and getting out, and that is certainly the case versus other players. Since you really don’t know what gear they might have, you have to choose to engage based on what you have. If you’re being chased, another good move can be attracting an ARC, which could oddly save you by attacking your foe. Big-brained thinking is going to be key in how you play ARC Raiders – reckless gunplay is going to keep you stuck grabbing free loadouts.

That’s one of the reasons I appreciate the gameplay loop for ARC Raiders. The team has thought through what they’ve put together. Play at your own pace, and slowly peel back the layers of this game. Yes, you’re going to want to invest plenty of time into playing ARC Raiders, because Embark wants you to celebrate your big wins as you go. Just like all of us have when playing Elden Ring and taking out a boss like Malenia, you grow into your victories. Given they are approaching this as a ten-year cycle, you’ve got time to enjoy ARC Raiders and the grind that will accompany it.

Assuming you’re like me and don’t like your progress being wiped, ARC Raiders also won’t delete your hard-earned inventory. Wipes are your choice, in the form of an expedition project you build towards. There are stages you’ll make progress on over the course of eight weeks, and if you’ve committed to one of these, you will experience a wipe. That said, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts with a combination of lasting advantages over the next project run. I’m reminded somewhat of Call of Duty’s “Prestiging”, even if it’s different in delivery. It’s a great choice, and one that again makes this extraction game a good fit for newer players.

After spending some time in the Rust Belt, I can say with certainty that ARC Raiders is a great step for the extraction shooter genre. Beyond the incredible atmosphere of the maps lies in-depth systems to explore. Although simple to pick up, some may find it frustrating along the way. But, if you put in the effort, the mechanics ARC Raiders has available can make for a stellar time topside.

That said there's still a whole lot left to explore in the Rust Belt – I've only played a smidgeon of the content for this live-service extraction shooter. If I had to score it today, based on initial impressions, I'd be at an 80/100. I'd also recommend ARC Raiders to all fans of the genre and gamers interested in starting their extraction shooter journey. ARC Raiders releases October 30th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles. Pre-load it now and get ready to go topside!