Arc Raiders

This week was the ARC Raiders server slam. A chance to play the game for free.

Even though I'm not a fan of extraction shooters I thought I'd give it a go. Maybe my tastes have changed. Maybe they have a unique take on the genre, especially as this started life as a PvE looter shooter.

The opening, laying out the history of the world was interesting and I really liked the aesthetics. Making my way through the intro mission was good too. The controls were easy to pick up.

Seeing as everything is lost after this weekend (even if you ended up purchasing) I didn't spend a lot of time in the character customization or vendors. Pulling in my friend, we jumped into a session.

Playing the game

There was only one area available during the weekend, Dam Battlegrounds, which looked really good. The sound design and music added to us being on edge. Listening for ARC (the robot baddies) and other players while we looted. It also seemd really large, with a buildings and verticality. High towers and multi-level sunken basements.

We didn't run into any other players, though we could hear them, dispatched quite a few ARC enemies (facehuggers, argh!) and extracted with full backpacks. Nice.

Our second run didn't go so well. Again we were exploring and ran into another team, who beat us after a quick firefight.

And that's what confirmed that I still don't like extraction shooters. The feeling I got seeing my whole build, albeit basic free gear, was gone along with everything we scavenged, did not make me want to "get back out there"—The exact opposite.

We both quit and played something else.

I think Embark Studios has a really good game on their hands, and hope it does well with a lot of players. But I won't be one of them.