I was able to play an early build of Arc Raiders, and it does a surprisingly good job at scratching two gamer itches at once. Why are we all so itchy?

What really stood out is how both multiplayer combat fiends and solo lone-wolf tactical players can succeed and coexist on the same map. That balance isn’t easy to pull off, but Arc Raiders makes it feel natural. Here is our analysis and arc raiders review for game.

What Kind of Game Is Arc Raiders?

Arc Raiders is a PvPvE extraction shooter. If you’ve never played one of these before, here’s the shortest explanation I can think of. You drop into an active, ongoing map, open containers looking for cookies, and then try to extract with as many cookies as your consistently-too-small inventory can hold. Those cookies help advance your home base progression.

Unless you get sniped halfway through that process.
Then you drop all your cookies instead.

Jeff Taco 24/7 probably picked up all your stuff.

That’s the basic idea.

What This Arc Raiders Review Covers

After getting hands-on time, I wanted to dig deeper into:

• Gunplay and time to kill
  
• Movement and parkour
  
• PvE enemies
  
• Map design and verticality
  
• Audio design
  
• Character progression and crafting
  
• General gameplay tips I picked up during my session
  

Gunplay and Time to Kill

Outdoor skirmishes usually came down to tactics, flanking, and raw aim rather than just having better gear. Gear matters, sure, but it doesn’t carry you outright.

Indoor fights are a different story. They’re messy, chaotic, and close-range. Tankiness and equipment power weigh in more here, though smart positioning and good aim can still turn fights around.

When you down a player in Arc Raiders, they automatically fire a red flare into the air. That’s a massive signal to everyone nearby that something went down. Indoors, flares often hit the ceiling, which slightly reduces the risk of attracting third parties unless they hear the gunfire.

Time to kill mostly depends on energy shields. No shield, or no charges left, and you go down fast. There are clear audio cues that let you know whether you’re hitting shields or breaking them.

Overall, the time to kill feels medium for the genre. You have just enough time to react and reposition, but it’s not spongy. Shooting first doesn’t automatically decide the fight.

Movement and Parkour

Movement options include crouching, sliding, dodging, jumping, and climbing. There’s no prone.

You have a dedicated omnidirectional dodge button, with the longest roll going forward and shorter ones to the sides or back. Sprinting into a crouch lets you slide, and you can slide in one direction while aiming and shooting in another without losing momentum.

Sliding down slopes is built into every map. After a few matches, you start seeing the entire world as a slide opportunity, just like when you were five. That’s also what I sounded like when I was five.

There’s a light parkour system as well. Most of the world is scalable if you find a ledge or edge to grab.

Overall, movement feels responsive but weighted. You’re fast, but still grounded in the environment.

PvE Enemies: The Ark Threat

The Ark are the AI enemy faction, and they’re a constant threat. They come in many forms, from tiny roller bots and spider ticks to flying drones, crawler robots, and massive giga crawlers.

The devs actually recommend multiple squads teaming up to take the biggest ones down. One of them was guarding a special building that could spawn rare loot. We failed spectacularly before getting any of it.

Flying drones were the most common enemy. They constantly try to spot you and burn through ammo fast. Avoiding them is often the smarter play.

Some enemies, like the Bastion, have weak points. Its yellow knee joints can be shot off individually. Even after breaking its legs, it’ll still try to melt you. I definitely thought it was dead before it actually was.

Map Design and Verticality

Each map puts a heavy emphasis on verticality. You’ll be scaling giant Ark corpses, perching on barrier walls, choosing rooftops over streets, or pushing to the highest points to observe everything happening below.

The draw distance is impressive. I could even see Arc bots moving around at the far edges of the map.

Players can also modify the map. You can set up ziplines to reach higher ground or cross gaps, assemble metal shield walls for cover, and block doors to control access points.

Maps are full of micro-threats like alarmed vehicles, cameras, and automated turrets, which add light stealth elements. Birds will scatter when players move nearby, giving a subtle visual cue of enemy movement.

Time of Day and Weather Effects

Time of day and weather actively change how matches play. Evening sunbeams can obscure vision in one direction while leaving the opposite side clear. Fog and storms reduce visibility and push fights closer.

Night raids change everything. Once it gets dark and you turn off your flashlight, playstyles shift completely.

Beginner Tips From My Session

Inventory space is critical early on. Building the equipment workbench should be a priority so you can craft raider augments. These function like backpacks, giving you more space, safe pockets, and the ability to equip higher-rank energy shields.

You can recycle items during a match or back at base. Sometimes recycling actually increases material stacks more than leaving items behind, especially if your inventory is full.

If your stash fills up, there’s a small plus icon in the top-left to expand it. I missed that for a while. Coins for upgrades can be earned by selling items instead of recycling them. Valuables usually sell for a lot.

Going unarmed lets you move faster, which is useful for repositioning, escaping, or flanking.

Starter weapons like the Rattler struggle with magazine size, but upgrading it directly increases capacity. That alone can make fights more manageable early on.

Yellow map zones offer decent loot and player activity. Red zones have the best loot but attract the most players and Ark enemies.

Wolf Pack grenades are extremely effective against Ark enemies. Save them.

Arc power cells can act as partial shield rechargers if you run out. Carryable boxes can be delivered to nearby field depots for special loot, which are marked on the map.

Audio Design

The audio design was immediately impressive. You can clearly hear enemy movement above or below you, including the exact sounds of containers being opened.

Outdoors, footsteps change based on terrain like sand, rock, or foliage. With good headphones, spatial awareness feels incredibly strong here.

Progression, Crafting, and Base Systems

Back at your home base, there’s light character customization with detailed skins and toggleable elements. Completing quests and leveling up unlocks persistent skill tree bonuses.

Traders let you buy gear with in-game coins and accept quests. The workshop is the core base system, allowing you to craft gear from the materials you collect.

And then there’s Scrappy, the rooster mascot, who can be upgraded to bring back materials between matches. Instant favorite.

Final Thoughts

That about covers what to expect from Arc Raiders. This Arc Raiders review left me feeling like Embark Studios has another win after launching The Finals in 2023, which I also loved.

The game feels low-jank, smooth, runs at high frame rates, and looks great.

This isn’t sponsored. I wish. There’s a live tech test available, and Embark genuinely listens to feedback, so it’s worth being vocal while the game is still in development.

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