Game: ARC Raiders
Developer: Embark Studios
Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Genre: #Action #Extraction Shooter #Post-apocalypse

Embark Studios’ long-awaited ARC Raiders finally launched on October 30. After proving their chops with THE FINALS, the team has spent years preparing ARC Raiders—pushing back release dates more than once to shore up polish. Expectations are high.

Since Escape from Tarkov kicked off the craze, extraction shooters have become a mainstream genre—but the recent landscape is murky. Plenty of games aimed to be “the next Tarkov,” yet fans hold the bar high and the verdicts have been ice-cold. It’s also a tough sell for the broader audience: in a genre where death can mean losing everything you brought, the entry barrier is steep.

Even so, many studios still view “extraction” as the next big growth category—and ARC Raiders is one of them. After a pre-launch media preview, one differentiator stood out clearly. It’s “quality.”

▲ All right then—let’s roll.

A video game is a product. And this product has quality.

If I had to summarize ARC Raiders in one phrase, it’s a “high-quality product.” That applies both in-game and around the edges.

A big part of that impression is the stability you feel from booting the game to getting into live gameplay. Compared to other always-online launches, it’s a cut above. Even stacked against single-player/console releases, optimization is excellent. On the PC used for this session (RTX 3080), there was almost no friction—from the load to the lobby (including shader precompilation) to stable framerates once in a match.

What Embark nailed in THE FINALS carries straight into ARC Raiders. The DICE alumni’s know-how again makes every tiny character motion feel weighty. Walk and sprint animations, the smooth yet grounded shift of center-of-mass when changing direction, the slide-and-roll during firefights—every animation is both fluid and detailed.

That attention to detail applies not just to character animation but also to weapons and ARC NPC enemies. Take the Hullcracker, a grenade launcher: watch closely and you’ll see the number of nades in the tube decrease with each shot, then get slotted back in one by one during reload.

In global shooter communities—Call of Duty and beyond—players obsess over reload animations. A quick YouTube search turns up endless compilation videos. Third-person games seldom lavish this much effort on reloads, yet ARC Raiders refuses to let details slip, raising the overall perception of “quality.”

▲ Wide-open vistas with zero eyesores.

▲ A tiny touch: the magazine subtly shifts to the right with each reload.

The ambience that sells the world is equally impressive. The eye-candy vistas are table stakes; what elevates them is sound. The clatter of the rifle on your back, footsteps, the distant mechanized hums of ARC units—nearly every sound beat pulls you deeper in.

Crucially, those beautiful vistas and soundscapes don’t undermine readability or gameplay. In many games, “pretty scene” and “player visibility” end up at odds—same goes for audio. Not here. ARC Raiders preserves striking ambience without making the play experience suffer.

It may sound grandiose, but these are the basics. And without rock-solid fundamentals, you can’t build a game that touts “quality.” Whatever lessons Embark drew from past projects, they clearly “went back to basics.” The result is ARC Raiders, a game that feels “complete” at nearly every turn.

▲ The clang of metal decking, the sudden blare of a car alarm—environmental audio ramps up immersion.

A new standard for an approachable extraction shooter

▲ Tight weight and inventory slot limits mean you can’t overstay your welcome.

Contrary to the genre’s reputation for being punishing and scary, ARC Raiders is surprisingly approachable. Loadout dependent, yes, but inventory space is generally small—structurally, you can’t linger to farm for ages in a single session. The loop is about plotting a quick route, filling your bag, then returning to base to invest in your build.

You don’t need god-tier aim to be the last one standing, either. Play style’s up to you, but the wasteland isn’t exclusively crawling with serial killers waiting to gank you for your stuff.

If you want, you can skirt hot zones, do modest looting, and extract. As your kit improves, you can get bolder. The genre DNA is intact, but the tight inventory limits actually hand players more choice: Do you extract with a full bag, or risk a fight to pry (slightly) better loot out of someone else’s pack?

There’s also a “Free Loadout” for players who find extraction games stressful. Instead of risking your own gear, you can jump in with a basic randomized kit. Combat power is lower and your pack holds less, but no one’s going to shame you for slow-and-steady runs that bring home small hauls safely.

▲ Even those “alarm clock”-looking ARC drones are surprisingly tanky.

Combat in ARC Raiders is technically optional, but the tactile feel is unmistakably Embark’s. Both ARC PvE fights and PvP skirmishes carry their own tension, and the game constantly asks whether you want to take—or avoid—engagements.

ARC types vary in danger, but most aren’t trivial. If you’re only packing light-ammo weapons, running is often the right survival call. Larger ARCs feel exponentially tankier (that’s how it felt in practice).

Common fliers like the Wasp and Hornet go down quickly if a squad focuses them, but solo they can be lethal. If a Rocketeer or Bombardier locks onto you? Until you’ve geared up, you’re outmatched. In plenty of cases, two of us dumped all our ammo and still failed to finish a single Rocketeer. Anything bigger than that? You’ll need teamwork.

ARCs are strong, but not so numerous that they blanket the map. They’re more like a constant pressure cooker—adding tension to looting—then other hostile Raiders layer on top to complete ARC Raiders’ distinctive, nerve-wracking combat loop.

▲ “Wait—why didn’t that explode?”

▲ Because this particular weapon only detonates on ARCs.

Early-game weapons all carry some flaw, so TTK skews fairly long. A hard-hitting sniper that loads one round at a time; an assault rifle that reloads two bullets per cycle; an SMG that can barely scratch an ARC’s armor. No single gun solves every encounter; the balance pushes you to plan.

It also depends on whether your focus is PvE or PvP. Light-ammo guns excel versus other Raiders; heavy-caliber options chew through ARC plating for PvE. Higher-tier weapons tend to mitigate weaknesses or amplify strengths, enabling loadouts tailored to your goals.

Learning unique weapon traits helps, too. The Hullcracker grenade launcher’s rounds only detonate on ARC units; against humans, it’s basically a rubber bullet lobber.

So ARC Raiders’ firefights can be straightforward like other extraction games, yet subtly strategic. You can kite a hovering ARC toward enemies to create an opening, or third-party Raiders locked in a standoff with ARCs. Of course, the reverse happens to you, so the tension rarely lets up.

In the preview, one feature didn’t show its full value but hints at social flexibility: you can use a “Don’t shoot!” interaction toward other players. Sure, walking up friendly in a lawless wasteland is borderline suicidal, but this isn’t a battle royale. Meet a kind-hearted squad and you might team up, down an ARC, grab loot, and head back to Speranza together.

▲ Juggling other Raiders and ARCs—never a dull moment.

▲ Oh, you again?

Clean motivation: why you go topside to pick up, well, everything

▲ Loot like rubber ducks adorn the shelves back home; the right wall looks like a spot for Epic weapons.

ARC Raiders nails the genre’s out-of-raid progression loop. You play as a Raider operating out of Speranza—humanity’s bastion—and you craft most gear and supplies in your own crib. Your companion, Scrappy the Rooster, brings back materials, and you combine those with what you recover topside to upgrade benches. Rinse and repeat to unlock higher-tier equipment—this is the core content.

On the map, distinct “districts” match different stages of growth. In the Industrial District, Medical District, and so on, you’ll find materials keyed to your upgrade needs. Traders in Speranza hand out quests that send you to specific districts, too.

Some materials have “tiers” like weapons and armor. You can break down higher-tier components into lower ones. If inventory pressure is high in the field, optimizing materials this way can be a smart move.

▲ Hey—why are you ditching me?

Beyond the workbench loop, there’s a skill system where you invest points as you level. With three branches—Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival—you can shape a build around your playstyle. Maybe you pry open chests more quietly than others, or sift loot in containers (slightly) faster.

The “Augments” system is equally interesting. Think of augments as chassis frames for your baseline kit: the augment you equip changes your inventory layout. There are augments that fit heavier shields, augments that expand carry capacity for loot, and medic-leaning augments that add dedicated healing slots. It’s a sensible way to define squad roles.

Lastly, “Projects” are ARC Raiders’ spin on season resets. Instead of global timed wipes, the Expedition Project lets you opt-in to a reset. When the Expedition window is open, you trigger it by sending out a caravan—resetting your progression in exchange for long-term gains.

All these systems give you reasons to head into the wasteland—and to brave the gauntlet and make it home.

▲ Speranza needs a mountain of materials…

▲ …and that demand powers the player’s grind (also, Scrappy is adorable).

Proven weight class; long-term content will decide the service runway

▲ The slide looks a bit too slippery, but overall movement feels fantastic.

First impressions of ARC Raiders are crystal clear: a highly polished extraction shooter anyone can jump into.

Third-person perspective, Scrappy the Rooster, and conveniences like no-cooldown Free Loadouts are major differentiators. Unlike other extraction games, you can’t be “seasoned out” by a forced wipe—you can play at your own pace. That lightens the experience and lowers the barrier to entry.

On the flip side, hostile Raiders on the surface and high-tier ARCs keep things from getting too light and preserve the tension. Heavy hitters like the Reaper and Rocketeer demand serious gear to confront, and even regular ARCs can overwhelm you if you chain fights with a Free Loadout. Pop an ARC and you might expose your position to lurking Raiders, so even casual surface jaunts turn serious—a deft balancing act.

It’s also one of the highest-quality releases in recent memory. Animation, audio, visuals, optimization—across the board it impresses globally. Natural animation and realistic AV sell the fantasy of being a Raider topside, and standout optimization opens the door for more players to dive in comfortably.

▲ Bag full, heading home—taking a moment to savor the schadenfreude watching another squad bleed out.

It’s still early days, but ARC Raiders, with its “high quality” and “approachability,” looks ready to claim a spot in the extraction genre’s upper tier. The ancient test footage teased a colossal ARC, and in-game breadcrumbs hint at new maps—there’s plenty left to anticipate. For now, I’m off to Speranza once more.

▲ Well, there are times like this.