“Friendly, friendly,” shouts a fellow wanderer, as they cower behind cover. My friends are already negotiating safe passage through ARC Raiders‘ Stella Montis, but my trigger finger has other plans. While the opposite squad’s leader pleads to avoid violence, I’m already eyeing up his teammates, sizing me up in my peripheral vision. Or are they just cautious? Before they can decide, my Ferro sends my message of hostility for me. After weeks of lovely community interactions, am I finally becoming the plight I sought to destroy?
Be it ARC Raiders, Delta Force, Arena Breakout, or Escape From Tarkov, one thing is inevitable: the brutality of PvP is unavoidable. Yet, Embark Studios’ take on the extraction shooter genre continues to operate on a different wavelength entirely. With less of a focus on painstaking progression wipes and an emphasis on forging your own stories, any match of ARC Raiders unfolds unpredictably. I’m seeing players become street cinematographers, war photographers, and even makeshift shop owners.
No one is playing this game the same way, and there’s an incredible amount of beauty to this. Even with all the usual flair of Embark’s polish and understanding of wielding Unreal Engine 5, there’s still some jank in ARC Raiders. It’s charming, though, and part of the woodwork. The movement system doesn’t allow for feats of parkour, but it isn’t stopping me from trying to ride Hornets or stride across rooftops. It reminds me a lot of Elden Ring: Nightreign, with FromSoftware’s similarly goofy systems giving way to some truly memorable moments.
Because everyone is playing ARC Raiders in their own fashion, there’s an ongoing debate that players are negating PVP in favor of harmony. After all, we’re all going Topside to survive against the ARCs, on a collective mission to get resources and go home unharmed. While I enjoy friendly chats and encounters within the Rust Belt, there comes a point where I long for more. The late Tom Sizemore’s character in Michael Mann’s Heat puts it best: “the action is the juice, for me.”
Maps like Spaceport and Buried City are the catalyst for this. Their Night Raid forms unearth meaner, more desperate players without any remorse. This is ARC Raiders at possibly its most human form. With sentient AI overlords ruling the lord, the game often veers into territory not unlike any Terminator movie. You know, the usual ‘are the machines bad, or is it humanity’s fault’ type of existential dread. Because underneath the war to take back the surface, one truth remains: we’re all just greedy, greedy bastards.
Night Raids are often punishing. I don’t even bother with a good loadout most of the time. I take in a freebie, but not for looting. With the equally itchy trigger pulls of my friends alongside me, I don’t just relish the fight; I’m actively looking for it. Instead of calling out into the darkness for a truce on the battlefield, I’m flicking between proximity and private chat on the fly to assess whether you’re about to become a corpse. It’s the first proper taste of seeking out bloodshed, but the release of Stella Montis is where this is coming to a head.
Stella Montis is a haven for rats. I’m talking players wearing that black and yellow deck outfit, sporting level four Venators, and Tactical MK.2 augments to deploy smoke at any sign of shield damage. There are extraction campers training their sights on that precious Metro button to escape. The whole gang of griefers is here to make your life miserable.
Roaming its confined hallways, desolate warehouse spaces, and ill-lit tunnels is an incredible rush. Whereas the other maps hang danger over your head in abandoned and open expanses, Stella Montis is a tight-knit cesspit. There are remnants of society here, with some areas seemingly untouched by the ravaging of ARCs on the surface. Other areas hint at the madness that unfolded when everything went sour, and it’s genuinely haunting.
It’s superb worldbuilding that doesn’t outright say too much, but gives you enough to ponder. Because of this, it’s the perfect battleground for out-and-out fights. No negotiations, no turning back. Taunting foes as you send them packing, playing mind games to gun down teams unexpectedly. It’s the way of the rat. And despite constant knockbacks to the lobby, I kind of love it.
It’s making me become one of them. After swearing against their ways, I don’t fear it anymore. I’m becoming a rat, at least for now anyway. There’s no telling which way my ARC Raiders journey will go next. And that’s the beauty of going Topside.