Tag: Nexon

The threat of ARC’s machines is palpable. It looms over the nook and cranny of Embark Studios’ shooter, whether you’re roaming the corridors of Buried City’s hospital or the abandoned labs of Stella Montis. Combined with the unpredictable social element of the rival players, the magic of ARC Raiders lies within those split-second decisions to fight or forge alliances. Defeating the ARCs is plenty of fun, but there’s absolutely no need for an ARC Raiders PVE mode.

Since ARC Raiders‘ launch last year, the game’s matchmaking is still a point of contention. Recent admissions from Embark Studios clarify that players are purposely matched with those who prefer aggression and PVP skirmishes if they play the game in the same fashion. On the other side of the coin, if you tend to roam around without confrontation, simply to gather loot, you’ll find yourself in friendlier lobbies. This is a good decision. It isn’t necessarily about skill, but about the mentality you choose to brandish on the Rust Belt.

Right now, Stella Montis is the ultimate playground for fighting. It’s a claustrophobic maze of labs, canteens, and industrial areas, all of it dripping with dread. My friends and I often take in free loadouts, ready to get into gunfights, with the hopes of possibly extracting some fantastic loot in the process. That’s ARC Raiders’ gameplay loop at its purest. Within those hallways, Shredders and other cyborg foes wait to burn, blast, and shoot you into smithereens.

Unless you’re wielding exceptional weapons and sporting high-level shields, it turns ARC Raiders into a stealth game. It’s a thrill that most multiplayer games wish they could emulate – and proximity chat is the secret sauce, Embark tells me.

Removing the human element from any ARC Raiders match reduces that tension significantly, in my opinion. In the game’s early days, Embark toyed with the notion of embracing a PVE format. After all, that’s the game we were all shown back at The Game Awards in 2021. Noclips’ excellent documentary series delves into the early iteration of the shooter, showcasing huge wastelands with a central goal to defeat a giant ARC Queen. Players can perform almost superhuman feats with a selection of gadgets, as everyone fights to tear down this gigantic enemy. In theory, yeah, it sounds like a blast, but it’d be a short-lived high.

If every match of ARC Raiders is just blowing up various robots across huge maps, it’ll likely get old very quickly. If I want to experience PVE hijinks, that’s what Helldivers 2, World War Z, or good old Left 4 Dead 2 deliver in spades. Those games are intended to deliver that format. ARC Raiders is not geared up for a solely PVP landscape, having changed drastically in development before release. You can pinpoint this exact moment in a post from executive producer Aleksander Grøndal.

It isn’t like the game is extremely punishing, either. Its hybrid approach to casual and seasoned extraction shooter lovers is why ARC Raiders is such a success – it’s even dethroning Call of Duty. Sure, you’ll get knocked out more times than you can count, but the game always gives you the tools to get back in the fray.

An ARC Raiders FPS mode also doesn’t need to exist, so park that wish as well. A hub in Speranza would be good, though. Rather than branch PVE into a separate playlist, it can evolve and flourish within the game’s current experience. New threats are coming in the 2026 roadmap, and eventually, a fresh map to do battle in, too. The sweat and grit of outlasting the deadliest force on Earth work in ARC Raiders because at the end of the day, it isn’t ARC – it’s you.

“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.