ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders, much like The Finals before it, is a game fighting against itself. Embark has proven that they know how to make engaging worlds with satisfying gameplay, and they have that in spades. Where they seem to struggle is designing systems that don't actively push you away from engaging with the mechanics they've created. They did this in The Finals, creating a ton of interesting gameplay choices with its items, weapons, and classes, only to pair them with such aggressive matchmaking that even in unranked modes, you'd be hard-pressed to use anything but the most optimal combinations. In ARC Raiders, they've fallen into a similar design trap. The world is incredible, the gameplay loop is fun, and the ARC themselves are some of the more interesting enemies I've seen in quite some time. Upon release, the game was lauded for having a PvPvE environment where the E part is fun, unlike say Scavs from Tarkov. So what's the issue? To put it plainly, there often isn't much reason to engage with the PvE. Bosses require significant amounts of ammunition, healing, durability, time, and often some of your best gear. But because this is a PvPvE game, you have another option: wait for someone else to start fighting the boss, then kill them and take their weapons and loot, often a better return than just killing the boss in the first place. So why go through a difficult, lengthy boss fight when you can use third-person peeking (yes, in a PvP game) to get the drop on someone who's already half-dead and has spent all of their resources doing the difficult part for you? Once again, Embark has created a gameplay loop in which the game's design actively discourages you from participating in the content they've built. The problem isn't that PvP exists, it's that the incentives make exploiting someone else's engagement with the PvE more attractive than engaging with it yourself. Because you're discouraged from engaging with the exceptional PvE gameplay in favor of the mediocre PvP gameplay (again, third-person peeking), the game ends up being less than the sum of its parts. PvPvE is a balancing act, and it's one that ARC just can't seem to get right. Embark really knows how to make a game at their core. I just hope they eventually stop shooting themselves in the foot before this one dies completely.

game is completely full of cheaters, new steam accounts barely created. full wall hack and aimbot. already deleted the game

From Addictive to Completely Stale – They’ve Ruined What Made ARC Raiders Special This game used to be brilliant. Genuinely addictive. I absolutely loved the mix of PvP and PvE, the challenges, the tension of extracting, building up your gear and never quite knowing what was going to happen when you dropped into a raid. It had something special. Unfortunately, that game feels like it has disappeared. ARC Raiders has gone downhill so badly that I honestly struggle to recommend it anymore. Lobbies feel emptier, matchmaking can take forever, and cheating has become so common that some sessions feel virtually pointless. Whether it’s a lack of enforcement or simply not enough being done, from a player's perspective it feels like Embark has completely lost control of it. Then there’s the gear system. They keep talking about reducing “gear fear”, but instead they’ve gone so far the other way that gear barely means anything anymore. Free kits everywhere, completely mismatched loadouts and very little sense of progression or achievement. At the same time, actually grinding for the materials you need can be painfully slow. It somehow manages to make gear feel both worthless and tedious to obtain. The bigger problem is that the game has completely lost its identity. Embark seems determined to please every possible type of player, and in doing so they’re pleasing nobody. ARC Raiders cannot survive pretending it is some deep PvE experience. It isn't. There isn't enough story, meaningful mission progression or endgame PvE content for that. You aren't working towards some huge conclusion. There isn't a compelling campaign. You're essentially repeating the same loop over and over again. The PvP is what gave that loop its excitement. So where are the clans? Where is the meaningful competitive progression? Where are the systems that give long-term players a reason to keep logging in? Where is the evolving endgame? Instead, we seem to keep getting slightly different versions of the same content. And from what I've heard about the October update, it sounds like more of exactly the same. More content layered onto a fundamentally stale gameplay loop isn't going to fix the problem. One of the most frustrating things is that players have repeatedly asked for a proper PvE option where they could gear up, gather materials and then take that equipment back into the main game. Apparently that couldn't be done — yet a PvE implementation can be considered for the Chinese market. That tells you everything about how disconnected the direction of this game has become from the community that actually supported it. Whoever is ultimately directing ARC Raiders needs to seriously reconsider what this game is supposed to be, because right now it genuinely feels like the people making the big decisions either don't play their own game or simply aren't listening to the people who do. A year ago, I would have recommended ARC Raiders without hesitation. Today? Don't waste your money. There are better games competing for your time, and ARC Raiders currently gives you very little reason to keep coming back. The gameplay loop is stale, cheating destroys far too many matches, progression feels increasingly meaningless and the game has no clear long-term identity. To take something that had this much potential, this much atmosphere and such an addictive core gameplay loop and drop the ball this badly is genuinely impressive. Embark had the magic. Well done for ruining it.