Arc Raiders Review – Pure multiplayer fun | games

ARC Raiders is a shooter from Embark Studios – so, it’s a game where you spread out in a map full of other players and do as much shooting and looting as possible before escaping. This is my first real experience in this genre, and it’s excellent. It features smooth and only occasionally exhausting combat, properly brain-scratching sound design and truly terrifying robotic enemies. It satisfies my constant need to sift through my inventory and the gun in every drawer.

But I have to keep my head on a swivel: Arc Raider’s player-versus-player element means I could be jumped for my precious cargo by a nefarious rival at any moment. Also, knowing that this game was created with the help of innovative AI voice acting makes me a little ashamed of how much I enjoyed it. I play each game shyly, looking over my shoulder (and my character) in case someone in the game takes away my desired scheme, or someone in real life breaks down my door and calls me a hypocrite.

Avoiding artificial intelligence in everyday life has become more difficult than ever. Arc Raiders has become my guilty pleasure. In it you play a raider in post-apocalyptic Italy, living underground but regularly heading upstairs to scavenge supplies, after a massive environmental event destroys human civilization and strange autonomous robots emerge shortly thereafter to roam the torn landscape. ARCs can fly overhead, roll across the ground, or jump extraordinary distances on four mechanical legs. Each is uniquely deadly.

You’re woefully inadequate in battle against most Arc Raiders enemies, meaning you’ll need to run to avoid them, throw noisemakers to distract them, or attack as a team, either with the squad you’ve deployed alongside or other players you convince to join you via chat. All of this is in service of the game’s only true god: loot, which you need to do everything from repairing your weapons to crafting medical supplies to training your pet rooster so he can fetch items for you on the surface. You can only keep what you successfully escaped with, so if you die mid-match or fail to make it to the elevator or subway car before time runs out, it’s all over.

Although my first few runs in Arc Raiders were extremely difficult and punishing (in my third game, I stumbled upon several pieces of rare loot and then was mercilessly killed by an all-red-clad squad), Embark ensured that you could make rapid progress. You can upgrade your attacker’s ability, stamina, and stealth ability each time you level up, and you can gain experience by successfully playing rounds and mining. You can recycle items into crafting materials to upgrade your weapons and armor, or sell trinkets to merchants for extra money that will help you purchase better equipment. Even after a bad round, you still get through somewhere.

After every successful extraction, I want to come back for more. I want more close calls, occasional explosions, and terrifying races through ruined cities. I want to hurl more expletives over chat so other teams know I’m in the thick of it, walk past another player blasting Vanessa Carlton a thousand miles through their microphone, and guide six other people to an elevator shaft before I press the button to close the door at the last second.

Arc Raiders isn’t just a fun game. It’s a direct dose of serotonin.