ARC Raiders

It’s better for newbies, but still very much an extraction shooter

Every now and again, a shooter comes along that changes the game. Half-Life 2 did it, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare did it, and so did Fortnite. That’s exactly what ARC Raiders does too. It’s that good.

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Arc Raiders combines deep yet accessible mechanics with S-tier sci-fi world-building to deliver the best extraction shooter yet.

Developer and publisher Embark Studios is insistent on calling ARC Raiders an extraction adventure, rather than its more commonly used categorization as an extraction shooter. You do plenty of shooting – the latter is not misconstrued by any means – but the former does hew closer to what ARC Raiders actually is. While you're ostensibly doing the same thing repeatedly, the experience is so varied and unpredictable that ARC Raiders immediately proves itself to be an anecdote machine, a game that is at once awe-inspiring, terrifying, meditative, frustrating, and humanity-affirming.

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ARC Raiders' inherent value lies in its execution of the extraction shooter formula, and it's a roaring success. Even beyond that, however, it's a masterfully crafted shooter that must be experienced.

Arc Raiders is a special game. This first week has led to some of the best moments anyone could ask for with emergent gameplay scenarios, incredible social interactions, and one-of-a-kind dynamics that are impossible in any other video game. It's a feeling reminiscent of the early days of titles like EverQuest, Halo, PUBG, DayZ, or H1Z1; they're singular and beautiful experiments that marked generational shifts in genre popularity. Thanks to Arc Raiders, it feels like we're entering a new era...

Get in, get loot, get out, and don't get shot. Those are the core tenets that extraction shooters live and die by. If the gameplay loop is solid and you can bring along friends for the journey, that's a recipe for success. Embark Studios is no stranger to unique takes on familiar competitive genres, with The Finals having been released nearly two years prior. The team is back with a new spin on the extraction shooter genre, one where antagonistic and automated robots have taken over the landscape, and players can only survive above ground for thirty minutes at a time before an unstoppable thre...

Arc Raiders is a genuinely enjoyable extraction shooter thanks to interesting weapons, beautiful maps, and unpredictable, action-packed PvPvE encounters.

ARC Raiders nails the fundamentals of extraction shooters with its tight gunplay, exciting loot and map designs rife with ambush locations. Its special blend of player-versus-player-versus-freakishly-intelligent-robot gameplay will enrapture extraction-shooter fans and newcomers alike.

We are big fans of co-op games and shooters here at The Outerhaven, but it’s safe to say we’ve never been truly enamored by an extraction shooter. Can ARC Raiders break that trend? Keith and I have been playing it to find out, so let’s talk about our experiences so far in this The Outerhaven review in progress for ARC Raiders.