ARC Raiders Final Preview: Ready for Topside
In just one day, players from all around the world will finally get to play Embark Studios’ newest title, ARC Raiders. What started as a free-to-play PvE has now transformed into a paid extraction shooter. Unsurprisingly, that has caused some to be skeptical of the game, but with a few playtests — both closed and public — now behind us, many of those concerns have been put to rest, in what some are considering one of the most exciting extraction shooters released in recent years. As someone who wasn’t a fan of the genre, it’s undoubtedly been the game that made me change my mind about extraction shooters.
With less than 24 hours to go until release, Embark Studios invited us for one last four-hour playtest last week, this time looking at the final (if not, then near) build of the game. There are many questions we still have about it, but I suppose the one on many eager fans’ minds is: Does the game live up to the hype? Well, based on what we played, the answer is a resounding yes.
The Rust Belt Is a Beautiful, and Dangerous Place
Now I want to start this final preview by setting some ground rules for what we played. For those who played through the first wave of techtests, and I suppose even the server slam, this felt more like an extended play session if anything. With it being only 4 hours long, don’t expect many, if any, talks about progression, as we all started at level 1. With limited time to level up, we didn’t get to test the progression as much as in previous tests, so crafting and upgrading stations, the skill tree, etc., in my experience, only amounted to a few levels. So I’m trying to be very careful about talking about that and plan to save it for our full review once we get our hands on the final release. And although it was on the menu, we also didn’t have the opportunity to check out Expedition Progress, or to see it in action.
Like I said, it was more like an extended play session of the original tech tests, having to restart all over again, including the tutorial level. Those who thought the game was light on content because of the recent server slam test, you can rest easy: from what I saw, there’s plenty to work towards that wasn’t present in that test. I’m also saving many of my thoughts for the review, but for those who missed out on the tests and server slam, I wanted to touch on what makes this game so damn fun.
By no means do I consider myself an expert in the extraction shooter genre. In fact, I actively avoid these types of games because I’ve yet to play one that I actually like. Maybe it’s the complication of genre, and how many feel it’s not very “casual friendly.” That’s not to say ARC Raiders is being built as a casual game, because if this press preview is anything to go by, it’s going to have a very high skill ceiling once players figure it out. But even so, as someone who went from not being a fan of the genre to now being excited to play one of its games, there’s a lot about ARC Raiders that makes it very welcoming, if that’s the right word.
Being introduced to the world of ARC Raiders via the game’s onboarding tools is, in my opinion, one of the best I’ve seen in an extraction game. It starts things off with an introduction to the game’s universe with a gorgeous CGI cutscene, and then drops you into a single-player-like instance where you have to get back to the extraction point. A few scripted events play out here, including a massive robot walking in the far distance as a storm begins to roll in, where you eventually get knocked out and your loot is stolen by NPC Raiders. From there, you navigate through a short terrain with a few ARC enemies (machines) before reaching the elevator and watching yet another cutscene to set the mood of the game.
It isn’t a whole lot, but the way it’s handled is pretty effective at setting the stage for the rest of the game. The general gist is that Earth’s surface has become unlivable due to deadly machines called ARC taking over. This forced the remaining survivors underground, where they formed the bunker city of Speranza. All raiders are from here, and ironically, despite going to the surface for the “greater good” of Speranza, the raiders will still fight among one another to the point they’d kill each other for loot. It’s a community, but that doesn’t mean people, especially those who risk their lives, won’t be selfish.
It’s a fun concept, with it building a broader universe as you progress. The cutscenes certainly give it a cinematic vibe, something the gameplay also captures. At its heart, ARC Raiders is a third-person shooter. Despite some wanting it to go first-person, I honestly can’t imagine this game working as such without changing its pacing and going for something entirely different. I would almost compare the flow of combat to something like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. I’m not saying it’s identical, but it definitely has that slower-paced combat that relies heavily on using stealth and cover, as well as your environment to your advantage, rather than jumping into firefights like a twitch shooter. There’s a heavy feel to the game, and I mean that both literally and not. Some may think the gameplay is “sluggish,” which I can agree with, but that fits in with the theme the game is going for. It’s also “heavy” in the sense that you need to always be on your toes and make the right decision. One wrong move can mean life or death in this world.
But there’s more to it than that, as the world, while dangerous, is also very beautiful, with a grandeur that evokes classic sci-fi epics like Star Wars. There’s this sense of mystery and magic in the air that I can’t quite put my finger on, that makes it so captivating, but I think it boils down to the scale and the silence. It’s Earth, but it’s also not, and I find myself oddly wanting to explore and discover more about it. Mix that into the soundscape, which is just an utter mastery of audio design that elevates the atmosphere. It’s a world that is impossible to ignore the moment you step into it. 
Honestly, it’s the perfect setting for a single-player or PvE game, but it wouldn’t have gotten there weren’t for its shift to a more PvP-focused experience. Honestly, I love what Embark Studios has done here. Would I have preferred the PvE setting more? Probably, but while playing the game as it is now—an extraction shooter with a story to tell—I think it benefited from this shift in focus.
I think a lot of extraction games are missing that component where players can focus on the exploration and dangers of a world, and don’t immediately get interrupted by some trigger-happy, shooter-first-and-ask-questions-later player. The PvP is a big component of the game, but with PvE mixed in, it offers a more approachable social aspect than its peers. I would almost wager that as the months pass, more and more matches will see players teaming up to take down massive ARCs that are literally the size of apartments. It, in a lot of ways, reminds me of Helldivers 2. Not in terms of gameplay. That, and it lacks PvP (unless you count friendly fire). I’m talking about the community aspect — that unspoken camaraderie that naturally forms when you’re tossed into chaos with strangers who share the same goal: survive, extract, and maybe grab a few scraps along the way.
Make Your Own Stories
I fully understand the dynamic of the PvP side of things. There’s a lot of tension going topside, never knowing who’s friend or who’s foe. In some instances, we’ve gone full gun blazing as a single bullet wizzes past our face, telling us these players are allies. Another, coming to an understanding that we’re just out here for loot, only for that other team to murk us as we approached an elevator. There was a time during the press preview when I wandered away from my teammates, and while in the loot screen, a full squad rolled up on me. Fortunate for me, they were cool and friendly enough to leave me unscathed as they extracted from the map via a train.
That mix of tension, trust, and treachery is what gives ARC Raiders its personality. I can imagine this being a fun PvE, but I can also see it getting old really fast. Adding PvP to the mix was the right call, and I think it’s where players are going to get the most out of it. Every run in the game could be a story filled with high stakes and rewards, but not one where success is guaranteed. But it’s those stories that will ultimately shine with the playberbase, and having it all told from the player’s perspective adds more to the universe of ARC Raiders.
Now, with this being a very short preview, there is one thing that concerns me, and it’s the matchmaking system. This press event had us going against some of the biggest emerging content creators for the game. I’m talking about people who likely invested hundreds of combined hours in all the tests. Because of the limited player pool (I’d be surprised if there were more than 100 of us), it really showed the skill gap between everyone. I’ll be the first to admit, I suck at this game, like, completely ass. That hasn’t deterred me from enjoying it, but I can see where being thrown into matches against professional players that don’t want to team up can get tiring. I only mention this because you might see some not-so-good previews out there from other outlets, which, to be fair, is understandable. I was hoping things would have been taken a little bit easier, considering how little time we had with this build, and having some of that go to waste with loading and navigating the menus between matches. My fear is that the final experience will eventually become that, a super-sweat-fest for new players who are instantly turned off by that side of the game, while missing out on the other.
Now, for the new content, we did get to try out The Blue Gate map. This map is more of an open wilderness type of map, where, although it has some big structures, they are far apart from one another, and you’ll be traversing across high-elevation terrain and densely populated vegetation. Much of the cover is naturally made from the environment, such as pockets of hills and parts of the Rocky Mountains. There’s a collapsed highway with vehicles scattered around, but this map definitely leaves you a lot more open to confrontations than others. Small shacks and storage units scattered here make scavenging both exciting and nerve-wracking, since visibility works both ways. You can spot enemies from afar, but they can just as easily spot you. Hillsides make for perfect ambush spots or sniper nests, while valleys become death traps if you’re not careful.
The map itself is beautiful, so much so that we risked our chance of survival to get this slow walk going, because why not?
As for the game’s final map, Stella Montis, well, it’s still a mystery to everyone, since we (as in no one in the preview) didn’t get a chance to try it out. We aren’t even sure if it’s a traditional map, persay like the other ones, but that’s a mystery we’ll all find out when the game launches this week.
Before I close this out, I wanted to briefly touch on the performance of the final build we played. Now I am using an RTX 4090 and an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so the build itself is near the top of their list. But even my fellow squadmates who were using much weaker hardware made a note of how smooth ARC Raiders ran. With Unreal Engine 5, I often cap my performance at 60 FPS due to the microstutter that often accompanies it. I have that issue with Embark’s other game, The Finals, but it’s clear they really put in the effort here to ensure a smooth and stable experience. I cranked my framerate to match my 144Hz monitor, and the game ran stupendously smooth. Whatever the tech wizards at Embark are doing, keep doing it, because this is easily one of the most impressive feats for an Unreal Engine 5 I’ve seen. Of course, that can change in the final release, but things are looking really good in terms of performance. I didn’t even need to use any frame-gen (which I dislike) here, and even with the highest settings and at 4K, it was silky smooth. Let’s hope that remains the case when it gets into more players’ hands.
Between this and past playtests, I feel pretty confident that ARC Raiders is well-positioned to change the extraction shooter landscape. That’s a lot of hope on the game, I know, but I really do think that Embark Studios has something really special here. I know, I know, it’s easy to get caught up in the launch hype of things, but considering I went from disliking the genre to now seeing what makes it so special, I think the vision behind this game is already proving to have an impact on many. It feels ready for prime time, and if Embark can deliver on the promise shown so far, we might just be looking at the next big evolution of the extraction shooter genre.
Lots to be excited about this week, and I cannot wait to see not only what the final game ends up being, but also the game’s future.
ARC Raiders officially launches on October 30, 2025, on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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