We’ve all seen countless iterations of the apocalypse across various forms of media. It’s usually grim, gray, and involves a lot of shuffling undead. But then there’s Arc Raiders, a game that looks at the impending end of the world and paints the whole affair in vibrant, sun-drenched neon. This isn’t the slow, miserable decline we’ve seen time and time again; this is a spectacular, chaotic, and often hilarious fight against mechanical oblivion, delivered with the all the swagger of a Saturday morning cartoon.
Embark Studios, the talent behind The Finals, clearly didn’t set out to reinvent the extraction shooter, but rather to refine it, polish it, and ultimately develop a more approachable experience for a genre generally not known for warm welcomes. Specifically, Arc Raiders is a third-person, extraction shooter with PvPvE elements, but that elevator pitch doesn’t capture the sheer joy of frantically working with random raiders to topple a mighty spider-like robot while trigger-happy drones buzz around everyone’s heads—and all the while the tension is palpable as each person in this uneasy alliance hopes no one rescinds their cease fire agreement in favor of betrayal-borne loot. It’s equal parts survival and social experiment.
The first thing that hits you about Arc Raiders is the aesthetic. Simply put, it’s captivating. While many apocalyptic sci-fi shooters default to the dull palette of industrial grime and brown barren landscapes, Arc Raiders opts for retrofuturism, evoking the best of 80’s era designs. The setting is post-apocalyptic Earth, but it’s an Earth currently being harvested by menacing, relentless machines of the Arc. The surface world itself is a sprawling mashup of ruined architecture reclaimed by nature and the continuous metallic creep. The art direction is not just the high-fidelity synonymous with AAA games; it’s stylish. Every explosion pops with satisfying, physical weight, and the character designs—the raiders—are striking and pop against the deadly backdrops. These player characters are a scrappy bunch, appearing less elite military force and more highly motivated dumpster divers with access to military-grade toys.
This visual flair spanning all four launch maps is backed up by a soundscape that knows exactly when to be booming and when to be quiet. When you’re creeping through abandoned structures, the silence is tense, only broken by the rhythmic bass of distant shots or a thunderous approach of rapid footsteps. But when the Arc mechs or hostile players turn their attention to you, the score kicks in with a driving, synthesizer-heavy beat that makes you feel like the star of your own B-movie action flick. The tone is set perfectly: the stakes are high, but the mission is still a party.
Organized Chaos
At its heart, Arc Raiders succeeds because of the satisfying and relentless nature of its core loop. You and your squad drop onto the map, often seeking to secure a resource, activate an antenna, or reduce the local robot population. You spend the early minutes scavenging—tossing equipment, weapons, and upgrade schematics into your backpacks. This is where the game’s playful edge truly shines. Unlike other games where resource management is a grim, tedious exercise, here it feels like raiding a high-tech garage sale. You find weapons that feel less like standard-issue ordnance and more like someone jury-rigged junk parts to fire plasma, and every single one of them feels distinct. The paintball gun-esque Kettle is a semiautomatic rifle that with a low armor penetration that makes it ideal for raiders over Arc opposition; the Ferro is a high power rifle that dominates in the damage department, but requires reloading after every shot; and the Hullcracker grenade launcher that only detonates on contact with an Arc.
The moment-to-moment combat transitions from scouting missions to full-blown, desperate survival scenarios with zero notice. The Arc patrols are everywhere. They are not merely bullet sponges; they are mini puzzles wrapped in lethal chrome. You’ve got your basic grunts, like the Wasp, the kind that swarm you and exist purely to make you feel momentarily powerful. But then you run into the heavies, like the Leaper and Bastion, that are never too far away from disrupting a run and wiping out the current inventory contents. These encounters are augmented by dynamic events, such as the appearance of the Queen-guarded Harvester or an electromagnetic storm. One minute you’re calmly pilfering through cabinet drawers and the next the environment shifts, demanding your immediate, undivided, and panicked attention.
The flavor of these dynamic events is also dictated by the other raiders, who may choose to cooperate with other players in service of felling raid-like colossal mechs or absolutely dominate them for whatever’s lining their pockets. I’ve personally found that there’s a stark difference in solo and trio queues, with the former being among the friendliest encounters of any game in recent memory. The latter was steeped in far more raider blood than Arc metal.
What gives the combat longevity is the damage model. Instead of just chipping away at a health bar, you actively dismantle the Arc. Blow off a leg, and the enemy limps. Shatter an armored plate, and you reveal a delicate circuit board underneath. Knock out a weapon system, and a previously unstoppable turret becomes a harmless, confused hunk of metal. This isn’t just visually satisfying; it’s tactically crucial, demanding dynamic target prioritization from the entire squad. The best moments in Arc Raiders aren’t about killing a robot—they’re about strategically rendering it a harmless scrap heap.
Price of Progress
No live service title is complete without a progression system, and Arc Raiders delivers a fairly robust one. As you complete missions and successfully extract, you bring back raw resources and schematics. These allow you to permanently unlock upgrades, from better armor plating to entirely new and ridiculous weaponry. There is also a three-way branching skill tree, brimming with raider improvements. Admittedly, some of these upgrades are minuscule stat boosts rather than transformative additions that open new playstyles.
This is where the game sometimes bumps against its own playful energy. The grind, while manageable, is still present. To get that truly game-changing piece of kit, you’ll need to run certain missions repeatedly. However, the variable nature of the enemy drops and the procedural mission modifiers usually keep the repetition from feeling too stale. There’s always a new Arc spawn pattern, a different extraction challenge, or a sudden, unexpected plasma shot from a bloodthirsty raider to keep you on your toes.
Also accompanying the live service framework is the ever-present inclusion of microtransactions. The appearance of raiders is a core part of their identity, and we all know fashion is the ultimate end game. While there are free cosmetics through in-game accomplishments, the cash shop exists to tempt players to throw real money at carving a shortcut to eye-catching threads. The presence of microtransactions is not a problem itself, but that doesn’t mean it’s without scrutiny. Sure, one could argue that premium cosmetics are entirely optional and should have no bearing on any assessments. Given that Arc Raiders costs $40, having cosmetics priced at half of the full game represents poor value.
Arc Raiders Review Verdict
Arc Raiders: is among the most fun you can have with three friends against metal invaders and unfriendly raiders. It succeeds wildly in its retro-future aesthetic, addictive core gameplay loop, and the reactive combat model against the Arc bots. The premium shop may not sport the best value and there's a notable grind awaiting players, but most complaints leveraged at Arc Raiders are small quibbles in an otherwise polished, punchy package. Ultimately, Embark Studios delivers on providing high-octane, stylish, and gloriously chaotic action in the most approachable extraction shooter to date. – Joshua
[Editor’s Note: Arc Raiders was reviewed on PC, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]
