It’s been almost a week since ARC Raiders launched, with players getting familiar with Topside, scavenging for the best loot, and fending off terrifying Arc machines. With over 350,000 concurrent players on Steam, it’s safe to say that Embark Studios’ foray into extraction shooters is a success.
One of the game’s most central features is how it seamlessly blends PvE and PvP mechanics into a single game, making its gameplay loop feel dynamic with unpredictable raids and encounters that often end up in moments of absolute cinema or hilarity. But here’s the thing: players are already divided on whether or not mixing PvE and PvP together is a good idea.
In the ARC Raiders subreddit, players are arguing with each other about which gameplay model works best. Obviously, the community is generally happy with the balance of PvE and PvP, but others over the ARC Raiders official Discord and Steam discussion page complain about the game’s hostile PvP environment, where enemy teams just shoot on sight, discouraging new players to the extraction shooter genre.
Some players even reported acts of ‘betrayal’ where they thought they had made a friend, only to get shot in the back during extraction. There are even instances where players only drop into a lobby just to do exclusively “PvP” game modes, stealing other players’ hard-earned loot, making them do the hard work for them. As someone who already has over 20 hours in the game, what I despise most is “Extraction camping,” where players would just wait for other players to arrive at an extraction point just to ambush them.
The rest of the ARC Raiders community unanimously agrees that the game’s PvE and PvP aspects are essential to the game’s core gameplay loop. It wouldn’t be the game everyone enjoys if the devs suddenly decided to nerf its Arc machines or drop PvE entirely. Some players were even rallying for separate game modes for PvP and PvE, but the community is pre-emptively voicing out to the subreddit that there should be no need for that; otherwise, the point of the game would be lost.
Players who mostly complain about its hostile PvP environment haven’t realized that this is what ARC Raiders should be, and they might not be the target audience Embark is looking for. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing, but those who expected a stress-free extraction shooter experience won't find it in ARC Raiders if PvP exists.
ARC Raiders is still fresh, meaning more and more players are still exploring what the game is truly capable of. There are even wholesome community moments where an entire lobby worked together to cleanse the entire map of Arc machines, putting PvP down to zero. Some are even enjoying their time in solo raids, which, surprisingly, have the chillest and kindest people around.
As someone new to the extraction shooter genre, ARC Raiders is a surprisingly fun game to play solo or with friends. Its addictive gameplay loop of looting, shooting, and extracting is something a lot of players seem to enjoy. Embark Studios still has major plans for the game in the future, with a massive roadmap detailing new maps, enemy types, and weather effects.
Whether or not its PvP is a good or bad thing doesn’t matter. It’s the primary formula that makes ARC Raiders one of this year’s unexpected hits.
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