I played a few rounds during the playtest but I’ve been keeping my eye on it for some time. I don’t know what reviews you’ve read but the extraction shooter crowd is excited because ARC raiders gets so much right and is arguably better than the king of the genre, Escape from Tarkov. Tarkov goes for a different experience so people who enjoy Tarkov might not necessarily enjoy ARC, but there are objective things that make ARC better than Tarkov. For example the PvE enemies are not bullshit. They’re hard but you don’t need to pixel peek through a doorway to kill them. The audio is far better because you can actually use audio to locate people. Less useless loot due to the ability to recycle loot. The performance is more uniform (in Tarkov streets is still somewhat unplayable for some people). The only clear negative people have had with ARC raiders is the third person view but I would say that’s hardly a deal-breaker. The rest of the game is fantastic. I dig the art style. I dig the audio. I dig the ARC and I dig core gameplay loop. I’m seriously considering finding time to invest into playing ARC raiders because that’s how much I enjoyed the playtest.
But with all this praise it’s worth remembering that at the end of the day it is an extraction shooter and extraction shooters are not for everyone. If the entire concept of risking your gear to get loot doesn’t sound appealing then not amount of praise is going to make you enjoy ARC raiders.
I never played Tarkov, but it always seemed a little too heavy for me. And the cheating issues everyone seems to be complaining about, and the issues people have been having with the devs, it all put me off from playing it.
The reviews I’ve seen for ARC Raiders said that the game was doing a lot of things right, but everything could be a little better. One of them called it something like “pleasantly mediocre” which isn’t awful, but also doesm’t sound like a resounding endorsement.
If I find some people to play with, I may pick it up. It’s not the kind of game I want to grind solo or play with randos, but it looks like a good time.
It’s an interesting concept, but the pvp was a huge turnoff. Maybe it’d be different if there was an option to form an alliance or truce while above ground, but then it’s just PvE with one massive team.
It’s an extraction shooter. Not a game for everyone. For those that like that genre, it’s incredibly well-designed and a welcomed take on the genre. For those that don’t like it, won’t care for it.
The recent Server Slam had very limited progression enabled, which stunted many people’s first-time experience. The greatest thrill of extraction shooters is the moment you find loot your really want to keep and do whatever you can to extract safely. When majority of the loot was mediocre, there was no thrill.
I personally only play PvE. Played the hell out of Killing Floor, Deep Rock Galactic, and Helldivers 2. I was turned off by the PvP aspect of Arc and do wish they kept the game as PvE, but the more I played and listened to their design philosophy, I now acknowledge why they added PvP to their PvE game, the pure fact that it will keep players more engaged.
PvE alone can get very casual, which is what many dad-gamers want: something predictable to relax to. But by adding PvP, it removes the comfort and replaces with some of the most stressful experiences in gaming. It will lead to much stronger experiences at the cost of not targeting the casual market. It is definitely a deliberate decision and one that we shall see if it pays off.
Definitely check out the first Darkwood! It’s story, atmosphere, and sound design are all amazing (here’s a good video essay if you don’t plan on playing). The lore stays fascinating if you want to do an even deeper dive. Zero jumpscares. I don’t want to say what the game’s about because it’s best going in not knowing anything.
People in comments are talking the “boomer cRPG” alias way too literally when it’s just a metaphor for “old school” much like we had for years with unreal and older Dooms being dubbed “boomer shooters”.
Yes boomer is used metaphorically to just mean “old” instead of “made in the 50s-60s or made by someone of that generation”.
“Boomer shooter” refers to old school FPS/shooters in the sense of boomer = old? Never knew that.
I always thought it was because of the more fast paced styles of the older games and emphasis on explosive weapons.
Most people who played Doom / Unreal / Hexen when the games were released were early millenials or tail end “Gen X”. From memory, FPS games weren’t really that popular among people in their 30s and early 40s in the 90s. It was all young kids, teenagers and (I am assuming) university students.
I thought you were right and even in the case of boomer shooter you could argue „well it was made by some boomers“ but this is a game from 2007, fuck that.
It always felt obvious to me that it was a metaphor, I didn’t think I’ve met someone who legit believed boomer shooters were boomer games.
Most boomers, I think, were too old by the time video games were exciting and commonplace to start drawing numerous people so it’s fairly rare for a baby boomer to be a gamer.
It is just deeply stupid. These were GenX and Millennial games.
I care less for “boomer CRPG” (mostly I just laugh because it isn’t like the genre has evolved significantly since Baldurs Gate. Mostly just polish and folding in more TTRPG mechanics) than I do for “boomer shooters”. Mostly because boomers were the ones trying to get all violent video games, and especially games like DOOM, banned.
Millennials increasingly feel like a forgotten generation that increasingly catches all the hell that boomers and genx have unleashed upon the world (and, in fairness, people don’t often realize that genx aren’t millennials), but whatever. Mostly it is just really stupid and… we can do so much better.
Like… Demon Souls is 16 years old. Let’s start calling Soulsborne games “boomer bonfires”. I mean, it is old, right?
I’ve been watching this one for a while. I really enjoy the style but I find the fact that they couldn’t figure out getting the world in the same hand drawn style is offsetting. I hope it’s something I just get used to?
I don’t know if they couldn’t figure it out or if they intended it this way, but I like the look. The 3D environments look like the bottom-most layer of an old-fashioned cartoon, where it’s painted and clearly not going to move.
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