The title was revealed during The Game Awards 2021 in December last year and instantly started creating a lot of buzz… But does Arc Raiders have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with some of the other large (and more established) shooters out there? We’re here to break it all down with X things we know about the game so far.
It’s a great mix of action and shooting
It’s got a big arsenal…
…and even bigger enemies
The game has a solid pedigree
Embark Studios has a lot of talent beavering away on this game – when Soderlund left EA, he took some notable names with him, including a suite of developers who used to work at DICE, back in the day. You can see that DNA in Arc Raiders, too; do you not think it looks a bit like Battlefront 2, at times? But the studio is not willing to just sit on its laurels. In a statement, it noted: “our ambition with this game is to combine new and old genres with groundbreaking technical innovation, into something unique and consequential.” It’s worth noting that the studio was co-founded by six gaming veterans who want to see games “become more captivating and more diverse.” Here’s hoping it’s a change of pace from the open-world shooters we know to date, then.
It wants to be different to Destiny or The Division
You may look at the game and think ‘ah right, guns, gear and loot – this will play like Destiny or The Division’. But that’s not the aim, here; it sounds like Embark wants to be more procedural than that in Arc Raiders. A snippet on the game’s website mentions it wants moments of heroism to feel “unrehearsed”. The developers want you to “do the unexpected” and “improvise, use physics, your surrounding, and your wits to your advantage”. Is that just marketing speak, or will we actually get a game that’s much more organic in its combat scenarios? We’ll have to wait and see.
There are classes/characters to choose from
We have seen two of the Raiders which is who we will be playing as: a human named Celeste, and a droid named Lance. From this, we can assume it’s a class-based shooter with each of the different characters having abilites and perks that’ll put them into rolls in your squad. Whether this will be as traditional as the likes of medic, assault, sniper and so on remains to be seen… but we’re hoping for something a little more inventive.
The Day/Night cycle is very important
The game has some gorgeous visuals, but it’s not all there just to look nice; the day/night cycle has practical, in-game effects, too. If you want to move against the machine threat in stealth, you can operate under cover of darkenss – this will allow you to get the upper hand on your enemy (and will seemingly change the way combat plays out in some instances, too).
It’s got a killer aesthetic
The overall vibe of Arc Raiders is this retro 80’s and synthwave sci-fi feel – and that’s something I, personally, am not bored of yet. Something about setting the industrial sci-fi feel of the machines against an earth that still seems quite grounded is very pleasing, and I hope the game leans into this almost Simon Stålenhag kitchen-sink approach to sci-fi. We’ve yet to see a game do that really well.
