After Just 1 Week With ARC Raiders, I'm Already Convinced It's the Next Big Thing

Extraction shooter fans have been waiting years for ARC Raiders, a sci-fi shooter where players explore post-apocalyptic Earth for resources to take back to the human colonies underground. Players have to choose what supplies to bring with them on each trip, knowing full well that if things go south, they could lose everything. The world of ARC Raiders is ravaged by robotic enemies called ARCs that can make quick work of unlucky players, but they are far from the only threat on the surface.

The driving force behind ARC Raiders is the social element. A PvPvE experience, players always have the chance of running into other human players when out on their runs. ARC Raiders gives players the option of fighting each other in PvP skirmishes or befriending their fellow raiders and working together to stay alive. ARC Raiders‘ brilliant use of proximity chat enhances the social experience and helps it stand out from other online shooters, which nowadays tend to be ghost towns with so many people using party chat over game chat.

I loved what I played of the ARC Raiders beta and so it was a day-one buy for me. I haven’t had nearly as much time to play it as I wanted this past week, but the fact that I have already had so many fun and memorable experiences in the game speaks volumes. After just one week in the game, I’m convinced that ARC Raiders has the potential to become the next big multiplayer phenomenon.

Day 1

After completing the ARC Raiders tutorial, my brother and our mutual friend completed a few runs together. Every encounter with human players resulted in an immediate shootout, some of which we won and some of which we failed. One particularly exciting run saw all three of us fill up our backpacks with loot and make our way to an elevator to extract. Along the way, we saw another squad fighting a giant robotic spider, known as a Leaper. We watched from a distance while the squad expended all their resources fighting the thing, but sadly, they were unsuccessful. Calling the elevator alerted the Leaper to our location, so we took cover in a nearby building and pelted it through the window.

I have at least six glitched achievements in ARC Raiders so far, which is annoying, but otherwise it’s been an impressively polished and fun time.

When the elevator doors opened, we all made a mad dash inside and started the exfil sequence. We kept shooting at the Leaper as we did this, and managed to bring it down. At the last second, my brother jumped out of the elevator and ran to the smoking spider husk. It was too late for me and our friend to follow him, but we would soon be glad we didn’t. As the elevator doors closed, we heard my brother’s screams as another team of players showed up and murdered him while he was busy trying to loot the mechanical spider corpse.

Day 2

On Day 2, my brother and I queued up again. We filled squad and were paired with a random who immediately abandoned us to go do his own thing. We were then attacked by flying drone-like robots, called Hornets and Wasps in the world of ARC Raiders, that electrocuted us, shot us, and killed us. We waited to see if our third was going to come back and revive us, but as their blip got farther and farther away, it became clear that they had no intention of doing so.

We queued up again and this time I quickly made sure to make friends with our random. We did the classic crouch/stand/crouch/stand/crouch/stand ritual to break the ice, and then we all started dancing. This, I knew, was a bond that could never be broken. We started looting the surrounding dam and didn’t run into much action until we heard people talking. Suddenly, a group of three other raiders burst into the hallway we were in. Since our previous interactions with other players consistently resulted in shootouts, we were all on edge, but the situation was quickly diffused. The other team promised they wouldn’t shoot, and we agreed. We all decided to team up and explore together.

Our new friends had acquired one of the ARC Raiders surveillance keys needed to open a locked room in the dam. Despite forming an alliance with us, they told us to stay back and that they didn’t want to share the loot.

I made eye contact with the random on our team. We knew what had to be done. I’m not proud of it, but we all opened fire on the backs of our friends. The random went around and punched them out with a melee execution to end their suffering as they hurled obscenities at us for the betrayal. We looted the room and successfully extracted with all the goodies.

Day 3

Unfortunately, I did not have much time to play on Day 3. I tried a solo run, was killed by a robot, and queued up again in a full squad. We successfully looted and exfilled.

Day 4

On Day 4, my group and I destroyed a bunch of robots, only to get shot in the back and killed by another group of players. Karma for the crimes we committed a couple of days prior? Maybe.

Day 5

On Day 5, I made a trip to the Buried City, the first time I played a map besides Dam Battleground. The change in scenery was interesting, but I did not encounter any other players or even many ARC robots.

Day 6

I decided to give a Night Raid a try, which is supposed to be higher risk, higher reward. Going in, I made a promise to myself that I was going to be a menace to anyone I happened to come across. It didn’t take long to find someone hiding behind a tree. I said, “Don’t shoot!” They responded, “Don’t shoot!” And started to walk away. I proceeded to open fire on them and miss every single shot.

They scrambled up a hill and hid behind a rock. A flashing red grenade was thrown my way, but I fled and sprinted up towards them. I successfully flanked them and shot them while they were crouched. They had a ton of loot on them and taking it all made me feel pretty bad, but at least I got cool stuff, and that’s what’s important. I marked the nearest exit and headed there, only to find that someone had already called the elevator.

The noise and flashing yellow lights attracted a Leaper, who was trying to find and kill whoever called the elevator. I stayed hidden until the doors were down and immediately ran in. I thought about escaping right then and leaving the person that called the elevator to die, but decided I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. My fellow raider joined me shortly thereafter, bringing the Leaper’s attention to the elevator. Luckily, we managed to get away.

Day 7

I started a solo run in the Dam Battlegrounds. I made my way to a couple of apartment buildings not far from where I spawned and casually looted the place until I heard footsteps. My heart sank. Since Day 1, my encounters with other ARC Raiders have not always been positive, and I was afraid I was about to have another wasted run. I didn’t have my mic handy to plead for my life, so I started spamming, “Don’t shoot!” I fled the building and heard someone shout, “I won’t shoot!”

I turned around and saw a dude standing in the window, looking down at me. He was following a guide online and looking for quest items. I started following him around, helping him battle off the Hornets and Wasps that occasionally came our way. Eventually, we came across a third person, who joined our little squad as we looted, explored, and used the dance emote. At some point, our new friend disappeared. I don’t know if he left us on purpose or if he wandered off and couldn’t find his way back to us, but we sadly had to move on.

The timer started to run low, and I started to sweat. I stuck close to my partner, who was clearly more experienced in the game than me and at a higher level. I could hardly keep up with him, and this led to us becoming separated in the woods. Dejected, I studied my map to see if there were any nearby escape routes so I could successfully extract. Then I heard, faintly, in the distance, “Follow my voice!”

The timer was almost at zero, yet he stayed behind to find me and try to lead me to safety. If that’s not true love, I don’t know what is. I tried to keep up, but my ARC Raiders stamina was apparently much weaker than his. As we were sprinting down a hallway in the dam, I could see him off in the distance as a Hornet lit me up and I collapsed. I don’t know if he ever made it to safety, but the timer ran out shortly thereafter, ending my first week in ARC Raiders in heartbreaking fashion.

ARC Raiders is Going to Be My New Multiplayer Obsession

One week in, and I can already tell that ARC Raiders is going to become one of my most-played games of the year. It delivers a magical kind of multiplayer experience that I haven’t experienced since the heyday of PUBG. Its staying power has yet to be proven, but it feels like one of those multiplayer games that I will be returning to for years to come.