At 5 pm, most week nights, I’ve gone out to scavenge among the vestiges of humanity for loose wires and leftover air fresheners. But right after I get back from the Kilburn Tesco Metro, I boot up Arc Raiders and do the same, except this time with friends. (Classic joke structure ACTIVATED.) That is the magic of videogames.
Despite returning to extraction shooter Arc Raiders time and again, exploring its ruined Earth in 20-minute sessions while keeping out of the reach of the flying robots hunting for fleshy humans, there’s always a wrinkle when judging multiplayer games: are you playing because the game is good, or because it’s lovely to catch up with the ol’ gang?
Since its launch, Arc has been my hangout with friends scattered across the country. A semi-regular way to keep in touch around their newborns, impending weddings, and rabbit warrens of house purchase bureaucracy. I can’t deny it’s part of my affection for Arc Raiders. But also, it didn’t have to be this game. Warzone, Fortnite, Hunt: Showdown, and numerous others are just as likely spots to congregate, but it has been Arc Raiders again and again.
Arc’s Earth is ostensibly unwelcoming. It’s a world littered with machine carcasses and the leftovers of a civilization long since driven underground. Its skies are patrolled by packs of autonomous drones hunting for any human scavengers too slow to hide under cover as they pass. However, in reality, it’s also often peaceful. When the action comes it is frantic and deadly, but it is sporadic. There are long periods of quiet where you can talk without the constant interruption of gunfire.
Another rebuttal to the buttal of my own making is how often I play Arc Raiders solo. Maybe it’s because the night is drawing in, or because my London flat feels distant from any green space, or because the building site behind my home often emits thumps, piercing mechanical shrieks, and alarm noises, but spending hours in Arc’s reclaimed wilds is a soothing escape.
Walking through the swamps surrounding the Alacantra Power Plant, listening out for the whirr of overhead drones is close to the peace I imagine anglers get from fishing. As a non-fisher, I assume they too are under the constant threat of being jumped by other fishers looking to steal mealworm?
Maybe I’m overthinking things. After all, this is a game where I used a lure grenade to draw a mortar-firing Bombardier into the path of a group of players. Once the sentient tank had splattered the other players, I scuttled in and rooted through their backpacks, taking all their good stuff. A game that lets me do that has earned its spot on our Advent Calendar.
Ollie: I adore extraction shooters, and I’ve been part of nearly every tech test for Arc Raiders over the past couple years. Now that it’s released, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had in a game this year.
Raids can be tense as hell, but also freeing. It’s a place where you can fire on sight, form tenuous alliances, commit or receive painful betrayals, or bust a rib laughing at some surprisingly friendly encounters with other players.
The world itself is absolutely breathtaking, particularly when it rains; and the ARC are among the most impressively designed enemies I’ve seen – not just in the genre, but in any game.
I’ve been going through an extremely tough time over the past couple of months, and playing Arc Raiders with my brother and my best friend has kept me going.
