The harsh sun beams down on me in Buried City, as my boots scrape against the gravel inside this dingy tunnel. Embark Studios' way of spawning me into any map is sudden and unapologetic, leaving me to find my bearings on its terms. Because ARC Raiders is in third-person, I'm admiring each detail the studio packs in, but I'm aware of the risk it poses. Is someone using their camera to peek around the corner I'm approaching? It'd disappear if an ARC Raiders first-person mode existed.
Escape From Tarkov, Arena Infinite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and The Hunt: Showdown. These titles are the showstoppers in the extraction genre, and more crucially, they're all FPS games. And they do their take on the genre well, so well that I don't need to see another first-person experience join the pile. I'm glad that ARC Raiders bucks the trend by allowing us to see our characters be consumed by what the Rust Belt holds.
But it isn't stopping players from wondering what Embark's vision would be like if it reigned in the camera. Over on the game's subreddit, user 'Short_Satisfaction_9' is showing off an exploit by modifying ARC Raiders' console on PC to force a first-person perspective. Unsurprisingly, it looks goofy and awkward. Embark didn't design the game with FPS animations in mind. The comments section isn't as divided as you may expect, with plenty of players championing it, believing that third-person mode offers unfair advantages.
To that I say one thing: tough. The tension in ARC Raiders works astoundingly well because you're never quite sure what awaits you in the darkness or whether someone is waiting to strike. Proceeding down hallways, training my aim straight, scanning everything in my peripheral vision? That's a horror in itself, one that the looming ARC presence amplifies. What adds to this is the idea that I can see my squadmates operating around me.
Do we form up and approach in a SEAL team formation? Or do I watch as my friend offers to go in guns ablazing first? Sure, it'd be just fine in a first-person mode, but the third-person perspective takes it further. That's because every match in ARC Raiders is a story, and everything you can see paints it. My squad often likes to wear the same clothes, building a head canon of our own that we're some elite task force ready to steal your goods. In reality, you're just seeing three bozos with spacehelmets trying to attack you.
It's something you wouldn't be able to appreciate if you couldn't see the care Embark puts into its cosmetics. But what does The Finals creator think about an FPS mode? Well, it's already clamping down on exploiting the game to enable it. In a post from community lead Julia Ossen on the ARC Raiders Discord, she expresses that "this feature was never meant to be player-facing. We're continuing to investigate related reports and may take action where appropriate to protect fair play and the integrity of the game."
When third-person combat hits, it hits hard, and ARC Raiders is a testament to that. Fighting ARCs feels far more heroic when I see my character deep in the fray. It also suits PVP battles perfectly in this setting, with everyone involved using their camera to peek, track, and evade stray bullets. It's why Stella Montis is an amazing battleground.
So, stop asking for a first-person mode in ARC Raiders. It doesn't need it.