I'll say it most days and I'll say it again: Embark Studios is the most exciting shooter developer out there right now. ARC Raiders is the developer's second game, shifting from the FPS action of The Finals to a retro-futuristic wasteland where robots and rival players are out for blood and scraps. It can be easy to look at the game's hype in a bubble as a fan, but the ARC Raiders Steam player count numbers don't lie - the people want something different.
I say it that way because while there are plenty of excellent shooters, whether it's the indie FPS game gem I Am Your Beast or Battlefield's recent return to form, it's also a space that's slipping into a creative black hole. This applies to the extraction shooter market, too. Not many of them can spin gold out of a tired concept like stalwarts such as The Hunt: Showdown. While ARC Raiders is playing with a lot of familiar ideas, Embark Studios' savvy and veteran team of former EA DICE talent clearly understands what makes the genre tick. You can read my ARC Raiders preview to see why it's an ideal title for handheld PC gaming, too.
The game's Steam player count, at least at the time of writing, dictates that Embark is doing something right. In the past 24 hours, just over 187k players have taken their chances in the ARC Raiders Server Slam. Beyond that, in the last hour, nearly 100k players are trying to reduce ARCs to nothing but heaps of rusty metal. For a game with a considerable shift in vision during development (more on that below), entering a saturated genre, it isn't anything to scoff at.
Like I mentioned above, ARC Raiders is Embark Studios' second game, but it was actually intended to be its first title. The developer established itself in 2018, with the formal announcement of the sci-fi action game landing in 2021. Two years later, producer Aleksander Grøndal confirmed ARC Raiders' move to a PVEVP shooter, rather than just PVE battles. It isn't without hurdles, such as the now-infamous The Game Awards beta accident. In the weeks running up to the ARC Raiders release date, the studio continues to remain transparent and clear about its goals.
The extraction genre is known for its often punishing gameplay loops and requiring large amounts of time from players to get the most out of it. I appreciate that ARC Raiders already respects both my time and yours, with recent updates cementing efforts to let players jump in and get what they want out of it at their own pace.
No pesky wipes to worry about, unless you want to be part of it. It's an enthralling experience to be lost in, from the impeccable sound design, palpable fights, or the nuggets of lore I find myself itching to uncover. I'm also compelled to do the one thing shooters encourage me to do, and that's, well, shoot people.
Battles in ARC Raiders can go a few different ways, but making allies and forming squads on the Rust Belt is superb. We're all going Topside for the same purpose, so why not extract to safety together, rather than filling each other with lead?
Even in a three-day playtest, it's enough to dethrone Steam Charts titans like Call of Duty, Marvel Rivals, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Stardew Valley. Of course, there's always the chance things can go sour. Live service titles are highly volatile in this day and age. We've seen triple-A attempts like Concord combust in just two weeks of existence, or Bungie's Marathon succumb to brutal feedback. Just like my fight to get back to Speranza, I hope ARC Raiders can evade the same fate.
Are you checking out the Server Slam this weekend? Let us know what you think over in the Pocket Tactics Discord server.