ARC Raiders has been on my radar since the game’s initial reveal at The Game Awards in 2021. The forthcoming extraction shooter launches later this year, but Embark Studios is already giving players a chance to experience the sandy wasteland ahead of time. If you’re lucky, you can be part of the upcoming ARC Raiders tech test, one of the largest playtests the game has held yet.
The second ARC Raiders tech test begins on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, and concludes on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Before then, you need to sign up for playtest registration on the Steam Marketplace or through the game’s official website if you’re playing on a console or the Epic Games Store. Embark Studios welcomes players across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC to the tech test. Make sure you’ve plenty of free space, though, as we expect the action game to take up at least 30 GB of storage.
Whether you’re playing on a portable gaming console like the Steam Deck or not, Embark Studios is rolling out a wealth of tweaks based on valuable data collected in the last year. In a new statement from the developer, executive producer Aleksander Grøndal says that “this is our chance to see how those changes perform at scale. We’re especially eager to gather feedback on progression, the combat experience, cross-platform performance, and how the experience feels now that it’s more expansive and layered.”
ARC Raider’s second playtest includes a larger arsenal of weapons, gadgets, and gear, alongside enhanced player progression and deeper crafting systems. When you’re not using all of these elements to stake your claim in the wasteland, players can see what the first ARC Raiders battle pass has to offer.
Shifting the action from the FPS game chaos of The Finals to a third-person perspective, ARC Raiders is all strategy and outsmarting rival players while defeating or evading enemy forces roaming the map. Enormous ARC machines are ready to rip you apart while you take on the mantle of a Raider.
Embark describes Raiders as “rogue gunslingers,” and there’s nothing better than a good cowboy comparison. The game lets you play solo or team up in a squad of three players. Aside from giving us arguably the best shooter around right now, Embark Studios’ team consists of former EA DICE talent who helped shape titles in the Battlefield franchise and gems like Mirror’s Edge. ARC Raiders is also coming to NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service, so you can stream the game to your heart’s content.
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