Arc Raiders Impressions after over 50 hours - Yet Another Gem for 2025

2025 has been an amazing year for the video game space for a variety of reasons, but it looks like the year still has some surprises in store for us, as the extraction shooter Arc Raiders is yet another gem for the year. My time with the game has been nothing but fantastic.

This has come as a surprise to me, as I always tend to be cautiously optimistic when a game has so many people singing its praises, with some already proclaiming it as one of the best games they’ve ever played.

With that much anticipation on a game’s shoulders, the end result can either crash and burn, or become a giant success. Thankfully, Arc Raiders earns the latter, as even after a weekend of its release, its fame continues to grow as it keeps reaching a new concurrent player count record on Steam. Just recently, it reached 354,836.

But why is that? At face value, it’s another extraction shooter trying to capitalize on a new shooter subgenre.

For me, it boils down to immersion, stability, good PVE AI, and proximity chat.

The world invites you to take risks and fear the unknown

In Arc Raiders, humanity has lost the surface, as robots called Arcs now dominate the earth, with humans forced to live underground. Raiders are tasked to go back to the surface to salvage what they can and bring it back underground. This setting is intriguing, as we get to see civilization ruined by a battle between man and machine, with some maps looking as if humans left in a hurry to ruined structures that were damaged from the conflict. Each of the four available maps at launch shows a different side of Arc Raiders’ world, while simultaneously delivering unique spaces for PVP and PVE combat.

One is more open, best for long range weapons, but not a completely flat level design, as rocks and ruined structures provide cover to those looking to sneak their way out, or hoping to pick a fight from afar. Another level is more close-quarters, as it’s set in a city now buried in sand, with rooftops easily accessible by ziplines and makeshift bridges for easy navigation and repositioning.

They all provide a specific difficulty depending on the situation. Where you spawn, and where and how Arcs roam each location makes each run unique, to the point where I don’t feel like I’m doing the same thing even if I happen to spawn in the same area three raids in a row.

Arcs are there to set the tone of your raids

This is the beauty of Arc Raiders’ PVE element, as Arcs are unpredictable. It’s not the same patrol, it’s not always the same types guarding the extraction, and when they see you, they are relentless at hunting you down. 

Due to their unpredictability and lethality, they are always a constant threat. If I’m caught, I’m forced to fire, which in turn will notify nearby players of my position, so as much as possible, I try to deviate away from their path, pushing me towards detours to stay safe from attacks.

It’s not like in other Extraction shooters where the enemy AI are temporary roadblocks or audio traps that are easy to take down. With Arcs, when you engage, you have to commit to the fight.

This level of lethality in enemy AI results in random acts of cooperation between players. I was running away from two flying Arcs firing at me, and I ran towards a ruined house for cover. Once inside, I found another player also seeking refuge, and I was lucky he didn’t kill me the moment I entered his safe spot. I used proximity chat to confirm to him that I was friendly, and then we agreed to fight off the Arcs as we both wanted to get out alive. 

We did, and for that brief moment, I had a co-op experience that could have been a PVP encounter if either of us had acted differently. This wouldn’t have been possible if the threat of Arcs were real.

Proximity Chat and Emotes Carry the Narrative

I’ve had encounters with people saying they’re friendly, so we strike up a conversation, and most of the time we go our merry ways or even help each other out with what we need to do for our quests. Some players are shoot first, talk later, but hilariously try to be friends once they’ve lost the fight. 

It’s a mixed bag of players, making it even more addictive because the unpredictability as you start that queue for a raid is what keeps me playing for hours. 

With my being in Asia, I really thought that Asian servers would barely have any form of communication, but no. While there’s a language barrier at times, players use voice emotes (or bullets) to express their intent, and those with a mic try to communicate despite struggling with English.

This is seen mostly in solo raids, as players who also go solo are matched together. This is the only extraction shooter where I’m excited to go solo. That sense of isolation at the beginning is felt as you are surrounded by the sounds of Arc patrolling nearby, gunfire from other players, flares rising to the sky to indicate a player has gone down, then subtle sounds of wildlife as you roam to your objective.

Arc Raiders’ immersion pulled me in, and when silence kicks in, I’m put on an even higher alert, as at any moment a player could sneak up on me, a fact I know too well, as I’ve done it many times before.

Teams do have some cooperation if you decide to be paired with two other random players, but most of the time, team raids are us rushing to a location, looting as much as we can, and getting out. If we see another team, we shoot and fight it out without hesitation.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a good number of sour players, as I’ve killed players occupied by fighting off Arcs, and have been killed by players just camping the extraction. It’s part of the game, and how one dies can get you a bit frustrated.

Finally, I have to commend Embark Studios’ ability to make Arc Raiders accessible. At launch, I found no issues from FPS drops, bugs, server issues, or even lag that would hinder gameplay. It’s an accessible game on PC, as I’m someone playing a game that looks gorgeous and runs smoothly with an RTX 2060 and an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X CPU. My rig is old, and yet, I find no problems both visually and technically.

This is impressive also in server and connectivity, as the online-only game has remained mostly stable since it went live on October 30. Considering that player counts have been rising each day, servers have held mostly well, giving me the impression that Embark has done the legwork and planned well. It still has some hiccups, as a few days ago server queues started to happen, and I believe servers went down for a bit due to the influx of players, but not to a point that would annoy the current player base.

The hype is valid. Embark Studios has delivered a fantastic extraction shooter. The progression is satisfying, and I don’t seem to feel that much pressure of not having enough stuff. There are systems in place to always give the player enough resources to get a loadout all set for another raid. Free loadouts, safepockets, the generous crafting, and vendors with useful items and quest rewards keep my stash stocked enough to keep the raids going even after a few failed attempts at extracting alive.

It’s also exciting to know that they have a roadmap planned for the rest of 2025, giving the impression that they have a plan to continue riding the momentum they have to keep all kinds of players engaged months from now.

More soon.

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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.