The upcoming PS5 shooter ARC Raiders was originally billed as a "cooperative third-person shooter," and we thought it looked pretty rad when it was first revealed. But somewhere along the line, developer Embark Studios straight up switched genres, now marketing the title as a “player-versus-player-versus-environment survival extraction shooter”.
Producer Aleksandr Grondal explained how this came to be in a recent blog post, noting: "Over the course of development, ARC Raiders has taken the shape of what we believe to be a truly promising player-versus-player-versus-environment survival extraction shooter—a game that stays true to the ARC Raiders universe and we’re having a blast testing internally.”
It might be relevant that extraction shooters are currently a thing, with Call of Duty's DMZ and Battlefield's Hazard Zone recent attempts from AAA titles to replicate the kind of hardcore PC experience popularised by Escape From Tarkov.
What do you think of ARC Raiders' change in direction? Does it change how you feel about the game? Stay true to yourself in the comments section below.
[source medium.com]
Comments 37
Woohoo! I’m happy about this news, I love a good extraction shooter!
Everything about this game seems exciting, I’m just hoping the gameplay and controls feel as good as the rest of it looks.
Never heard of Battlefield’s hazard zone. Is it in 2042, and worth trying out?
It’s always a totally brilliant move for games to change their vision towards a current trend during development. I’ve never seen games come out after the trend is already dead and be completely doomed on arrival. This will end well.
Sounds like trash now. Pass
@nessisonett Its good to be cynical buuuut this is basically how Fortnite was developed
@Breekhead battlefields hazard zone is pretty low quality, you can try it out if you’re interested and already own BF2042 but there’s nothing special or unique about it that sets it apart, it’s just feels like a tacked on mode to chase the extraction trend.
@SmiggleMcJiggle That’s disappointing. DMZ ticks a lot of boxes and the gunplay and gameplay loop are addictive, but I didn’t like how the guns handled in Battlefield 2042 so if it doesn’t bring something else to the table I might just give it a skip.
Obviously Tarkov isn’t out on console (yet) but I’m waiting for a more tactical extraction looter shooter. If Insurgency made a PvPvE extraction mode that would be amazing.
So from i want to don't bother me anymore please.
Way to make your game go from day 1 play to zero interest for me. This suck, was really looking forward to this.
Had never heard of it, and might have been interested if it was co-op PvE.
PvP? Forget it. There are more than enough PvP shooters, and they all devolve into the same crap. There need to be way more co-op PvE shooters.
I'd never heard of Deep Rock Galactic before it hit Plus. I downloaded it out of curiosity and it's one of the most fun games I've ever played... I put in hundreds of hours last year and still go back to it. It also has one of the best, most fun-loving, least toxic communities of any multiplayer game, and that can't be a coincidence.
Devs need to learn that PvP is not a necessity.
Perhaps suicide squad should also pull this off going to metroidvania single player? Just give it another console generation, I can wait.
This case however sounds like going from turd to diarrhea.
Good, nothing better than extraction shooters. Unfortunately nothing besides that Hazard mode exists yet (worth mentioning) but hopefully we'll see a lot more of them, including the Lou multiplayer.
Nothing more boring than pure coop/pve shooters
Damn, that killed my hype.
Lotta news today about devs with no integrity, huh?
And just like that my interest in the game, which initially was sort of like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRy5RquFIHI&ab_channel=BeautifulHorrorMusic
...dropped to this.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Z5Ig8Dix6I
I'd be more interested if it was pve
A mistake personally in my opinion but that’s because I prefer coop and single player this reeks of publisher meddling and exec interference
I was sort of interested initially because it looked cool but was skeptical of the co-op. With this news there is now basically zero chance I touch it.
Sounds like another F2P title with a 6 month shelf life now
I think something people seem to forget is that this is a free to play title so the looting extraction aspect makes complete sense in terms of long term engagement and monetisation.
Most commenters here so far seem to prefer single player or coop experiences, so hopefully there’s a non PvP mode as well so as many people can enjoy as possible.
@Paranoimia Have you tried Generation Zero? It’s a good coop PvE with stunning graphics.
It had a chance of me buying it as a co-op TPS. Now it has zero chance.
This will be the next Anthem lol
IIRC this one is free to play yes?
@Breekhead I haven't tried it, as it didn't seem to fare very well at launch, and I had forgotten about it.
I've just been watching some videos on YouTube though, and it does seem decent... looks like DayZ but with robots and no irritating PvP. I might well give it a try, so thanks for that!
@Skeletor85 Anthem wasn’t bad, they could have improved it instead of shutting down. Shame…
@Paranoimia Completely agree about Deep Rock! The community is great and very heartwarming actually; I think that's mainly due to the fact it's exclusively PvE, and of course the "rock and stone" communication button
Arc Raiders could be another DRG but alas, the excitement I had has been completely drained now.
@Paranoimia you’re welcome. It’s a fun one to play with friends, and it’s often on sale too.
No idea what that even means. But PvP is not my thing - with or without extraction.
I like story based cooperative shooters. Fun way to spend time with Fam or Friends that moved to other states. Jump on after work for a bit and catch up while blowing stuff up. They were amazing during Pandemic.
I'm disappointed. There are already plenty of Battle Royale Games out. They should have kept it PvE. Now the whole game is gonna be like the Dark Zone in the Division games 🤷🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🎮
@Agramonte I'm with you! PVP is player vs Player. Think of Battle Royale games like Fortnight, Hood, the new Exoprimal that will be coming soon and The Dark Zone of the Division Games
@Breekhead I’ve not played Tarkov so I can’t judge it’s high standard compared to what Hazard Zone in 2042 is but I really enjoyed the Hazard Zone. It is sadly very quiet on the PS side but if you turn cross play on you’ll get in to games.
WTF is a "survival extraction shooter" anyway?
I think it sounds promising. Hunt: Showdown is a fave of mine on PC.
Maybe I'm just old, but I have no idea what a "player-versus-player-versus-environment survival extraction shooter" even is lmao
Off tops, im disappointed by the news but we'll see.
@commentlife I agree, still hyped for it
Wow… that’s one way to divide a hype train.
@ralizah It’s a mode where players fight players while at the same time fighting or avoiding environmental NPCs.
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