ARC Raiders Review: The Extraction Shooter for People Who Hate Extraction Shooters
I'm an extraction-shooter hater. Escape from Tarkov feels like a second job where I get punched in the face. I don't have time for "gear fear" or spreadsheet-level ballistics. I'm here to have fun.
So when Embark Studios, the wizards behind The Finals, dropped ARC Raiders, I was skeptical but curious.
I am so, so glad I gave it a shot.
My entire weekend is gone. I haven't been this addicted to a game loop in years. I’ve been slaving away at my workbenches, my quests, and my progression, and I just can't stop. This isn't just another Tarkov clone. This is the game that finally cracks the code for the rest of us.
The Anti-Tarkov
Let's get this out of the way. This isn't Tarkov-lite. This is a fundamentally different beast.
It has that classic Embark DNA: it's visually stunning, the movement is fluid, and it runs like an absolute dream. But where Tarkov is a game about misery, ARC Raiders is a game about adventure.
Yes, you drop in, you loot, and you extract. But you're also completing quests, upgrading a home base, and fighting an AI threat that is far more interesting than any player. The extraction isn't the point of the game, it's just the end of the mission.
The Real Enemy
The single best thing about ARC Raiders is the ARC. The "clankers." The AI.
In most extraction games, the AI is just annoying cannon fodder. They're braindead scavs that exist to make noise while you hunt other players.
Here, the ARC are the main event.
These things are smart and absolutely terrifying. My first encounter with a Leaper, a four-legged chrome beast, was pure panic. It heard me, it charged me, and when I thought I'd lost it, it flanked me. Rocketeers will delete you from the sky. Hornets will harass you with stunning darts. They are a constant, oppressive, and brilliant threat.
The "G" Key Social Experiment
Because the AI is so relentlessly brutal, a fascinating, beautiful thing happens: players are nice to each other.
I've played dozens of solo runs, and most of my encounters with other solos have been friendly. I was getting my ass kicked by two Hornets, another player ran up, and instead of shooting me in the back, we both just wordlessly started firing on the bots. We teamed up, finished a quest, and extracted together.
The game encourages this. The biggest threat is the environment, not each other. PvP absolutely happens, but it feels opportunistic rather than mandatory. I’ve had someone down me, and instead of finishing me, just extract us both. This is the game, and it’s a masterpiece of social design.
A Grind That Respects Your Time
This is why I'm addicted. It doesn't punish me for failing. ARC Raiders is the extraction shooter for people with jobs.
If you die, you lose the gear you had on you. That's it. You keep all your XP, your quest progress, and everything in your Safepocket.
You're never truly broke. You have a "Free Loadout" option for every run, so you're never at zero. You have Scrappy, your little pet rooster, who passively generates free resources for you back at base.
And in a god-tier quality-of-life move, you can extract even while you're downed. The "gear fear" that plagues the genre is just... gone. It's replaced by a healthy desire to succeed, not a soul-crushing fear of failure.
A World That's Just Beginning
Let's talk about the story. Is it a sprawling RPG? No. The quests right now are pretty basic; go here, fetch that, kill this.
But the foundation is incredible. The few cutscenes I've seen are stunningly well-directed. The voice acting is top-notch. The whole vibe of Speranza, your underground base, is just dripping with atmosphere. Embark is building a world here, and I'm so excited to see where it goes.
And for anyone worried about the endgame? Don't be.
Yes, right now, after a few dozen hours, you'll have seen the main loop. But the game has been out for days, and the devs have already dropped a roadmap for the rest of the year.
And it is stuffed. We're talking a whole new map, "Stella Montis." New ARC enemies, the "Matriarch" and "Shredder." New gameplay items, new quests, and a new holiday event. This is just for the next two months. The long-term support already looks more robust than most AAA games a year after launch.
The Polish... And the Price Tag
Technically, this game is absurd. It looks gorgeous, the art design is top-notch, and the performance is buttery smooth. The sound design is also incredible; the mechanical whirs of a distant bot, the crunch of your footsteps, the thwack of your bullets hitting armor, it's all perfect ASMR for psychopaths.
My only real gripes are minor. The audio balancing is a mess; ambient noise is often deafening, while player footsteps can be completely silent. And some of the quests get tedious, especially the "find 6 of this one specific plant" ones.
But we have to talk about the elephant in the room: the monetization.
This is a €40 pay-to-play game. It also has a Battle Pass (it's free at launch, but the framework is there). It also has a full-blown cosmetic shop with bundles costing €20.
This feels... greedy. It's a huge red flag. You can't charge a premium price and have aggressive free-to-play monetization. The cosmetics are purely optional, but this model leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The Verdict
ARC Raiders finally did it. It cracked the extraction code.
It delivers all the adrenaline, tension, and high-stakes looting of the genre, but it wraps it in a polished, beautiful, and respectful package. It's an adventure first and an extraction shooter second.
I've played for just a few days, and I'm hopelessly addicted. It's polished, it's smart, and it's the most fun I've had with the genre, period. This is the one. This is the mainstream extraction shooter we've been waiting for.
Score: 8.8/10 - A brilliant, addictive, and beautiful game that finally makes the extraction genre fun, even if its monetization is a bit too greedy. The road ahead looks bright as hell.