Arc Raiders: Where Extraction Meets Friendship (and Chaos)

I never really got into the hardcore extraction shooter scene. My multiplayer experience? STRAFTAT sessions, endless Minecraft nights, and chaotic Outcome Memories runs on Roblox with friends. Games where the people matter as much as the gameplay.

I’d also been playing The Finals—Embark Studios’ chaotic destruction-based shooter—so when they announced Arc Raiders, I was already sold on the studio. And it clicked immediately. This isn’t just another loot-and-extract game. It’s a social experiment disguised as a shooter.

What is Arc Raiders?

The core loop is familiar if you’ve played any extraction game: gear up, drop in, loot valuable resources, and extract before the machines—or other players—take you out. Die, and you lose everything you brought in.

But Arc Raiders does something special with its PvPvE formula. The Arc machines aren’t just background noise—they’re genuinely terrifying and smart enough to force cooperation.

The Co-op Experience

This is where Arc Raiders truly shines for me. Playing with friends transforms the game entirely.

There’s nothing quite like the tension of navigating through a robot patrol with your buddies, whispering callouts, covering each other while looting, and barely making it to extraction with a haul of rare materials. The highs are higher when you’re sharing them.

The game also has a progression system with three skill branches—Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival—so you can specialize to complement your squad. One friend tanks damage, another scouts ahead, I handle the looting. It just works.

Proximity Chat: Friend or Foe?

The proximity chat is the secret ingredient that makes Arc Raiders unforgettable. Here’s the thing—you can choose to be friendly or evil, and both are valid playstyles:

The Friendly Approach:

• Call out to strangers: “Friendly! Don’t shoot!”
• Team up temporarily against Arc patrols
• Share loot drops and extraction points
• Make actual friends you’ll run into again

The Evil Approach:

• Lure players into false security
• Pretend to be friendly, then betray
• Hunt down players for their loot
• Become the villain of someone’s session

The beauty is that both create memorable stories. I’ve had sessions where random strangers helped me fight off a massive Arc walker and we all extracted together, celebrating over voice chat. I’ve also been betrayed at the extraction point by someone I thought was a friend.

Both are equally valid. Both are equally fun.

Four Unique Maps

Arc Raiders launched with four distinct open-world maps, each with its own personality:

• Dam Battlegrounds - Swampy, overgrown, lots of vertical combat
• Buried City - Sand-drowned urban ruins, tight corridors and open plazas
• Spaceport - Desert facility with high-tech loot and dangerous open sightlines
• Blue Gate - Lush and green, almost beautiful if robots weren’t trying to kill you

Weather systems and map modifiers keep things fresh. An Electromagnetic Storm changes enemy behavior and loot tables. Night Raids limit visibility. Each run feels different even on maps you’ve played dozens of times.

The Arc Machines

Unlike most PvPvE games where the AI is just an annoyance, the Arc robots are genuinely threatening. Their pathfinding is smart. They communicate with each other. They will flank you.

This creates a constant tension that keeps PvP encounters interesting. You might be in a standoff with another squad when suddenly a Bastion walker stomps through, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling to survive. Temporary alliances form. People scatter. Chaos ensues.

The AI is smart enough that “Robots incoming!” over proximity chat has become a genuine rallying cry that unites strangers against a common threat.

Get It On Steam

The Verdict

Embark Studios absolutely nailed it. See you in Speranza.