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Embark Studios is just about to put out its new rustic sci-fi extraction shooter ARC Raiders, and recently invited other journalists and me to sit down for a multiplayer session to see what we’re in for. As we played a pre-release version of the game on PC, I was quite thrilled to see Embark Studios has built itself a compelling system of looting just so much as you can, playing the odds and risks, choosing whether or not to engage with others or the environment, and getting out of there with everything you can carry. Keep your eyes up ARC Raiders takes place in a world where the robots we built took over the world and drove humanity underground. The surface is ruined and patrolled by deadly machines programmed to kill humans on sight, but filled to the brim with materials that those underground need to keep their lives going. To that end, intrepid gatherers called Raiders make their way to the surface to get a hold of any bit of scrap and parts they can get and bring it back to the underground. Just beware. It’s every Raider for themselves out there and sharing isn’t always the plan when peppering a greedy stranger with bullets will net you a better reward. For the preview we played solo and group compositions of ARC Raiders. No matter what you play, it’s a third-person shooter and you’re dumped in a map full of low, medium, and high tier loot zones. Your goal is to grab the most high value of stuff your backpack slots will carry and run to an escape point. In the way of your goal are human and robot enemies. Fellow Raiders are also dumped somewhere in the map and everyone is trying to get their share of goodies. There’s an in-game proximity voice chat where you could possibly coerce other players into joining you instead of fighting you to ensure mutual gathering of loot, but either of you can shoot each other in the back at any time, which makes trust a gamble. Even then, survival is a compelling deterrent to betrayal in ARC Raiders because the robots are intense. You might see small drones flying through the air, but those small fry are mostly scanning the area (they’ll still shoot at you though). If you engage them loudly, then worse robots come running into the equation. There were automobile-sized, spider-like hoppers that could skitter and jump to our location, as well as bigger floating drones with rocket launchers that at no point did I want to engage if I could help it. Of course, if you don’t want to rely on comms and luck in solo mode to survive, there are groups as well. I played a trio round with a few folks and we were able to coordinate our search of several regions and get some pretty tasty goods before we left. And that leads to another fun point. ARC Raider maps are varied and there are often multiple ways to leave them. The regular route has you activate an elevator that takes about 10 seconds to open up and buzzes loudly while it does, inviting the attention of robots and raiders. Other maps have a key that can be found on the map and used to open a hatch for map escape. In all cases, we wandered a variety of derelict towns, factory districts, and wilderness, making these places fun to explore. It’s going to be even more fun to figure out the best risk vs. reward of locations in looting. The loot is what it’s all about at the end. Regardless of how you do, you’ll come out leveling up for your experience, which lets you improve your Raider’s capabilities along a big skill tree with upgrade options like base health, looting time, weapon handling, and more. A few of the bigger tasks in the hub are taking the loot you gathered and filling out quests with it to progress storylines, or improving your crafting and supply lines. If you die in the field, you can lose everything, but crafting can get you back in the fight quickly with new weapons and personal shield devices. There’s even a “Free Gun Kit” where you can equip it and it will supply you with a random gun, shield, and backpack for your next run so you don’t have to worry about losing gear. From what I can see, guns can get strong as you find higher-tier, more damaging versions and attachments for them, but again, if you’re unlucky in the field, those weapons and attachments will be lost. I had such an occurrence where I pulled a hefty haul, only to be ambushed right by the elevator out a millisecond before I could confirm my escape. It’s infuriating to lose that much good stuff, but it was exponentially more exhilarating when I got out with it (It’s also fun when you’re on the winning side of an ambush). I’m in my Raider arc I was impressed with ARC Raiders in my preview in many of the ways I would want an extraction shooter to impress me. Embark Studios clearly has a solid ecosystem here that rewards players for a variety of playstyles. The sly, sneaky, and meek might get their hands on some okay goodies and get out alive, but there are big rewards to be had in running into the high risk zones and weathering a storm of greedy players and bristling robots. Good gunplay and solidly varied maps make the third-person shooter gameplay all the more fun, but it’s the thrill of an escape with worthwhile rewards where ARC Raiders gets my blood pumping. If other players feel the same when Embark Studios launches, the developers might have a winner on their hands. These impressions are based on an early PC build supplied by the publisher. ARC Raiders comes out on October 30, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
