Arc Raiders (Steam/PS5/Xbox)

[hudson]

I played in the beta over the weekend and came away wanting more.

The game is an extraction third-person looter shooter. You can go in solo or with up to 2 others. You drop into fairly large map (there were 2 other map on the beta) with about 20 minutes before extraction. I think the world gets nuked if you don't make it. Scattered around the map are approx 5 escape lifts. When I dropped in, I checked the on-screen compass to determine nearest elevator and would loot along the way.

The world is mostly made up of robot drones, BB8-like bomb bots, medium and large bots. Whilst I never did this, I believe the larger bots will need to be taken down by more that one group of players. Players are encouraged to work together, but I never got to see this dynamic in action and to be honest, it sounds like a recipe for fakeouts. "Yah, we will help!". They help then team wipe you

Graphically, it's pretty gorgeous. It's from Embark, the team behind The Finals (who before that were from DICE), so decent pedigree of devs.

It's going to be a free to play game EDIT: Actually not F2P - details are currently scarce on pricing. Not sure, I'd pay, but I am happy to give it a whirl again in the future.

[QualityChimp]

I've had my eye on this since it was announced - looking like a game to play in between EDF games, but as the information came that it's going to a be a free-to-play game, my interest waned.

I'll watch that video though, thanks.

[hudson]

I've had my eye on this since it was announced - looking like a game to play in between EDF games, but as the information came that it's going to a be a free-to-play game, my interest waned.

I'll watch that video though, thanks.

I'm finding mixed news regarding whether the game will be F2P. The website and stores do not point it out, so I dunno.

[Finsbury Girl]

Looks interesting to me. I got Division vibes but I doubt they can match the tension of going through the dark zone either alone or in a crew.

[QualityChimp]

The Reddit thread is almost completely positive and most players bitten by the bug and waiting for it to be released is painful!

Still can't tell you if it's paid or not.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/05/05/the-arc-raiders-alpha-gained-players-nearly-every-single-day/

EDIT: I put the wrong link on.

[hudson]

Yeah, weird that its not clear. It seems like Embark are working it out as they go along. I think at some point the game was a Destiny like game, but it now an extraction shooter.

EDIT: It seems that's exactly what happened. It was initially going to be F2P, but since the change in direction it's now going to be a $40 game. I mean if it's good, I'm down for 40 quid.