ARC Raiders has made gaming fun again

ARC Raiders is having a moment. After winning Best Multiplayer game of the year at The Game Awards, alongside announcing changes in the January Update 1.11.0, Embark Studios revealed it has sold over 12.4 million copies of the game since its late October launch.

After logging over 25 hours of play time in the last few weeks, I’m not at all surprised. I’ve had more fun playing ARC Raiders than any other game in recent memory.

Fortnite has its phases when a new map update/meta sucks me back in for a season, but it‘s far too easy to walk away and not even think about it. Donkey Kong Bananza was a playful and enjoyable escape that I couldn’t put down once I started, but it had a definitive ending.

ARC Raiders is the first game in a long time that I am reading up on, following news, updates, strategies and am overall heavily invested in. I’m even debating picking up a PlayStation Portal so I can play when the living room TV is busy.

I may only have 25 hours of gameplay logged, but the time I’ve spent outside of sitting in front of my PS5 is easily that much, if not more.

"I'm pretty sure this is a social experiment"

After I went topside a few times on my own, I offered to buy a copy of the game for both of my sons. The oldest immediately took me up on the offer, while the youngest watched me play for a bit and said the game just wasn't for him.

A few hours later, my son and I were topside, completing quests and cautiously interacting with fellow raiders. He'd already gone on a few raids with a friend, during which they got into a few PVP battles and died, losing their loot in the process.

When we played, I was the party leader and my lobbies are definitely on the pacifist side/skewed towards PVE (Player versus Environment) instead of PVP (Player versus Player).

He couldn't believe we were able to routinely stroll by fellow raiders, exchange a friendly hello, ask for help (or offer help) and continue on our way. No fighting involved at all.

His immediate reaction after few friendly interactions was "I'm pretty sure this is a social experiment."

I agree. If psychologists aren't already studying ARC Raiders, they should be. I mean, what other game has had a dedicated Missed Connections subreddit? I can’t think of any.

Not every interaction has been as welcoming, however. Which I think adds a layer to the game of never fully letting your guard down. Exhibit A:

On the contrary, here are a couple of fantastic videos showing just how fun interactions with fellow raiders can be in ARC that you should watch.

Escape from Tarkov PTSD is real

The contrast in gameplay, lobbies and just overall approach compared to Escape from Tarkov, one of the first extraction shooters is stark. I used to play Tarkov quite a bit, but I grew to hate the game and the genre as a whole.

Gameplay was difficult. It was too easy to die, losing your loot in the process, and the inability to quickly queue back in with a free load out as Scav was incredibly frustrating. There simply wasn’t an easy way to build up your inventory again, which eventually led to me giving up on the game, and extraction shooters as a whole.

After being convinced by a friend to give ARC Raiders a shot, I was paranoid of every fellow raider for the first few raids. Eventually, I let my guard down — sometimes leading to getting killed by another player — but for the most part, my encounters have been wholesome.

When it really hit me that my mild Tarkov PTSD was valid was when playing ARC with a buddy who got far more into Tarkov than I did. He pinged every player he saw, no matter how close or far away they were. After marking them, he’d update us on their whereabouts until they were no longer visible — all the while keeping an eye on the direction they were last seen.

While he was on high alert the entire raid, I was happily looting without a care in the world (well, except for those pesky ARCs), laughing at his paranoia.

See you topside!

Eventually I’m sure I’ll start getting into fights in ARC, in turn changing how I have to approach each raid and the game as a whole. Right now, though, I’m perfectly content being in pacifist lobbies with the occasional rat while I stock up, find blueprints and complete quests.

If you want to team up, send me your gamertag.