Arc Raiders is really, really good.

[spc]

And I knew it would be, having loved The Finals, but damn. It's way better than I ever expected.

I figured Marathon and Arc Raiders would duke it out for the 2025 Extraction Shooter spotlight, considering how similar they are in both gameplay and release dates, but I absolutely expected Marathon to come out the victor. After all, I'm a fan of Bungie, and the initial teasers had me drooling over the art direction. But after spending 16 hours (so far) in Arc Raiders, it's clear that Embark Studios is winner here. And so are we, because this game is great.

It seems like The Finals was almost a staging ground for them to develop Arc Raiders from. There's so many similarities, some obvious, and some not so. But what made The Finals fun and immersive is turned up to a 12 in Arc Raiders. Especially in Buried City -- by the end of your first rooftop fight you'll be looking around for the nearest cashout station before you remember what game you're playing.

It's so immersive. Sometimes the fights are drawn out -- interrupted by robots pinning one team down, or trading revives back and forth down a long hallway -- and sometimes they're over before they even begin. The TTK is low, but the maneuverability and diverse maps allow for a lot more thought and mechanics when it comes to engaging (or disengaging). And the myriad of gadgets and weapons make taking place in those fights very, very fun. The sound design is easily one of the most polished areas of the game; gunshots and explosions sound really, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good.

Speaking of polish, whew. Outside of two crashes (which were UE5 related and happen in almost every UE5 game), I ran into 0 bugs. It ran at a smooth 144 FPS consistently (1440p, High Settings, DLSS Balanced - 4080, 32GB 7200MHz, i9-13900k) but even on older rigs I saw really good performance with some of the settings turned down, or even pushing high settings at a solid 90-100 FPS. And even aside from performance, it is dripping in quality. There already appears to be a lot of depth and diversity when it comes to guns, quests, and especially crafting.

A big part of extraction shooters and their longterm appeal is depth and complexity of its systems/mechanics. The BIGGEST reason Tarkov is as big as it is in terms of players, is both of those things. And the reason it has such a leg up over the competition, simply put, is time. But most developers take the wrong approach -- they try to expedite the grind or simplify the systems for a stable 1.0, or steer the game too much in the other direction where the game's depth becomes trivial and surface-level. Rather, the correct approach is giving it depth, and treating it as a live service to expand upon said depth as time goes on, while introducing systems that allow for that growth along the way. And from what I see here, Arc Raiders is poised to do exactly that.

The game's difficulty is solid, too. The PvE aspect poses a real challenge, and you have to respect it. Even if that means steering clear of it as much as possible, or taking perks that help you avoid conflict with it (quick ++ for the skill system - it's good). And it's not even necessarily the PvE itself that is hard, though it definitely can be, but rather the awareness that it gives other players of your location. From cameras and metal detectors and car alarms that are always pinging your location with audio, to drones that are highlighting you from high above and unloading volleys of rockets (and more drones) in your direction, to the general sound of gunshots as you have to deal with the PvE - players will learn your location quickly once you're forced to engage with it. But you have that same advantage.

In my opinion, it could release right now. I know there isn't a release date at the moment, but obviously it will drop sometime this year. And after seeing what Bungie provided last week, compared to what Embark showed this week, I think they'll beat Marathon by at least a month or two. Hell, maybe we'll see a sneak release even sooner than that. I hope they capitalize on the hype it's building and keep that going - maybe another playtest that leads right into a drop weekend.