ARC Raiders Review Summary

Stunning visuals and engaging gameplay make a great start, but rampant cheating, ignored by developers, and the lack of a PvE mode ruin the experience.

Outstanding audiovisual quality: The graphics and sound design are frequently lauded as fantastic, high quality, and even a masterpiece, creating a spectacular and immersive experience. Visuals and audio are a standout feature.

Excellent initial experience: Many players find the game exceptional at launch and during the first few months, with a strong foundation and enjoyable early gameplay. The initial quality and promise are widely praised.

Engaging core gameplay: The core mechanics and gameplay loop are considered top-tier and highly addictive, keeping players returning. The fundamental game design is praised for its quality and potential.

Fun and captivating experience: The game is widely described as fun, captivating, and enjoyable, especially when played with friends. The core experience is praised for being entertaining and full of challenges.

Very high playtime value: Players report hundreds to thousands of hours of enjoyable gameplay, indicating excellent longevity and replayability. The game remains interesting and engaging even after extended play.

Rampant cheating problem: A massive number of cheaters with wallhacks, aimbots, and item duplicators ruins the experience for legitimate players. The anti-cheat is described as ineffective and easily bypassed.

Developers not addressing cheating: Players feel Embark is slow or failing to act on the cheating epidemic, with many complaints about lack of bans or meaningful anti-cheat updates. This inaction is a major source of frustration.

No dedicated PvE mode: A large portion of the community repeatedly requests a true PvE-only mode for solo or cooperative play, but developers have refused or ignored these requests. This forces PvE-oriented players into unwanted PvP encounters.

Aggression-based matchmaking fails: The behavior-based matchmaking system meant to protect peaceful players does not work, as PvP players easily exploit it to enter friendly lobbies. This results in PvE players being matched with aggressive opponents.

Forced PvP on PvE players: Players who prefer a peaceful or cooperative experience are constantly forced into PvP matches or servers, often without clear opt-out options. This leads to frustration and player loss.

Extraction shooter with PvPvE: The game is widely described as a PvPvE extraction shooter, blending survival, exploration, and risk-versus-reward loops against both AI and other players.

Aggression-based matchmaking: A central feature is an aggression-based matchmaking system that separates passive and aggressive players, aiming to balance PvE and PvP encounters.

PvE mode availability: Players note the existence of a dedicated PvE mode, with some preferring it over PvP, highlighting a desire for cooperative play without player conflict.

Friendly lobby vs PvP lobby: The game distinguishes between friendly lobbies (PvE) and PvP lobbies, allowing players to choose their preferred conflict level.

Solo and team play options: The game offers solo, duo, and trio lobbies, allowing players to choose their preferred group size for both PvE and PvP content.

Game crashes frequently: The game crashes on startup, after hours of gameplay, after updates, or during raids, resulting in lost items or deaths. Multiple clusters confirm constant crashing issues.

Server instability and lag: Servers suffer from low tickrate, high ping, disconnections, lag spikes, teleportation, and rollbacks, often causing gear loss or death. Players report frequent server errors like AREX0001.

Overall optimization praised: Some players find the game well optimized, running well on older hardware and various builds, especially on medium-high settings. Clusters highlight excellent optimization.

Denuvo causes severe performance drops: Denuvo anti-cheat significantly reduces frame rates, causing drops from over 150 FPS to under 100 FPS or halving framerates. It also leads to crashes and errors about unauthorized content.

Anti-cheat causes boot failures: Anti-cheat updates lead to game failing to start, boot issues on Windows and Linux, or false antivirus blocks. Errors like AREX0003 prevent access in some regions.

Not for PvE players: This game is strongly discouraged for players who prefer PvE content or dislike PvP. Many reviews mention unfair PvP, toxic behavior, and lack of meaningful PvE options.

Poor current state: A large number of reviewers advise against buying or playing the game in its current state due to various unresolved issues like cheating, poor balance, and lack of updates.

Cheating problems: Cheating and unfair PvP are frequently mentioned as major deterrents. Players report losing progress to cheaters and feeling the game is unplayable without effective anti-cheat.

Strongly avoid overall: The general sentiment across many clusters is one of strong avoidance, with phrases like do not buy, play something else, and waste of time being common.

Waste of money: Many reviewers strongly advise against purchasing the game, claiming it is a waste of money and time. Some even recommend refunding if possible.

Community fair range: $25.00 - $40.00.

Game completion: 200.0h.

Story completion: 50.0h.

Session length: 0.5h.

Players consistently report that ARC Raiders is fun from the first minutes, with addictive progression and immersive combat, though some find it loses appeal after extended play.

Friction: Slight learning curve for extraction shooter newcomers; Initial menu confusion for some players.

Peaceful PvE Enthusiast: Friendly, avoids conflict, uses 'Don't shoot' emotes, teams up with strangers, prioritizes looting and completing quests over PvP. Motivation: Enjoy the immersive world and cooperative looting against AI enemies without unwanted PvP. Stance: sale.

Thrill-Seeking PvPvE Hybrid: Adaptive: uses diplomacy but engages in PvP when necessary. Plays both solo and in squads, values strategy and positioning. Motivation: The tension and unpredictability of player interactions in a high-stakes extraction environment. Stance: buy.

Frustrated Solo Casual: Solo, cautious, tries to be friendly but often gets killed. Avoids conflict but forced into defensive situations. Motivation: Relaxed gameplay and gradual progression without extreme loss of gear from unexpected PvP. Stance: deep sale.

Performance across the six largest hardware cohorts is mixed, with many players praising optimization and frame rates while others report frequent crashes, stutters, and server instability.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. Although many players report smooth optimization and high FPS, others experience frequent crashes, anti-cheat lag, and server instability.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: mixed. Positive reports of solid FPS and good optimization are countered by widespread complaints about constant crashes and frame rate dips.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: mixed. While some players praise the game's optimization and playability on higher settings, a significant number of users report crashes, lag spikes, and server problems.

Steam Deck: The Steam Deck experience for Arc Raiders is highly inconsistent. While some players achieve playable performance with tinkering (low settings, lossless scaling), the majority report severe issues: anti-cheat updates (Denuvo) block Linux users entirely, frequent crashes and errors plague gameplay, and recent patches have degraded performance. The game is not verified for Steam Deck and requires significant workarounds, often still resulting in an unstable experience.

Linux and Proton: ARC Raiders generally offers good Linux support with its anti-cheat working via Proton, but a recent Denuvo update has caused widespread issues, forcing users to rely on Proton Experimental or GE. While workarounds exist, they introduce performance hits and instability. The game is playable with tweaking, but the experience is inconsistent.

Monetization: Arc Raiders is a paid extraction shooter with a purely cosmetic microtransaction shop. The game has no pay-to-win mechanics, and premium currency can be earned through gameplay, including a free battle pass. While some cosmetic prices are considered high, the developer has addressed feedback with price reductions and refunds. Overall, the monetization is fair and non-predatory.

External guides: The most prominent external data dependency in Arc Raiders revolves around crafting requirements and inventory management, with players frequently needing to consult wikis to understand item uses and upgrade needs. Quest guidance is also lacking, forcing reliance on YouTube guides. The game's design often requires a second monitor with spreadsheets or wikis, creating a 'Wiki Tax' that hinders casual play.