Arc Raiders

gpuerrilla said:
I said almost same to my group last night as @PrincessFrosty . There needs to be some matchmaking balance I was referencing Hunt showdown to them, where I was a beginner getting in lobbies of all these die hard sweats and it was just no fun. The player base will just end up with similar niche unless they come up with some innovative steps I reckon.

Enjoyed it though and will probably buy it mainly as my mates have been gearing up for it for months now.
Click to expand...
I think its always going to be niche, even with those changes, the extraction shooter genre will always be niche because the simple facts are that most gamers just cant handle losing their stuff. Thats why softcore modes in games always have more players than hardcore modes and why gamers are so against the idea of XP loss on death and corpse runs in MMOs etc (which is another reason why things like Everquest and Ultima Online would never be the successes today that they were in their time)

I'm sure there will be some form of matchmaking at release but it will still be a niche title. I think they will be very happy to be the number 1 extraction shooter game, that will probably be enough for them, just to be the top game in their genre.
 
i know we shouldn't be judging the game from this server stress test but the iteration they've had available this weekend has been a bit 'meh' imo - that's not to say it's a bad game, it's really not....but equally i can't say that it's a good game.....if that makes sense.

an extraction shooter lives and dies by it's gear fear.....how each player reacts to that fear is what makes the gameplay. but i'm not getting any gear fear or indeed even a fear of dying in game. combat is fine, nice and fluid, didn't encounter any 'ahhh wtf' moments while fighting due to bugs so that's a positive. however the gun play is much like the game, meh. it's perfectly fine and functional but there's just no excitement (if that's the correct word) when shooting guns.

the game looks and runs beautifully (even on my aging gpu) and feels like it's not a million miles away from being a good game, maybe even an excellent game but there's some things they need to tweak - hopefully the full release also fleshes the game out a bit and addresses some of the problems.

i shall certainly be keeping an interested eye on it.
 
Thekwango said:
i know we shouldn't be judging the game from this server stress test but the iteration they've had available this weekend has been a bit 'meh' imo - that's not to say it's a bad game, it's really not....but equally i can't say that it's a good game.....if that makes sense.

an extraction shooter lives and dies by it's gear fear.....how each player reacts to that fear is what makes the gameplay. but i'm not getting any gear fear or indeed even a fear of dying in game. combat is fine, nice and fluid, didn't encounter any 'ahhh wtf' moments while fighting due to bugs so that's a positive. however the gun play is much like the game, meh. it's perfectly fine and functional but there's just no excitement (if that's the correct word) when shooting guns.

the game looks and runs beautifully (even on my aging gpu) and feels like it's not a million miles away from being a good game, maybe even an excellent game but there's some things they need to tweak - hopefully the full release also fleshes the game out a bit and addresses some of the problems.

i shall certainly be keeping an interested eye on it.
Click to expand...
Is part of that lack of gear fear down to it being a stress test, so you know you will lose everything at the end of the weekend anyway, plus its only the starter map so its not like you can get any higher level gear to then be worried about losing?
 
Tombstone said:
Is part of that lack of gear fear down to it being a stress test, so you know you will lose everything at the end of the weekend anyway, plus its only the starter map so its not like you can get any higher level gear to then be worried about losing?
Click to expand...
Possibly. Hence why I’d suggest people don’t write it off if this weekend has been their only experience of it so far.
At the end of the day this weekend wasn’t meant to showcase the game - though the argument could be made that’s exactly what they should have done. But it wasn’t so I’m not going to be ultra negative about it until I see it in the ‘wild’ properly.
 
Thekwango said:
Possibly. Hence why I’d suggest people don’t write it off if this weekend has been their only experience of it so far.
At the end of the day this weekend wasn’t meant to showcase the game - though the argument could be made that’s exactly what they should have done. But it wasn’t so I’m not going to be ultra negative about it until I see it in the ‘wild’ properly.
Click to expand...
True, its a shame that their previous test phase wasnt open to everyone as there was much more in it that this stress test, on the plus side the stress test performed admirably with near flawless server performance.
 
Tombstone said:
Is part of that lack of gear fear down to it being a stress test, so you know you will lose everything at the end of the weekend anyway, plus its only the starter map so its not like you can get any higher level gear to then be worried about losing?
Click to expand...
For me there's no gear fear because I haven't found anything I'd consider worth keeping. All guns I've come across are pretty poor, loot/gadgets/junk are just boring. If I die I lose the seeds, stale tuna or scrap metal I found...oh dear. I'm sure there's better things to be found or better things in the final game but from my experience it seems very few and far between.
Also in the test are there any other Arc robots other than the different drone variations? Cos they just aren't fun to fight against.
Everything I had seen from the trailers leading up to the release made the game look so cool, fighting massive spider like robots etc and all I get is Batteries Not Included :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
SpudMaster said:
For me there's no gear fear because I haven't found anything I'd consider worth keeping. All guns I've come across are pretty poor, loot/gadgets/junk are just boring. If I die I lose the seeds, stale tuna or scrap metal I found...oh dear. I sure there's better things to be found or better things in the final game but from my experience it seems very few and far between.
Also in the test are there any other Arc robots other than the different drone variations? Cos they just aren't fun to fight against.
Everything I had seen from the trailers leading up to the release made the game look so cool, fighting massive spider like robots etc and all I get is Batteries Not Included :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
The massive robots are there in the game, even in the stress test. There are bastions, the Queen, leapers and so on, all are larger than the small flying drones (all are ground based too)

Weapon wise, did you upgrade any weapons, having a tier 4 weapon, with all the attachments on is a shame to lose at times, even more so if its a scoped sniper rifle :D
 
Last edited:
Probably 90% of the people on here don't even know how to get to the control tower where the best loot is....u do need a key to open the door but with some parkour and skills (holding spacebar) u can drop down from the roof and climb onto the ledge.. once inside the loot is very good... I honestly believe most people haven't even made gun attachments used blue shields or even experimented with the different types of grenades and gadgets u can use, not upgraded there guns or even used there chicken
 
Last edited:
Westie said:
Probably 90% of the people on here don't even know how to get to the control tower where the best loot is....u do need a key to open the door but with some parkour and skills (holding spacebar) u can drop down from the roof and climb onto the ledge.. once inside the loot is very good... I honestly believe most people haven't even made gun attachments used blue shields or even experimented with the different types of grenades and gadgets u can use, not upgraded there guns or even used there chicken
Click to expand...
Could well be, its very easy to make a decent gun really, just make a ferro, upgrade it a few tiers, shove a silencer on it, stock, vertical grip, extended magazine and you've got a very nice gun. Put on a medium shields and you can take quite a whack of damage, make sure to craft shield rechargers and a bunch of nades and gadgets and you've got yourself a nice loadout for quite little effort.
 
Last edited:
Westie said:
Probably 90% of the people on here don't even know how to get to the control tower where the best loot is....u do need a key to open the door but with some parkour and skills (holding spacebar) u can drop down from the roof and climb onto the ledge.. once inside the loot is very good... I honestly believe most people haven't even made gun attachments used blue shields or even experimented with the different types of grenades and gadgets u can use, not upgraded there guns or even used there chicken
Click to expand...

You're 100% correct because that's me. Sad to see it end. 2 weeks left for the full experience.
 
I didn't see any gear fear as nothing much looted warranted it and I did some basic crafting. Couldn't see the option to get a better rig and use medium shields which may have made things more interesting. It was really easy just running quick loot runs, expanded the storage a number of times, filled it up and had 50K credits to spend in 8hrs.

One of the other issues I had which is the same with DF is the bucket squad fill on a global basis. If people do have mics it's either some weird Italian heavily breathing down the mic or a pair of Arabs having a daily chat throughout the raid. I get it's a stress test but first impressions and all....
 
Tombstone said:
A way of recycling quicker or a recycleable sorting option on the inventory would be good. Not sure I'd want it to recycle everything recycleable at the press of a key though as there are some things that you need which would get recycled. Maybe something like a Borderlands style "junk" key so that I could mark items when picked up as junk and then hit a key to recycle all marked items, that works tremendously well in Borderlands 4
Click to expand...
Not all objects that can be recycled have a use as I understand it, toasters can safely be deconstructed into metal for example. You have to read through all the descriptions to see what they can be used to craft before you recycle. You also can't see the deconstructed material until you click recycle. QoL badly needed there.

After a lot of games in various different configs over the weekend, my final take is:

- Expect PvP not PvE.
- Very high TTK, good players with better weapons have strong advantages.
- Loot to craft, craft to fight. If you don't enjoy the fight don't bother.
- Guns are not well balanced.
- Friends are necessary, solo is too unforgiving.
- Matchmaking squads is very hit and miss, mostly miss.
- Good graphics and great performance considering.
- Excellent sound engineering and environmental sounds, including proximity chat.
- Cheaters (there's speed hacks already).
- Truly awful character design, but fairly interesting aesthetics.
- Expect to feel frustrated and elated and not much in between. Narrow escapes are thrilling, dying sucks.
- Don't bother if your plan is just to sneak in, loot and sneak out, that will be ultimately unrewarding.
- Some meta progression (building workshops, spending skill points)

If I pick this up will depend if my friends do, they're not very sold on it at the moment.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
Not all objects that can be recycled have a use as I understand it, toasters can safely be deconstructed into metal for example. You have to read through all the descriptions to see what they can be used to craft before you recycle. You also can't see the deconstructed material until you click recycle. QoL badly needed there.

After a lot of games in various different configs over the weekend, my final take is:

- Expect PvP not PvE.
- Very high TTK, good players with better weapons have strong advantages.
- Loot to craft, craft to fight. If you don't enjoy the fight don't bother.
- Guns are not well balanced.
- Friends are necessary, solo is too unforgiving.
- Matchmaking squads is very hit and miss, mostly miss.
- Good graphics and great performance considering.
- Excellent sound engineering and environmental sounds, including proximity chat.
- Cheaters (there's speed hacks already).
- Truly awful character design, but fairly interesting aesthetics.
- Expect to feel frustrated and elated and not much in between. Narrow escapes are thrilling, dying sucks.
- Don't bother if your plan is just to sneak in, loot and sneak out, that will be ultimately unrewarding.
- Some meta progression (building workshops, spending skill points)

If I pick this up will depend if my friends do, they're not very sold on it at the moment.
Click to expand...
Thing is, that description is mostly applicable to every extraction shooter. Thats why I say if a person doesnt like extraction shooters the chances are they wont like this and if they do like extraction shooters the chances are they will like this. The main , well known, extraction shooters currently are probably Hunt Showdown and in particular, Tarkov, thats the rivals for this, nothing else and certainly nothing outside of the extraction shooter genre, those other titles just arent their target. IMO, this is better than both Hunt and Tarkov, both of which are doing fine with a specific userbase of players, which is why I say Arc Raiders will not be dead in 6 months. If Hunt and Tarkov are still doing fine after 7 years and 8 years respectively, I'm certain Arc will also be doing fine in 6 months (and beyond)

But yes, you have to be someone who likes the extraction shooter genre, or you will probably think the game is trash, much like how you have to like the stardew valley/rimworld/deep rock galactic/slay the spire/blue prince genres or you'll think those are all trash too. It is a niche game and it likely always will be.
 
Last edited:
Westie said:
Launch is gonna be really good fun... little tip do the quests asap.. and research the talent tree and try get the stamina perks asap it will help u a lot in the first 10-15 levels
Click to expand...
True, doing the quests can give you a very nice little early leg up, gets you a medium shield and a silencer pretty rapidly :)
 
Not sure if I’ll get this. I think I’d have to convince a few friends to dive in and play this for it to be worthwhile and feel like a fun experience overall.
 
Gazanimal said:
Not sure if I’ll get this. I think I’d have to convince a few friends to dive in and play this for it to be worthwhile and feel like a fun experience overall.
Click to expand...
Thats true, like most online shooters, its a more fun experience with likeminded friends than solo. Actually come to think of it, as someone who primarily plays co-op games, I'd have to go further and say that all my gaming is more fun with likeminded friends than solo. Gaming with friends is the nutz :D
 
Played this solo for a few hours yesterday - great fun but yes, very hard to play without friends.

I was impressed with the performance - 4K, all settings on Epic (including raytracing), DLSS on Balanced, no frame gen and I'm getting 140fps out of my 5080. That's better than most games I've played recently, including those with "basic" graphics like The Finals.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom