Is Arc Raiders worth the $40? Well, if you like video games that are extraction shooters, then Arc Raiders might be the game for you. Arc Raiders offers tons of Player vs. Environment (PvE), cinematic gameplay, and tons of fun if you put in the time. So please, join me as I talk about my adventure with Arc Raiders over the few months. 

As I mentioned earlier, Arc Raiders offers tons of PvE. PvE is when there are non-playable entities, which are called arcs, that can do damage to the player, such as going into a downed state or just dying. Each arc has a different ability, ranging from getting too close to it and it blows up and does damage to you to being able to call in another arc to damage you. 

The first few arcs are Pop, Wasp, Hornet, and Ticks. The Pop, when it gets close to you, will blow up and deal damage to you. The Wasp is essentially a drone that shoots bullets at you. The Hornet is similar to the Wasp but, instead of shooting bullets at you, it shoots a taser towards you that breaks your shield instantly and does damage to your health bar. The Shredder is currently restricted to one map and is really fast, and, when it gets close enough to a raider, will open up its center plate and unleash a barrage of gunshots dealing major damage to you instantly. The Tick is a small spider-like arc that jumps onto you and attaches to you and deals small damage to you.   

If those arcs sound bad to you, believe me the arcs only get stronger from there. There are two arcs that are very similar to each other and they are called the Bastion and Bombardier. The Bastion is like the Wasp, but it doesn’t fly and its gunfire is so much stronger that it can take you down in roughly two seconds. It is one of the arcs that I fear interacting with the most. The Bombardier has two other arcs with it called Spotters. The Spotters, well, they spot players for the Bombardier. When you get spotted by the Spotters, you have about 10 seconds to destroy them or they will call a missile strike from the Bombardier to fire missiles where the player was spotted. 

There is another arc that the entire community fears, myself included, and that is the Rocketeer. The Rocketeer fires missiles towards the player, similar to the Bombardier, but it can fly and shoot missiles at a much faster rate, and the Rocketeer has serious damage and can down a player with just two rockets. 

The last two arcs and possibly the most dangerous arc to encounter in this game are the Queen, and the Matriarch. The Queen protects a location called “The Arc Harvester.” When you load the gamemode “Harvester,” the announcer in-game says “only engage if you’ve brought your best gear, tons of backup, and a good plan.” Take the announcer’s words wisely because fighting the Queen can easily get you killed because she has a stomp attack, a laser attack, a missile attack, and a gas grenade attack. The laser attack is when she shoots a continuous laser for about five seconds and the area that she shoots will have fire there, and if you walk into it then you will lose health very fast. Then you have the Matriarch. The Matriarch shares the stomp attack with the Queen, but it also has the ability to summon all the arcs I have mentioned above (besides the Queen, Tick, and Pop).  Since the Matriarch has the ability to summon more Arcs to defend herself, it easily makes her the most intimidating arc to fight and the most dangerous arc to kill. If you do manage to kill her, you will be able to search parts of the Matriarch and acquire “Matriarch reactors” which sell for 13,000 in-game currency

Arc Raiders gameplay can be cinematic depending on how you decide to play it. For example, if you decide to be a medic and bring defibrillators to revive downed raiders during the Matriarch event, you are throwing yourself out into the open and being a hero while trying not to die to all the arcs she calls down on you and others. 

As of Feb. 24, Arc Raiders was updated and showcased the hurricane weather event. In the hurricane event, there is a large hurricane rampaging over topside with winds and rain pouring down onto the map that slows you down if you run against the wind. There is also debris caught by the hurricane’s winds that damages your shield and makes you very noticeable, and it also makes a noise that can alert players or arc. In the hurricane event, there are also more arcs throughout the map which makes survival more difficult, especially if the other raiders aren’t friendly to you or others. Despite there being weather events throughout Arc Raiders, if you just play the maps without the weather events they still look really beautiful to just walk around on. One map in particular is the map called “The Blue Gate,” Blue Gate is filled with trees and vegetation while having arcs nearby.

Arc Raiders is overall a really fun game if you decide to do the PvE part of the game, but Arc Raiders has something called Aggression Based Match Making. Basically ABMM is how aggressive you are towards other raiders, if you damage other raiders a lot then, you will be put into very aggressive lobbies where every person you see is trying to kill you. On the other hand, if you don’t damage any raiders at all, you will be put into friendly lobbies where every raider joins forces to take on all the arc. ABMM is a good thing because if you do manage to kill other raiders and you loot their body you can sometimes find VERY good loot, such as high tier weapons, more ammo, healing items, new shields, and so much more. You just have to get very lucky in some battles and play very strategically or else you will be the one to be killed and looted by the enemy. 

All in all, Arc Raiders has been such a fun game for me to enjoy over the last few months. This game has such funny moments from nearly dying to getting such good loot from looting other raiders’ bodies. I highly recommend playing Arc Raiders for anybody that is looking for something new to play and enjoy for months on end.