ARC Raiders is on the starting blocks and attracts a lot of players in its latest playtest. A particular point of contention seems to be emerging: the difficulty.
What is the playtest and how can one participate? ARC Raiders is set to release on October 30, 2025, and developer Embark has started a final tech test to thoroughly evaluate the servers and technology one last time before release. From October 17 to October 19, you can play early content of the upcoming extraction shooter.
No registration is required – the test is open to all interested players on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. During the 24-hour peak, the playtest reached around 189,668 players on Steam alone on the first day (see SteamDB, as of: 10/18/2025, 10:30 AM).
The first content of the new shooter is already well received by the community. However, one point divides the players, as the difficulty level seems to be a point of contention for many (see Reddit).
“Embark, don’t cave in …”
What does the community say about the difficulty? User Forward_Problem_7550 opens his thread on Reddit with the words: “Embark, don’t cave in … ARC Raiders is perfect as it is.” He refers to the criticism from some players that the new shooter is too hard.
The ARCs (the robots you have to fight) are considered by some to be too challenging as opponents, and newcomers to the genre have little chance to join in as they are quickly mowed down by more experienced players. Some players have also wished for a pure PvE experience without opposing players and the high risks of loss from death.
But Forward_Problem_7550 believes that these points are exactly what make ARC Raiders so special and unique in his view:
Not every game has to hold your hand. The difficulty defines its identity. It ensures that every encounter matters and every victory feels earned. People often complain at first, but those who stick around, those who understand … They will ensure that this game is successful in the long term. Please stay true to your vision and do not let ARC Raiders become another watered-down game just because some people don’t like it.
You have created something special. Do not change it.
Over 1,800 upvotes and around 590 comments support his viewpoint (as of: 10/18/2025, 10:45 AM). Most appreciate the difficulty and the good AI of the ARCs and believe that an option to adjust difficulty or nerf opponents would destroy some of the magic of the gameplay experience.
Similarly, commentators point out that this is only a playtest and much could change with the release on October 30. Additionally, the developers are very community-oriented and rely primarily on player feedback for changes, so it will eventually be shown which side prevails.
ARC Raiders has a long development history. The extraction shooter was first introduced in 2021 and was originally intended to offer a pure PvE experience. However, things changed completely, and the game was completely restructured: Because the developers found that their game “isn’t fun”, they simply postponed the release by 3 years
