ARC Raiders does a lot of things right, but that doesn’t mean the extraction shooter is immortal – and a call from the community could prove that very quickly.
The mix of PvP and PvE is one of the cornerstones of ARC Raiders. Nevertheless, the community has been discussing since release whether the game needs to introduce separate PvE servers or not. Some players urgently want a way to play the shooter without hostile raiders. They want to fight against the ARCs and meet other players in the game world, but PvP combat is not desired.
This demand for PvE servers is often expressed with a slightly whiny tone. The person is angry because they didn’t notice that someone was sitting in the hut at the exit and simply shot them while extracting. And I understand the frustration, honestly, but I’m convinced: If ARC Raiders listens to the whiny gamers, it will die.
Full pockets, heart rate rising – extreme tension builds up
Every active player knows it. You roam through the map, destroy a few ARCs, complete missions, and loot diligently. And then BAM, you suddenly find a blueprint for a rare item and you want to extract it at all costs.
Now it’s time to be careful.
ARC Raiders has strong sound design, but you shouldn’t feel too safe if you don’t hear other players. How often does it happen that you thought you were alone, and then suddenly a “Hello Raider” or “Don’t shoot” echoes from a few meters away? At every corner, someone can be lurking at any time, ready to take you out and steal your loot.
On the way to the elevator, you’re cautious – careful and alert. Your goal is clear: get out safely, no matter what.
- Suddenly you hear shots from the northern direction – okay, so it’s going to be the extraction point in the west of the map.
- Just a few hundred meters left, but a swampy body of water lies ahead. Walking through it is loud and slow. You’d better go around.
- Damn, a flare is rising into the sky about 200-300 meters away. You know: “That was toward the exit. Someone might be planning an ambush at the elevator.”
- You spot a raider behind a rock. Another one lies dead at the elevator console. However, your presence hasn’t been noticed. You need to decide: fight or flee and extract somewhere else.
- It will be a fight. A grenade flies, then you pull the trigger of the Stitcher. Your heart races. The opponent falls. A cautious glance into the backpack of the camper, then quickly out.
- Nice, you made it. Successfully extracted, with the blueprint. And you got the loot from the camper as well. Now, a 5-minute break first, that was stressful.
This was of course not a completely fictional situation, but it happened to me in the game. Why am I telling you this? Because it perfectly represents the tension that defines ARC Raiders. The tension that arises when you want to get to the elevator with full pockets.
Without PvP, ARC Raiders lacks an important ingredient
I usually play peacefully in ARC Raiders, completing my tasks and shooting ARCs. I keep a close eye on other raiders, but if they appear friendly, I usually don’t attack them. One might think I play ARC Raiders as a PvE shooter.
While I love competitive gameplay and mostly play PvP shooters like Rainbow Six: Siege, Battlefield, Overwatch, or Valorant, in ARC Raiders, I’m actually only interested in my loot. So I’m not speaking as someone who absolutely wants to play PvP in ARC Raiders, but rather as someone who is more peaceful. Still, I know:
PvP must not be lost in ARC Raiders!
This was also shown to me during my excursion into some similar games. Recently, I started playing Witchfire to introduce it more precisely to you soon. Witchfire is a PvE extraction shooter set in a fantasy environment, with Destiny-like gunplay and a progression system reminiscent of soulslikes.
Without giving too much away from my hands-on report, I must say that I quickly missed the pressing tension of ARC Raiders. It can only exist to a certain extent with PvP. I criticize the same in other games of this kind. They are all fun in their own way, but once I know the spawns of the stronger enemies or know how to take them down, much of the tension is gone.
PvP is the crucial piece of the puzzle that makes rounds in ARC Raiders exciting every time and creates thrills. The feeling of constant threat can only be created by the uncertainty of possible hostile encounters with other players.
I predict what might happen if PvE servers are introduced:
- PvE players will gradually lose the thrill. If there is no thrill offered and the tension drops, PvE players will eventually only have the repetitive grind left. The gameplay loop will become boring for them and dependent on new content. Then they will turn their backs on the game.
- The community will split, leading to longer matchmaking times. PvP will increase because everyone who doesn’t want to play PvP will play on the PvE servers. On the current “normal” PvPvE servers, almost everyone will be PvP-oriented. From then on, war will reign.
- With the increase of PvP, cheaters will become an even bigger problem – like in Escape from Tarkov.
- The cool interactions in the community that led to many viral clips will also decrease: Many friendly players are either gone or no longer use the microphone because they know they won’t be threatened on PvE servers. In PvPvE lobbies, the mic will only be used for toxicity after a kill/death.
- Player numbers will drop, and the likelihood that Embark will invest fewer resources into the game will increase. Updates will become fewer and/or smaller, making the game even more repetitive and causing even more players to leave. Piece by piece, ARC Raiders will die.
Of course, this is just speculation and a bit pessimistic, but I truly believe that the game would lose a crucial building block if it introduces separate PvE servers. For some players, it would be dead afterwards, as the game we currently know and love would be different.
