Arc Raiders: EVERYTHING You Need to Know Before You Buy!

question. What in the hell is Arc Raiders? That was me a couple of months ago when everyone in their mother was talking about the technical test and I

literally had no clue what they were talking about. Fast forward to now, I've played the technical test, the alpha, the beta, and most recently a closed

door capture event with many other content creators. Big shout out to Embark Studios, by the way, for inviting me to that event and for sponsoring

today's video, especially because I was planning on making it anyway, but uh we'll just keep that between you and me.

Arc Raiders is releasing tomorrow, October 30th, on PC via Steam and the Epic Game Store, PlayStation, and Xbox.

And in the event that you heard a little bit about it and you're still not really sure what is going on or if you want to jump in, I got you. Today, we're going

to go over everything you need to know before you buy so you can feel out if Arc Raiders is a game for you or not.

Thing number one, Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter and it's PvPv.

That last part means there's a mixture of both player versus player combat, aka you verse other randos on the internet,

which is always fun because guess what?

There is proximity chat, which definitely opens up the doors for interesting interactions during the match.

>> Save me. He said save me.

YouTube.com/fallout, please, [ __ ] But in addition to real life players, there are artificial intelligence enemies out there, too,

known as Ark. They're very sleekly designed but very aggressive robot enemies that are programmed to patrol

each map on a neverending loop. But more on those guys in a minute. Like I said, it is an extraction shooter. So when you fire up a match, you'll load in

somewhere on a very, very large map.

Then you'll have the ability to run around literally wherever you want and either a look for valuable loot that you

find laying around the map or b look for enemy players to attack and kill and then you can take their loot. And then

when you're either hurt really badly with no other healing options left and feel like you got to get the hell out of there, or you're simply full up on loot

and can't carry anymore, you find the nearest extraction point and get the hell out of there with your hard-earned goodies. Thing number two, this is not

marathon. The AI enemies do not f around. No shade, of course, but in some other extraction shooters I've played,

the PvE enemies you face are kind of weak pushovers. The ark robots in Arc Raiders, though, are not to be taken

lightly. When you first start playing, you'll probably bump into a few tiny weak bots that you can take out without a problem. However, the more you play,

the more you'll run into other Ark bots.

And even the innocent looking drones that peacefully kind of float around are really lethal if you don't put enough respect on them.

>> There's a big ass drone.

>> Oh my lord. What the hell was that? Oh my god, dude. No. Because these arcbots are so strong, this creates a really

different experience than I've had with other extraction shooters. I'm not always running headlong around the map

24/7, but rather I'm being cautious and stealthy a lot of the time. I often find myself only engaging with Ark if I

really need to or have an optional quest to do so. And also maybe finding and hunting down other teams because they

were dumb enough to tangle with the Ark and cause a big old commotion. Also, some of the Ark robot designs are kind

of insane. They start to get big after a while, and I mean really big. I'm looking forward to eventually trying to take some of those big ones down cuz

it'll probably be really challenging and I'll be honest, I just want to be able to say that I did it. Thing number three, there are a bunch of maps,

environments, and night raids. There are a bunch of maps you can dive into right from the get- go, and each of them have a different vibe to them. For example,

the damn battlegrounds map is kind of a more beginner, new player friendly map that isn't too wild and great for getting your feet wet. Meanwhile, Buried

City is a slightly rougher map to navigate and is kind of a battleground for more experienced players. I got to say, the environments are pretty

impressive if that's something that's important to you as a player. It really does feel like you're scavenging for your life out there in the

post-apocalyptic era. Naturally, your visual experience is probably going to depend a lot on your rig if you're

gaming on PC, but I'm pretty sure Embark has recommended textbacks on their site if you want to go check those out.

Moving on, Night Raids. While I didn't have a chance to play them in the closed content creator capture event, kind of a

mouthful, I was able to play them before in the alpha. They're basically limited time in-game events where you launch

into a map at nighttime and things are more difficult. It's harder to see enemies from a distance, and usually

there are also more Ark robots lurking around as well, but the loot is better.

So, it's kind of a risk versus reward type deal. Thing number four, you can play in squads up to three or solo. And

if you're thinking to yourself, "Hey man, I don't know about that. I don't want to go in alone and then get totally rolled up on by a squad of three

people." Also, Cool Ranch Doritos are extremely overrated. Then I agree with you on both counts. Thankfully, there are other flavors, but also the way the

game works is that if you load in solo, the game will prioritize trying to put you into a match with other players who

are also solo to prevent situations where lone players get ganged up on.

Same thing if you're in a lobby with two of your buddies. Speaking from my own experience, playing solo is definitely viable, but personally, I feel that

rolling with a squad of buddies is 110% the way to go. Fights are a little bit more interesting because you can try to flank enemy teams and work together in

the heat of the moment. You also, of course, just have the expected fun of running around and being silly with the homies.

>> I'm about to Peter pipe you, dude.

>> I know. I'm going to follow you.

>> Yeah, I'm compelled to follow, bro.

Thing number five, there's a skill tree and a lot of progression. Wiping enemy teams and staying alive long enough to extract is great because it means more

loot, but also more XP and building out your skill tree, which I'm interested in. The three main paths are

conditioning, mobility, and survival.

I'll be honest with you. I'm looking forward to seeing if any of these trees evolve or change post launch in any way

because I personally feel like due to how incredibly important stamina is, you'd have to be a borderline lunatic to

not go immediately allin on the mobility tree, which will immediately allow you to start improving your overall stamina

a lot. But I guess time will tell. In addition to your skill tree, you also have the ability to build and develop your workshop back in the underground

city of Sparansza. and you can hang out with Scrappy the Rooster, but that's a whole different story. Your workshop will allow you to build and eventually

upgrade different stations, which all fall under the umbrella of crafting. So, if you went out into the field and died

and therefore lost a really sick weapon that you really enjoyed, if you had an upgraded enough gunsmith station back

home, you could simply craft and even upgrade a new version of that gun, provided you had the raw materials to do so. The skill tree and the overall

workshop upgrading are kind of like Arc Raiders version of playing the game of number get bigger. Basically, it gives you something to work towards and it was

something I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would. Thing number six, the fashion is weird AF. Again, the setting

of Arc Raiders is a postapocalyptic world where you're a raider.

Translation: Underground dwelling hobo trash scavenging survivalist with excellent crafting skills. And the

fashion options you have access to 100% accurately reflect that world building.

A lot of these outfits aren't really function forward, if you feel me. It seems like more of a deliberate fashion choice. But then again, if you were a

trash scavenging survivalist, you'd probably be really excited to show off your fun post-apocalyptic drip, too. If I had to describe it, it would probably

be Zoolander Deraked, but again, it's expected given the surroundings. You can also apparently dress up scrappy, which

I think any normal person would agree is awesome. Thing number seven, with a full shield, you cannot be one-shot. I think

that with games like this, you're always worried that you might end up getting completely blindsided out of nowhere by a distant enemy sniper and that your

loot run will end in the blink of an eye. And while you definitely can and will get taken by surprise in game

eventually, the shield is pretty clutch in that you won't be flatout one-shot by any one attack in the game, at least none that I've seen so far. even from

the big ass queen enemy, which I've seen plenty of footage of folks fighting.

Again, big fan of that because it means that there's actual counterplay rather than just a game of what team gets in

the first shot. Thing number eight, finding other teams is easy. Winning is hard. Y'all ever seen that movie where Jim's kid gets ganked in the first 5

minutes playing with a loud toy? I mean, Arc Raiders isn't that extreme. But sound does play a big role in the game,

and it's very easy for enemy teams to completely give away their locations by making too much noise. Not just by yapping on the mic, which most players

will probably change to push to talk anyway, but by shooting their guns, which can be heard by both enemy players

and nearby Ark. For example, here's how easy it is to hear nearby enemy gunfire.

Also, looting in general is a relatively noisy activity. There are perks on the skill tree that you can put points into

that allow you to be quieter, but it will require a lot of playing and leveling up to get close to a truly very

quiet build. And just as an example, here's a demonstration of how much noise you make when looting by default in Arc

Raiders.

On top of that, when in a match, it's very easy to know when there's an enemy team getting knocked around because when any player in the game dies, a big

signal flare will automatically get shot way up into the sky from their body.

Again, what that all means is it's very likely you won't be aimlessly running around the map for too long. You'll probably start on each map with a

particular loot location in mind, but eventually you'll know right where the action is, either by nearby sound cues or by the giant, "Hey, there's something

going down over there signal flare." But don't make the mistake of thinking that when you get there, you can probably clean up a weak team. I say that because

remember, other teams probably heard all that commotion, too. In fact, things can get out of hand really fast. But if your

team comes out on top after all the chaos, I got to admit, it feels pretty damn good. Thing number nine, extraction points are open immediately and you can

get out even if you're down. Let's say you join a match and kill another player right away who had really good loot. You

don't necessarily have to stay in the match for a really long time if you don't want to. You can roll the dice and keep looking for more better loot, or

you can just bail. Extraction points are available from the get- go, and you can go to one right away and get the hell out if you feel like it. Just remember

though that they make a lot of noise, and they're usually often guarded by roaming ark, so be on your guard. And really important to remember, even if

you get downed, as long as you're in the elevator that happens to be extracting, you can still make it out with all your loot. Side note, by the way, if you find

something mid-match that is really rare and you absolutely feel like you got to make it out with that loot, you can put it in your inventories safe pocket. That

way, even if you get killed in game, you will go back to town and you'll have whatever item you tucked away in your safe pocket safe and sound. Thing number

10, Arc Raiders has long-term content plans. In a recent interview, it was confirmed that Embark Studios really

plans on keeping this game going, saying, quote, "I think internally for a very long time, we referred to this,

meaning our creators, as a 10-year game.

That is the ambition we are aiming for, and that dictates the game and quantity of content we want to put into it." Now,

that doesn't necessarily mean, hey, 10 years of content guaranteed, baby. But it's definitely clear that the plan for Arc Raiders is to go the distance. And

hey, man, that sounds good to me.

Judging by my personal track record of most played games, I'm clearly into the live service genre. So, I'm looking forward to whatever they decide to add

in from here on out. Again, the game launches tomorrow, October 30th, and is available on PC via the Epic Game Store

and Steam and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox, and crossplay is available. Thank you very much for watching, and be sure to

hop by the stream because I absolutely will be playing with the boys. Peace.

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