ARC Raiders is making a comeback since the launch of Frozen Trail, its biggest update ever, but Embark Studios still has big plans for the extraction shooter. That includes a PvE test from October 13th to 20th, where players can band together exclusively against the ARC sans the risk of PvP.
Of course, many will remember that ARC Raiders initially began as a co-op title, but because the team didn’t find it very fun, it pivoted to PvEvP. Nevertheless, with several players gravitating towards co-existence since launch, the floor is certainly more open to PvE.
Speaking to GamesRadar, executive producer Aleksander Grøndal says it’s something the team has also been debating. “Naturally, we were a bit like, ‘Are we gonna open this door? What does that mean?’ We had that question ongoing for a long time, maybe even too long, to be fair.”
Is it possible that ARC Raiders ends up offering a completely distinct PvE mode alongside PvEvP? “It’s very possible,” said Grøndal. “I mean, the community is already split along those lines. If the game eventually will represent that? Quite possibly. I think it’s important to respect how the players want to enjoy the game, even if it doesn’t necessarily fully gel with what we thought the game was initially or how we designed the game to be initially. It’s possible. Of course, it creates some challenges on our end. We need to figure out what we really mean by that.”
Simply implementing PvE won’t fix all the game’s problems. It could very well add more than a few new ones, including splitting the player base in terms of matchmaking. Grøndal admits there are “valid risks.” “Which is one of the reasons why we wanted to run a test which is somewhat limited around some of the higher-end stuff. It will affect, or it has a chance of affecting, the overall experience. This is also why we wanted to just get it out there, look at the data, look at what the feedback says, and then really figure out what the best way forward is.
“I think there’s a lot of valid concerns, and internally at the studio, that have been expressed, both sides of that coin. It’s not like everyone was high-fiving Aleks when we introduced this idea to do this test. That’s not the case. There were some real concerns there too. But at the end of the day, I really feel like we need to answer this question, at least to ourselves, and of course also to the players.” With titles like Marathon set to add a permanent PvE mode, one has to wonder if it’s just a matter of “when,” not “if”, for ARC Raiders. Time will tell, and it may be a long time indeed, so stay tuned.
ARC Raiders is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out everything you should know about Frozen Trail here, or check out the snazzy launch trailer.
