Mastodawn

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 17

Time to slam some servers and raid those lost ARCs 🫡

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 18

ARC Raiders is the first game since PUBG that makes me feel how I felt about PUBG. It's *great*, even in this limited playtest. The pace is much quicker, but the extraction mechanics, questing, and skill tree provide that hook that could make me play hundreds of hours of this.

[You know, if PUBG had a mode with all these elements, and not just shrinking circle gameplay, I would probably put hundreds of hours more into that, too]

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 18

Love the environments and the world-building in ARC Raiders. There's a lot of lore in this; loot is environmentally contextual, questgivers are voiced, have cinematics, and drive an overarching story narrative. The one map provided in this weekend's playtest is enormous. You may encounter one, maybe two other players in a session (though will hear many others via distant gunfire). When a player goes down, a flare goes up — alerting everybody from miles around — which is a really neat mechanic

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 18

I also like how readable the ARC Raiders UI is at a glance, which is something I can't say about Marathon

(Though maybe Bungie will steal a better design language by the time it ships 😛)

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 19

The average ARC Raiders play experience. Bit of diplomacy, bit of combat, a lot of escaping from robots.

(No voiceover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nqNj8GreOk

ARC Raiders — Server Slam #1 (No Voice)

YouTube

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 19

I love the flare-on-downed mechanic in this game. It's such a great indicator of combat resolution, especially for more-distant firefights going on around you, or when you see a swarm of robots chasing a player and are curious who wins. It both means 'free loot', and 'danger close'

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 20

…and we're done. I got 11 hours in during the playtest, and loved every minute of it. ARC Raiders is the 'PUBG 2.0' I've always wanted; it's very much cut from the same cloth, but improves upon it in a hundred different ways. And PvP is always negotiable — nearly every time I witnessed somebody saying 'don't shoot', they (or I) were spared — and that goes as far as the ability to res other players and temporarily team-up with a truce. Good vibes all around

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 20

This session in ARC Raiders was one of the most PvP-heavy I've had, but the kill count of that Rocketeer drone is *terrifying*. Every time it unloads, a player goes down.

Can't wait for the full game at the end of the month 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSkO6mS1EfQ

ARC Raiders — Server Slam #2 (No Voice)

YouTube

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 20

Definitely having ARC Raiders withdrawal today.

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 23

Meanwhile, in games I actually did enjoy my playtime in…

30 million matches sounds like a lot in 3 days 🫨

https://arcraiders.com/en/news/server-slam-thank-you/

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 25

Very thoughtful 30 minute interview over at Skill Up with ARC Raiders executive producer touching on everything from the game's development and roadmap, to Bungie's Marathon and how the two games compare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA92dB1jvaQ&t=5354s

How Arc Raiders was able to generate the buzz that Marathon couldn't | FPS Podcast #81

YouTube

Nate Barham Oct 25

@stroughtonsmith Does this game have an age rating yet? Can you estimate it from your time playing, if you don’t mind?

We don’t do “realistic military-based” shooters around here (so no CoD, Battlefield, etc.), but Fortnite, Horizon, Overwatch, Rivals, Destiny are all fine.

Also, I feel like this info is frustratingly hard to find these days. Sites almost seem to intentionally hide it. (Or maybe I’ve just been lazy this morning. 😅)

Steve Troughton-Smith

@NateBarham I can't find one on the Steam page, but I can certainly estimate it.

There is no killing in the game — you down or 'knock out' other players —, no 'blood' that I can remember (weapon hits against players show other effects like sparks, or unspecific red mist), and I don't remember any bad language in dialogue or cinematics. There is proximity voice chat on by default, which I didn't think to check if you can turn off.

It's not presented as gritty, it's presented as hopeful scifi

Steve Troughton-Smith Oct 25

@NateBarham in ESRB terms, I would assume it'll get an E for everyone rating, or perhaps most likely Teen because of the voice chat

Nate Barham Oct 25

@stroughtonsmith I’m very glad to hear this. TBH, I’m now more than a little bit interested myself! 😎

Thanks for the reply.

Paul Stockton Oct 25

@NateBarham @stroughtonsmith I've been gaming since the 90's and I don't remember ever seeing a game of this quality in all my time. This is likely the best game of our lifetime, they don't come around very often.

Nate Barham Oct 25

@pauls Well that is a *very* bold statement.