ARC Raiders is currently one of the highest rated multiplayer only shooters on Metacritic with an 87 and a User score of 8.9. It’s an incredible feat by Embark Studios, the team behind The Finals, a destructible arena shooter.

ARC Raiders is a PvPvE extraction shooter - “ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC” reads the Steam page description.

The discussion around the community is of constant surprise of just how good ARC Raiders truly is. Shocking many and pulling in those who love the shooter genre but are looking for something new and exciting to play. Which is exactly what Embark has achieved with their extraction shooter. It has moments of tension as you and your party of 3 fight off the ARC robots and are suddenly assisted by another team, or worse, the other team joins the robots and eliminates you and your team, scooping up the precious loot that you’ve just finished gathering.

This PvP element, mixed with the PvE, is what makes ARC Raiders so special, but also frustrating at the same time when you become third-partied by another team. This has raised some debate about whether there should be a PvE-only mode amongst the community.

One comment on X, from user: Muazh03 feels - “Not as a one-to-one same extraction mode but without PvP but it can be something new where the whole purpose is to take down bosses or like Destiny 2 raid style thing would go hard.”

While another was quick to point out : Loochy| “There’s nothing to settle. The Devs themselves said they tried the PVE route and found the game boring and not the direction they wanted to take. This is the quickest way to ensure the base mode becomes a PvP only fest and the PvE mode players burn through content & quit. No.”

Loochy is not wrong, Embark Studios themselves has gone on record stating that ARC Raiders was initially a PvE experience only, before “they found the fun” by adding the PvP element into the game. There will always be the discussion in a PvP game about whether or not fans should have a PvE element added to the game. Not everyone lives for the competitive nature which some of these games bring. They would love to play ARC Raiders, but because of the PvP element, it keeps them away.

Would adding in a PvE mode bring in more players?

One X user, Zedris Alvaro, thinks so - “People that think pve would ruin the fun dont know that all the Destiny players need a new home right now. How is pve boring when some of the biggest and longest running games are pve mainly? More options is generally always better, especially with a player base this large already. Arc having a story driven pve multiplayer mode would probably be massive. Arc raiders could take the destiny and borderlands playerbase easy lol”

The moment-to-moment chaos of the unknown is a thrill-ride that is unmatched right now in the space. Watching a red flare light up the sky knowing falling enemies are not far off. Gettinh the surprise jump on unexpected raiders or jumping into an already occupied extraction elevator as it descends to Sepernza is exhilarating. Could a PvE mode still bring the same tension and fear of losing it all with one wrong move to the game? Let us know in our Discord if you think ARC Raiders should feature a PvE mode.