I started playing it last week. It has been on my to-play list for a long time. It was a launch exclusive for the PS5 so it made good use of PS5 gimmicks like DualSense haptics and speakers.

The game is a third person shooter bullet hellish roguelike. I find the gameplay to be tight and smooth. It is fun for sure. I beat the fourth boss today. The problem for me is that the game is a little bit too difficult. In the fourth biome for example, the first room contains a ton of enemies and all you have the pistol (starter weapon) with no bonuses. I end up losing a chunk of health and feeling like shit there. This is probably a skill issue too. I am noticing I don’t move around and use melee as much as I should. Another problem I have is that the bosses feel a bit same-y. A large chunk of the fight is maintaining distance, unloading clips and dodging enemy projectiles. It is still fun though and I have only seen four bosses so far.

Atmospherically the game is designed well. It conveys the feeling of being stranded and held captive on an awful planet nicely. I haven’t paid much attention to the lore. The story unfolds very slowly which I don’t like. Lore revelations also come at points where I am panicking and scrounging up bits and pieces of health and items trying to stay alive or healthy.

Overall the game is pretty good. I got it used for cheap and it’s been worth it so far. Hopefully I can finish this game. I have abandoned the last four or so games I have tried.

    • DonLongSchlong@lemmygrad.ml
      3·
      26 days ago

      It’s an extraction shooter like tarkov so it is always multiplayer. However, you can join the server solo and just not interact much with the other players.

      You do need to interact with them because it is in the games “culture” that you yell out that you are friendly when you encounter another player. Not doing so will leave your allyship unconfirmed which makes you an enemy.

      Arc Raiders is special in that it is not actually that useful to kill the other players and it’s better to co-operate with them to take down the robot enemies called the “arcs” (hence the title of the game).

      If you, however, join the game with a squad then you should expect everyone else to be a threat. Squad games do not share the same culture as the solo join-ins.