ARC Raider's best feature is its biggest win and also its biggest loss

ARC Raiders has been praised for many things since its launch, but its standout quality is undoubtedly its immersion. It is almost impossible to forget your first round ARC Raiders (even if it doesn't end well), simply because it has a way of almost effortlessly immersing players in its world. The sights, the sounds, even the discomfort – they all play a part in making it the unforgettable trip that it is. But over time, the defining quality has turned out to be one of them ARC Raiders' most divisive, not because players can't agree on its value, but because they can't agree on how best to experience it.

For some players, ARC Raiders is fine as is as a PvPvE game, but others would prefer if it did away with PvP entirely. A PvE mode has been one of the extraction shooter's most requested features since its launch, and it's hard not to see the game's immersion as an important part of it. If ARC Raiders wasn't such an immersive experience, the clamor for a PvE mode wouldn't be as loud as it is, and it might not even exist at all.

ARC Raider's best feature is its immersion

Even before anything has happened during a round in ARC Raidersit's easy to get lost in your world. When players enter Dam Battlegrounds for the first time, they are met with a silence that is almost deafening and the subsequent excitement that comes as a direct result of that silence. There's no telling when gunshots might be heard, or when a nearby wasp might chirp at the sight of an attacker. It's not long before mysterious explosions sound in the distance, and ARCs five and ten times the size of a human can be heard stomping around on their patrol routes. All of this comes into play ARC Raiders' immersion.

Even before the launch, ARC Raiders was already recognized as a deeply immersive experience by those who participated in various tests of the game. A deep dive analysis shared on Reddit by kimblarsen showed why ARC Raiders' immersion stands out so much compared to other shooters. The analysis, which was based on 130 survey responses from Tech Test 2, found that players pointed to the game's “sound and world design, weather and responsive AI” as some of the main reasons why the world feels “alive, dangerous and unforgettable”. Of course with the examination that is done before ARC Raiderswas released, many comments in the thread expressed doubt that the game could actually be as immersive as it sounds.

However, when the extraction shooter launched, players began to notice that it was actually one of the more immersive games out there. Posts like this one from Reddit user Evo_8 discuss how ARC Raiders' machines feel like real robots, and that's a big part of what makes them so scary. Embark Studios even went on to confirm that sentiment in episode 3 of its Evolution of ARC Raiders docuseries, where it detailed its process behind making the ARCs mimic the behavior of actual robots. The environment also has a lot to do ARC Raiders' immersion, as its visuals and sound design combine to form what feels like a living, breathing, unforgiving world.

ARC Raiders Immersion increases demand for a PvE mode

Despite how much ARC Raiders might benefit from its submersion, it is the very thing that has come back to bite the extraction shooter, even without direct provocation. Since launch, a widening divide has formed between players, with one side practically calling for a PvE mode to be added to the game and the other side not only asking Embark to leave ARC Raiders alone but also encourage the opposing side to adapt to the demands of the game rather than resist them. It's not entirely unusual for a game with PvP elements to inspire such claims, but it's been a particularly prominent argument in ARC Raiders— And it all depends on the game's ability to immerse oneself.

In fact, some players would suggest that PvP actually ruins the game's immersion because unfriendly encounters with other Raiders pull them out of the world. A Reddit post by user Primary-Kangaroo specifically states that PvP is what ruins their immersion, going so far as to say that ARC Raiders is “not a multiplayer game, it's an immersive single-player experience with other players around.” Funnily enough, this particular post's claim is so bold that it's most likely satire meant to poke the proverbial PvE bear. However, other posts, such as one from Disastrous_Mud_8040, present serious arguments in support of a PvE mode for the game.

To back up his points, Disastrous_Mud_8040 claims they came from other shooters who The escape from Tarkov and The divisionwhich qualifies them to present a valid argument for a PvE mode to be added ARC Raiders. “There is so much potential world-building, atmosphere, and storytelling that could shine in a PvE experience. Right now, all of that is overshadowed by the stressful loop of looting and escaping. Let the players actually experience and appreciate the world the developers created,” said Disastrous_Mud_8040, finally rooting for their argument. ARC RaidersThe most immersive features are the star of the whole experience.

The other side of the aisle would argue that PvP is actually necessary ARC Raiders' immersion, as it adds to the tension that extraction shooters are known for and favors Embark's addition to the genre in the same way. Reddit user Substantial-Try-6219 said just this in a recent post, indirectly calling the PvE-only crowd hypocritical for appreciating the game's immersion, and yet “hate when players act on it.” They went on to say in the post, “You are called a raider, which by definition is basically a thief. Why do so many ARC Raiders players want to rob agency from other users?”

It seems that Embark would actually agree with this sentiment as well, as the developer mentioned in another episode of The Evolution of ARC Raiders that ARC Raiders started as a PvE experience but changed to PvPvE because “it didn't work.” Executive producer Aleksander Grondal stated during the episode, “I want this to be more than just a static backdrop where I'm fighting robots,” with the idea seeming to be that things were simply too boring without another threat on the surface.

Of course, some fans in Substantial-Try-6219's thread disagreed with the OP and mentioned loopholes in ARC Raiders' logic of people trying to work together to rebuild society underground, but still trying to kill each other on the surface. Others, however, believe that war will cause desperate people to do strange, inexplicable things. Anyway, ultimately both arguments come from one's own interpretation of ARC Raiders' immersion, making it one of the biggest gaps between players over a month after launch.

ARC Raiders Immersion is both its biggest strength and biggest fault line

In the middle of ARC Raiders' ongoing divide is the simple fact that its immersion works so well. The world feels so real that players stop thinking about mechanics and start thinking about presence, and that's where expectations split. Some want the tension of other Raiders to enhance that feeling, while others want the space to exist in the world without interruption. Anyway, the argument only exists because the immersion is strong enough to be worth fighting for. Ironically, ARC Raiders' community is torn apart by the very thing that makes the game so special, and that contradiction will likely define it for a long time to come.