“Arc Raiders” is a PvE/PvP extraction looter shooter released on Oct. 30 of 2025. It made a very successful first launch with over 2.5 million total copies sold in just its first week. The game made itself very known, shooting to the top of game charts and winning awards like the “Best Multiplayer Game of the Year.”
Dominick Nowak(11) has been playing the game for about as long as it has been out and he describes it as a game with large variety and game play. “You get dropped into a map. There’s a whole bunch of them. You just have to find loot, and you can fight other people,” he said.
Brodie McCall (10) was hesitant about buying the game, not having the best of luck with other games like it, he wasn’t sure about getting into it. “I haven’t had good experiences with extraction shooters, but I decided to try it out when it was on sale on Steam. I purchased it with a bunch of my friends, and it turned out to be a lot of fun,” McCall said.
McCall enjoys the community and meeting new people when he plays the game, with others helping him and having a peaceful run. “I believe that parts of the game, including the proximity chat, add in a layer of teamwork, not just with your friends, but with other players, and you can form bigger teams to help each other out,” he said.
The game uses improved matchmaking to put you into lobbies with people most like you, whether you’re more of a peaceful player or if you like more conflict and action. “Normally games do it off your skill base,” Nowak said. “I mean, it’s kind of skill based, but I like how they try to match you with people your skill level and your friendliness.”
McCall finds the matchmaking to be different yet effective, and that it may change future matchmaking games. “I think it’s a very interesting concept, because I feel it’s something that should be implemented in the game industry as a whole. I think that it’s really a step in the right direction when it comes to the concept of skill based matchmaking in games,” McCall said.
Some find it to be a great take on the genre. “I think it’s getting a lot of people into the extraction shooter genre, where before every extraction shooter was the same, there was no difference in any of them,” Aiden Garrison (10), an avid player of the game said.
Nowak is happy the game came out, not having played a new one like it in a while. “We haven’t had a game like this in a very long time, so I think it’s just something new that everyone likes to try.” Nowak said. “They’ve done a really good job in making it.”
The game can be played solo or with friends. McCall says that solo is fun but he thinks he’ll play longer if he has friends to enjoy it with. “I enjoy playing it on my own, but I think it depends on how long my friends enjoy it, because I’ll still play it on my own from time to time, but it’s most fun with my friends.”
But gamers don’t just have to play with their friends, you can meet and play with others across the globe, helping to create a stronger community. “The game itself, at its base, is still a very fun game,” McCall said, “and I think that the fact that it has multiplayer and the fact that you can engage with your friends and random people on the internet makes it more fun and enjoyable.”
Garrison enjoys the random players, doing missions and fighting robots with people in the same lobby. “Playing with my friends is generally more fun, but some of the best moments have just been playing alone and finding some random person,” he said.
One thing that was used to enhance and create many aspects of the game was AI, though it has mixed feelings from players. “I don’t appreciate it,” McCall said, “but I do think that the voice acting is very well done. I didn’t know at the time that it was done by AI, but I think that it was very enhanced.”
Nowak thinks that the use of AI was cool, he enjoyed how they used it on movement for entities. “With AI now becoming such a big thing, part of companies and everything using it, I think it’s pretty cool how they’re using it, especially how they make the arc move,” he said.
Despite the conflicting view points on AI, gamers still love and enjoy the game. “I think it’s a great way to get into extraction shooters,” McCall said, “or if you just want to have a good time with your friends, I think it’s a great game to connect with people and try a different genre of game.”
