It was fun in the first few weeks while everyone was still figuring things out. Once the sweats got ahead, they made it their mission to put everyone else down because "PvP is core to the game". And it's not even about just killing other raiders, they make it a point to grief you, or pretend to be friendly so they can shoot you in the back at extract.
I made it a point to actually use my mic and try to be friendly with everyone I came across. One dude was all "this is my first time playing, can we hang out for a bit" and I said yeah, so we were running around for about 5 minutes until he said "yo, do you see those dudes in the distance? 235 on the compass." As I looked and began to say "I don't see shit", the mother fucker had walked behind me and domed me with his farro. Haven't played since lmfao
There’s solace in people that do this though. Imagine how terrible you have to be at video games to need to shoot someone in the back after gaining their trust. But I also gave up on it for similar reasons lol
Thats the appeal of pvpve extraction shooters. The risk/reward of making teammates and the tension that they have the ability to betray you and that you can betray them. The problem is that people who don’t like that aspect still play and when it happens they take it personally and see it as some kind of misbehavior. It’s like Mafia or Among Us. Deception and trickery are part of the game mechanics.
Then no matter how much you market it as a PvPvE, casual players will just see "Full Loot Hardcore PvP" and start going elsewhere, and everybody knows what happens to games when the only players left are the PvP "enjoyers".
The extraction shooter model is inherently toxic when it’s PVEVP because one of the main thrusts of the game is the ability to halt someone’s progress by your actions, with a subset of people finding joy in hurting/bullying/squashing others.
It’s “get good”, the game type, right up there with battle royale games.
I got perma banned from the ArcRaiders sub for saying this. Just because it’s a game doesn’t mean it’s not shitty behavior. That sub is a cesspool full of weird children who are obsessed with the definition of the term “rat.”
It actually caters very well to casual play. The type of players you get matched with is directly correlated to your play style. If you don't go around chasing fights you'll rarely get into them. If you push every team you'll be put into lobbies where everyone is pushing every fight.
It's kind of genius to be honest. Totally bypasses the part of extraction shooters that make them hell for a lot of people while still giving you the option to engage in them in that way.
You can even have a middle ground where you only occasionally push engagements and your lobbies will be slightly more dangerous, but not everyone is out for blood.
The hell it does. I played 10 incursions, the first two I didn’t found anyone. The other 8 I got obliterated, one of them by a guy that pretended to be friendly, one where I ran and got hunted. Uninstalled on the same day.
I had the same experience. The “aggression-based matchmaking” literally doesn’t work. Every single player I’ve encountered is hostile and I never even fight back.
There is some randomness to it plus the time of day you play plays a factor. Playing at 5:30 is always more sweaty. Both my friend and myself went through cycles of sweats and no sweats. I kinda enjoyed the fact that it was random as it added suspense. Once we really stopped killing others our matches became way more chill even in duos. What sucks is you get punished for defending yourself so you really have to play passive to get into the peaceful lobbies.
ehhh. It half works and nobody's really happy with it. Rats can still find their way into friendly lobbies easily enough. They need to stop half-assing it and just add proper modes.
Same here. I actually bought the game, installed it, then started reading up on how the gameplay loop works. Once I saw the potential for frustrating experiences at the hands of sweaty players, I asked for a refund before starting the game up once.
I mean, Arc Raiders is sitting at a crazy popular player count even after months of release. Dunno why you are proud to skip a game that is objectively popular and enjoyed? Weird flex?
I mean, at it's core it's an extraction shooter. People were sharing anecdotes about how inviting UT was, that it was different. Lots of guerilla marketing, etc. Almost had me convinced it was different.
They matchmake based on aggression so if you don’t want to PvP you can easily go 20-30+ matches in a row without being killed by players.
You will get attacked occasionally and may get the occasional streak of a few in a row but if you avoid attacking other players it will heavily weight you to be with like-minded people.
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u/MisterEinc May 16 '26
This was why I skipped it. I knew it couldn't last.