As far as I can tell, this is just a PVP 3rd person multiplayer shooter. Tagging this game as PVE is absolutely disingenuous. Despite the dev team originally developing this as PVE, they launched with PVP included, and the PVP and matchmaking feels half-assed.
Story wise, the game world takes place in a post apocalyptic environment where scary robots, (arc,) have taken over the surface of the earth, and humanity has retreated to underground settlements. Your job as a raider is to go up to the surface, scavenge for useful things, and then extract yourself. There are no story elements here, which is a real missed opportunity. I guess if you’re playing an extraction shooter, you aren’t playing it for the story? Completing quests or your expedition thingy feels inconsequential. It’s an endless loop of grinding, crafting, losing everything and rebuilding. Who doesn’t love a Sisyphean task? A good story can really make the difference between wanting to keep playing after crappy matches, vs getting bored and quitting.
Despite the backstory hinting at working together to overcome the ARC, feats encourage PVP. For the most part, PVP is going to be the major interaction you’re going to have with other players that aren’t in the clique of friends you’re running with. Other players absolutely will shoot on site without trying to be friendly. If you play on PC, turning off cross play has reduced how often I run into PVP. Furthermore, there have been some improvements to matchmaking. If you take the friendly approach, over and over, you’re more likely to end up in matches with friendlier players. Now about 30% of my matches put me in PVP situations.
In B4 skill issue. Even though this isn’t the type of game I normally play, there are some glaring issues that I believe detract from a game like this, even for people who are more into this type of game.
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Being dropped into a match/instance that is already half over. And it will happen match after match. Record for me is 6 in a row. Full matches are about 30 minutes. Getting dropped into one after 12 minutes has elapsed means that all the good stuff is already looted. This is infuriating; all the risk with no reward. From what I have learned this is intentional. Raiders get dropped into a match at different time points. I don’t understand the purpose of this. Seems like this is a mechanic that encourages extraction camping?
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Arc spawns out of nowhere. I’ll go into a match with a pair of binoculars, or a gun with a scope, search the horizon, check 360 degrees, walk a few steps, and suddenly I’ve got aggro on wasps, a hornet, or a rolling bomb ball when I know it was clear just seconds ago. There is definitely an issue with how arc spawns.
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The camping. The camping is out of control. Spawn camping, extraction point camping, and being 2 shot with the entry level guns. Why try to buy, make and upgrade guns when you can just spawn or extraction camp with a free loadout and ambush people?
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Traders have limited items to sell with a 24 hour cool down. They have no patterns to sell, and there are 3 different currencies for purchasing things from them. Coins, cred, and seeds. (Celeste wants seeds for items, Shani wants cred for items, and the rest use coins.)
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Movement is janky as hell. If I’m crouched next to a log laying on the ground, why do I have to stand to climb over it? Rock climbing also feels clunky.
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Disconnecting due to internet issues also mean you lose your loadout too.
It’s an epic game and it’s fun as hell. Just not something for you I guess.
Yep, went back to Helldivers 2 for some actual PvE gameplay.
I haven’t had an issue with this at all. I’d say over 50% of the time, if I communicate with other players that I don’t intend to kill them, we end up working together.
it’s overly simplified rust
Calling it a horrible game is a bit much.
I don’t think it’s as amazing as people make it out to be but, like you mention, turning off crossplay significantly improves matchmaking and supposedly giving feedback helps balance it even more. Its also a lot more fun with friends but the amount of PVP increases with groups and especially much more with 3 man.
If you don’t PVP you will get PVE lobbies.
I’m sorry you aren’t enjoying it, I haven’t had this much fun playing a game in a long time.
the thrill of finding something important and then trying to extract without dying has been so much fun. perhaps try using voice chat to talk your way out of potentially violent situations? if i hear someone else, I start chatting and if I dont hear voice comms or one of the emotes you can use to communicate, I’ll let them know im shredding them on sight lol
The last few days, I haven’t run into any players fighting each other. There may in fact be some matchmaking effects deciding this, based on my past behavior.
It helps in my case that I have a lot of upgrades and don’t feel bothered about losing really good gear anymore. Interestingly, I’ve often felt the good gear helps against ARC, but not much against committed players. A well executed blindside ambush can take down even a player with a heavy shield.
The main defense is the psychology. Fostering a sense of communal protection by shooting the wasps that are attacking someone else, bringing one defibrillator in case you find downed players, and in some very rare cases, acting as protector for someone who was wrongly downed. Eventually, some PVP-heavy players decide they have more to fear from attacking others than being passive.
A weird tip to try; when seeking some objective and worried for ambushes, play the Recorder. Some attackers are looking for the thrill of combat, not loot, and are dissuaded by an open musician. Other players are just fearful you’ll shoot first, which is less likely when you’re announcing yourself and taking your hand off your gun for the instrument.
I respect that it’s a populat format, but as soon as a game has both PvE and PvP the game is just PvP in my opinion.
I don’t like most PvP games, so seeing both tags scares me off of most titles.
Sometimes you’ll see a game like that where you can disable PvP, or host a private lobby, or some other compromise. Most of the time doing so reveals just how shallow the PvE content really is
My main issue these days is :
- I am so far below the average level in FPS games that despite SBMM, I am systematically the worst or second worst player in the match, so I get relentlessly stomped on with no chance to improve.
I was so out of practice when I picked up Arc Raiders I got constantly stomped. I just ran free loadouts until I realized was getting competitive in PVP.
- This indeed sucks if you came just for loot but it leads to different experiences, once you realize there is no loot you can PvP, PvE or simply exfil and try again, that’s the beauty of extraction shooters
- Agree, they need to fix pops spawn
- Kinda agree, can’t say exfil camping is a big issue. The only badly designed exit is metro in the city
- Seeds is something you get for each round from Scrappy regardless of win/loose so that you can buy basic crafting materials from Celest regardless of how good/lucky you are
- Movement is not perfect but better than in any other extraction shooters I played. Stones are always problem, only Battlefield have them better. But overall it’s ok.
- No it’s not. I had few disconnects and was able to rejoin the match with 0 loss
Lights or rather lack of them is bigger issue for me. Rats sitting in dark corners with shotguns is almost always death sentence. I understand the realism but I can’t see shit in buildings. That’s why I stopped playing Buried City.
I wish it was 1st person shooter.
I think devs realized that they can’t pull off a good story with PvE so they added PvP. Someone didn’t get what they expected, others (like me) got what they wanted.
The mere presence of griefers eliminates this from PVE:
Until they come up with servers where PvP is prohibited, PvE isn’t worth discussing.
God what a manchild that guy is
Strongly disagree. The possibility that someone might at any time choose betrayal adds a lot to otherwise PvE lobbies. It is what creates the positive feelings when they freely choose cooperation. If it is just built into the game that they have to cooperate, it is emotionally meaningless. Having the emotional experience of trust and support from strangers is very powerful, and I think it’s a defining element of AR.
Steam has it tagged as a PvE game. I took a chance on it because of the PvE tag. I thought it would be like WOW where you would be able to opt not to PvP. I should have read the reviews before I bought it. Too late for a refund now.
Kinda odd Steam doesn’t have a PvPvE tag, TBH.
You can tag it on the store page. If enough people do that, the tag shows on the page for everybody. If that happens with enough games, valve sometimes officially adopts the tag.
I’ve been trying that with fighting games and rollback netcode for years now. I still have hope it’ll get adopted eventually.
Im just happy to see that Arc Raiders have been able to keep 91% of their players since launch, whilst Battlefield 6 has lost 85% of their players since launch. Obviously Arc Raiders is doing something right 😅But you’re right, its not a pve game per se. Its a PvPvE.
I don‘t say this often but that is a legitimate skill issue on your side.
You should be saying it more. Out of mathematical necessity, half of all players are worse than the other half. I don’t imagine as many people on the upper half are whining as much because things are going well for them.
While I agree that it’s a bit disingenuous to call it’s a PvE game I do think that the feel of it is on the PvE side a lot of the times (but considerably less than half of the time). Especially since the ARC robots are so well done. And I don’t encounter other players in a meaningful way every game.
However, I don’t agree at all that it’s a horrible game. I think that it’s a fantastic game! It’s just released and it has some issues. Apart from a couple of small issues I think it’s a game that does the genre extraction shooting great, runs great, and is the first game in quite a while that feels done and polished and not rushed in any way.
Regarding the shot-on-sight and camping I think it’s a double edged sword. Of course it doesn’t feel good to die, especially by camping. But it would not feel good to extract if there was no risk/stress before doing so.
