Latest news with #ArcRaiders
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How to invite your friends to ARC Raiders Playtest fast & easy?
Image via Embark Studios So, you've jumped into the ARC Raiders Playtest and you're loving it — but let's be real, games like this are way more fun with friends. The good news? You can bring your squad in. The even better news? It's super simple — once you unlock the invite feature. Here's everything you need to know to get your friends into the action before the playtest window closes. ARC Raiders Tech Test 2 - All The Details You Need Step 1: Get Playtest Access for Yourself First things first—you need to be in the ARC Raiders Tech Test 2. If you haven't joined yet, head to Steam and request access. Once approved, download the game and jump in. You can't invite friends unless you're already a playtester. Step 2: Play a Bit (Yes, You Have to Earn It) Before that "Invite Frinds" button shows up, you'll need to: by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like New Container Houses Serbia (Take A Look At The Prices) Container House Search Now Undo Play 4 rounds Spend at least 30 minutes in active gameplay Just sitting in the menu doesn't count—get in and play! Whether you win, lose, or barely survive, each round helps you unlock the invite feature. You don't need to do anything fancy—just get through those matches. Arc Raiders - Tech TEST Starter GUIDE | Sign-ups, MAPS, Traders & MORE! Step 3: Unlock & Send Your Invites Done with the 4 rounds and 30 minutes? You'll now see the "Invite Friends" option on the main menu (bottom left corner). Here's how to send invites: Click 'Invite Friends' A window will pop up with: A QR code (for mobile) An 'Open in Browser' button Open the link—it'll take you to your personal invite page Copy your unique referral link Send it to your friends (you get 2 invites total) That's it. Your friends will now be able to join the playtest—assuming they're eligible and platforms are available. Things to Keep in Mind Now that your friends have the link, here's what they need to know: Invites are limited to 2 friends per player The invite works only if they're 16+ years old Access isn't instant — platforms (like PS5 or Xbox) might take a while to open up due to high demand They should redeem the code ASAP before slots run out Sharing or selling the link = Instant disqualification. And yeah, make sure your friends redeem the invite quickly—spots can fill up fast during the test phase. Inviting friends to ARC Raiders Playtest isn't complicated. Once your friends redeem the invite and install the game, you can finally squad up and tackle ARC Raiders together. Play a bit, unlock the invite, send it over, and wait for your squad to drop in. Just don't wait too long — the playtest closes on May 4 .
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Yes, ‘ARC Raiders' Makes ‘Marathon' Look Bad
Arc Raiders It's an unproven trend at this point, but the new race toward live multiplayer games appears to be the genre of extraction shooters, and this week brought an unusual situation with two upcoming 2025 extraction games both running Closed Alphas and so far, eliciting different reactions. Those two games, as you can guess, are Bungie's Marathon and Embark Studio's ARC Raiders, both entries in the extraction genre that are allegedly being released in 2025. Marathon has a date, September 23, but as of now ARC does not. There's no getting around it. The reaction to the Marathon Alpha has mostly been mixed to underwhelming. The initial reaction to the ARC Raiders Alpha has visibly skewed more positive. So what's going on? Simply put, ARC Raiders is a much more traditional extraction shooter in the vein of Tarkov, but at least somewhat more accessible and better-looking, given it's a 2025 release. It's a Fallout-esque concept of scavenging a ruined wasteland populated by hostile robots and other players. At its core, you skulk around, harvest materials and weapons, and attempt to extract (by going down, not up), either avoiding or killing enemies along the way. Or being killed, of course. It's got all the traditional extraction-y things. Custom characters, crafting, proximity chat, a home base of sorts, and it just…plays much more like a traditional extraction shooter with its grounded combat. Add in some great visuals and truly fantastic sound design, and it's not a mystery why this positive reception is occurring. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Marathon Marathon has ditched a lot of this in an attempt to be unique, but in many ways that doesn't feel like it's the case, taking out hardcore elements extraction players want, while also perhaps not being all that accessible to the wider playerbase they want to attract. The opposite is true here. Hero characters, not custom ones. No proximity chat, no crafting and importantly, no Solos at launch, which is something ARC Raiders does have. Community conversations with Bungie are not terribly promising, saying they'll get around to things like proximity chat and Solos eventually, but not for launch, as neither are an urgent priority according to them. The end result here is an odd mix of traditional extraction elements, slow moving looting and stamina roadblocks, but paired with often Apex-like firefights with less mobility. It often pairs uncomfortably. The Marathon Alpha feels less polished and more feature-light. All the claims of 'it's early, it's a Closed Alpha' don't exactly match up with the fact that ARC is also doing a Closed Alpha which seems more substantive and finished, and is likely to be out a good bit after Marathon, if not pushed to 2026. But Marathon launches in six months. Marathon The expectations are also not comparable. Marathon has been in development for six years and this will be Sony's biggest upcoming live service game after a string of cancellations and failures. And of course its famed shooter-maker Bungie's new IP after massive hits Halo and Destiny spanning 20+ years. ARC's Embark has the same amount of devs in the entire studio as are working on Marathon at Bungie, around 300, but a portion of those are managing The Finals, the studio's other multiplayer game that may not be the talk of the town these days, but boasts a consistent playercount, which many may not realize. The reception here has almost been night and day. There's no telling if ARC will for sure be a hit or if Marathon will for sure be a failure. It's not that simple. But observing how this has gone, it's impossible not to compare the two and say this has been a much better week for ARC. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Daily Mirror
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Arc Raiders plays like a serviceable extraction shooter still in search of its own unique identity
Surviving against menacing machines in the dilapidated world of Arc Raiders can be endlessly fun in the moment, even if the game might struggle to set itself apart from the competition. Arc Raiders makes surviving and extracting an increasingly tense affair. But there's a lot of work to do to make it appealing to the multiplayer masses. The PvP multiplayer shooter space is crowded right now. Fortnite continues to dominate, leaving others like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 to fend over its scraps, while any new, budding live-service title merely hopes to avoid the same result as Sony 's ill-fated Concord by carving out its own niche. Unfortunately for developer Embark Studios, Arc Raiders is a sci-fi extraction shooter that falls into the latter camp, starting from scratch by setting players off in a desolate world full of rival players and enemy robot NPCs and tasking them to survive. Fortunately for Embark Studios, though, it seems like it's leveraging the experience gained by working on The Finals to hopefully make it a success, even if Arc Raiders feels a tad light on variety judging by the three hours I recently played. Before I delve into my impressions it's worth noting that the server on which I played Arc Raiders was closed-off and kept exclusively for press, causing maps to probably not be as populated as intended – despite Embark Studios' best efforts. This meant when initially playing Arc Raiders as a solo player the act of shooting, exploring, and surviving felt especially sporadic, with very little to do on these giant open maps outside of plundering and extracting. Whether it was running across the edges of a crumbling dam or investigating an abandoned spaceport, doing all this certainly looked beautiful. But at first, I was worried that the rather basic loop Arc Raiders sets you on was almost too repetitive. Fortunately, things picked up when setting off in a squad of three later in my demo session, where for a good hour me and others quickly got to work engaging in shootouts, covering each other when trying to complete different objectives on the map, and just generally trying to avoid the gaze of the titular Arc enemies. The point is obviously is to raid them for the best components needed for making better gear – its right in the title, after all – but aside from a few, smaller model types, Arc Raiders has done a good job in making the act of taking down these cybernetic baddies feel like a real mammoth task. As it stands, they can attack from all angles, and rarely did my team stand a chance at defeating them using the standard weapons we could craft prior to jumping into a session. Knowing that these various types of Arc machines from rolling flame-spewing balls to giant arachnid-like tanks – are forever roaming the lands makes traversing them always especially tense, and does well to break up general the bullet vs bullet action that occurs when enemy players turn the corner. My only real problem with the Arc machines as they stand is purely the design of them. Because while metallic robots are intimidating to fight whether they're flying or hulking across the dunes, I couldn't help but feel I'd seen similar enemies before in the likes of, say, The Terminator. Rise of the machines Luckily, between bouts, I was pleased to see that Embark Studios has cut out much of the noise by making your main hub of Speranza a series of menus as opposed to its own mini open-world city. While likely disappointing to some multiplayer fans who like getting deeply invested in lore (and there's a lot of it here), I preferred the approach since it made taking on challenges, speaking to traders, and then crafting better materials quick and easy. From what I could tell, getting better gear means either crafting them using components and then improving them, or gradually upgrading to better crafting tables themselves, which appears to be a more taxing yet worthwhile affair. All the usual extraction shooter hallmarks are present and accounted for, then, which leaves the main obstacle facing Arc Raiders right now being to carve out its own identity. Sadly, this is where the game is more of a mixed bag. Because while firefights with real-life players and robot NPCs are appropriately frantic, and the pull to plunder components to then gain better gear is certainly there, I fear that four maps at launch, however diverse, won't do enough to keep the typical Arc Raiders loop all that interesting as you gradually learn the best and worst places to loot. I'm happy to be proven wrong, but it all comes down to how the pace of play feels when the servers are fully populated and the perks of completing your objectives can be fully felt. Another barrier Arc Raiders will be challenged to break through doesn't even have anything to do with the actual game itself. Having first been revealed as a free-to-play title way back at the end of 2021, Embark Studios has since made the decision to make this a paid-for title, no doubt hoping to piggyback off the back of other recent premiere multiplayer-driven success stories such as Helldivers 2 and seemingly the upcoming Rematch. While I'm definitely in support of this strategy since it most certainly ensures Arc Raiders will feel like a complete package at launch, it'll only pan out if prospective players see the value in the extraction experience the game provides from afar, and currently Arc Raiders plays it a lot straighter than the bug-crushing satire of Arrowhead Studios' game. Arc Raiders' position as a perfectly okay PvPvE shooter is more frustrating than it is fruitful. Sure enough, I enjoyed my time raiding and plundering alongside a group of allies, but I'm not sure if the core gameplay loop has the variety required to keep me coming back for more. The good news is Embark Studios has a great track record for supporting a live-service game, and I've no doubt that following its release there'll be plenty of limited-time events and new content to enjoy. The question is whether fending off Arc machines and rival squads is enough to encourage players to stick around long enough to see those times come.
Daily Mirror
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Arc Raiders playtest two – start date and how you can get stuck into the shooter's second playtest
There are a few short days for you to be a part of the incoming Arc Raiders playtest, hoping to iron out its kinks and streamline the extraction shooter to perfection. It's almost time to dive into Arc Raiders once again as its new playtest period approaches, and you can still jump in and be a part of it. Arc Raiders is still seeking to make a major splash in the gaming world, but the last time it did so, it was on shaky ground. The futuristic shooter title attempted to shave down frustrations and streamline its issues with a first Arc Raiders playtest, and though the game itself proved to be fun, it launched into a chaotic industry just recovering from the total cancellation of Concord, which thrust the future of the online shooter into disarray. Luckily, though, there are a number of games still on the rise, and Arc Raiders seeks to be one of them after a largely successful first playtest, offering players a peek into its PvPvE extraction gameplay with a futuristic twist, taking it away from many other titles in the genre only to plunge it into almost direct competition with Marathon. It might be an uphill battle for Arc Raiders, but game quality could still prevail and put the game on top, especially as it has revealed Arc Raiders playtest two to give players another chance to play a newly-refined shooter. But when does the next Arc Raiders playtest actually begin, and how can you get in? Here's what you need to know. Arc Raiders playtest two start date The Arc Raiders playtest two start date is Wednesday, April 30, and will run until Sunday, May 4. This has been revealed by the Arc Raiders website, designed to usher players into the playtest itself, although the actual start time has yet to be confirmed. If you want to join the Arc Raiders playtest yourself, all you have to do is head to the Arc Raiders website and click on the 'Sign up for tech test 2' button. Once you've done that, the game will ask you if you'd prefer to play on Epic Games Store, PlayStation and Xbox, and when you've chosen, the site will take you through to a form you'll need to fill out, which will then lead to an email in your inbox confirming your spot if you're chosen to join in. You can also follow the same steps if you'd like to join in on Steam, directly on the Arc Raiders Steam page with the 'Request Access' button. It's a simple process, and if you're lucky, it could land you an exciting new chance to play the game before launch. Arc Raiders has a lot of competition to take down, but it could yet prove that its quality will stand it above its rivals. With a setting as compelling as the colony of Speranza, we'd certainly hope that it could.
