A new word in the genre. ARC Raiders has reached release

The extraction shooter format has already become standard. If you think about it, from a gameplay perspective, both «Tarkov» and Gray Zone Warfare and Arena Breakout: Infinite offer the same thing, and even styled similarly. But the industry veterans who created The Finals have their own take on such shooters. Studio Embark keeps the familiar rules—when in ARC Raiders you have to collect loot on the map and evacuate in time—but adds third-person view, an unusual setting, and a bright design that reminds you more of Fortnite and Apex Legends than of the oppressive atmosphere focused on realism. Today any gamer can see this for themselves.

The setting of the new game largely resembles the «Terminator» universe. Here, sentient machines united under the name ARC have also destroyed civilization on the planet, forcing the last surviving humans to move underground. But not everything is lost for humanity: brave heroes, in groups or alone, venture topside from the bunkers to shoot a couple of robots and grab something valuable. Such brave souls in the future world are called raiders—you’ll be playing as one of them. The matchmaking algorithm in Embark’s project is very convenient—it won’t pit a lone wolf against squads, as often happens in the same «Arena». But that’s not the only thing that sets this shooter apart from others.

The third-person view opens up a lot of room for tactics. You can «peek» around corners, and the free shoulder-switch lets you more or less safely «peek» from any side of cover—no more «right-hand swings». It’s also interesting that the main value during sorties is robot spare parts, not opponents’ gear, so it’s more profitable for players to team up to kill one big robot than to chase each other around the map hoping to loot a gun or a medkit from a fallen enemy.