The gameplay loop takes a little while to become coherent, because the game feels really overwhelming at first. Nothing's really explained, despite a polished tutorial, and you're left to really figure it all out. But it's in that "figuring out" that the game's still teaching you, and where it's almost hidden its gameplay loop. It's not a PvP third person shooter, or a PvE MMO. You need to acquire enough knowledge of the game, its systems, and its environments for the loop to finally come together, but when it does, you realise that this game is all about: The Plan®. Look at your objectives, figure out a plan to achieve them, and then execute that plan. And it's in that seemingly simple loop that Arc Raiders cements itself as something pretty special, and something I can see gaining a cult following in the same as Escape from Tarkov has.
Your objective might be: craft a particular blue level gun you want. To do that, you might need, say, three magnets you don't have. So, getting three magnets is your objective. The game tells you the magnets are found inside Industrial buildings. You look at the map before launching, figuring out where your best odds of finding magnets are. Looking at the right area, you know there's some high buildings and a lot of open spaces. To deal with these factors, you pack a Zip Line, so you can slide down from the high places, and you make some smoke grenades to create cover for the open spaces. You're not looking for PvP, so you pack an anti-Arc Ferro rifle and one stack of rounds for it, and a basic rifle with two stacks of rounds just in case. You swap on your basic looking kit, which provides a small amount of carry weight but is cheap, so if you lose it you won't cry. Then you launch in. You've created The Plan®, and now the game's mechanics are going to throw things at you to force you to adapt The Plan®. Maybe there's extra Arc robots around the building - that's ok, because you bought that rifle. However, you'll need cover, and the fire fight may draw in other players. So, you pick off what you can, hang back to see if other players come in, before heading into the buildings. Inside, you might find that others have been there - and you can hear them walking around upstairs. The Plan® doesn't include PvP, so what do you do? Do you call out and announce you're friendly, hoping they are too? Do you sneak away, hoping they didn't see you? Do you try and lay an ambush, hoping it's just one player that you can take by surprise? You try and sneak around, looting as quietly as you can, timing your steps with theirs so they don't hear you. Bingo - you found your magnets! Now what? You sneak out a back window, taking fall damage, but getting distance between you and the other players. Damn - they're firing at you from a high window! The Plan® included some smoke grenades, so you drop one, creating some cover, and sprint away before it clears. You make it to the escape point and extract with your magnets. You executed The Plan®. You used the smoke grenades, but didn't use the zip line, but The Plan® worked. This loop is extremely engaging because you're constantly thinking on your feet in a way very few games promote. You make a thousand little decisions in one raid, learning from every mistake how to create a better The Plan®.
In addition to the incredible loop, can I just say that, man, isn't it nice to have a polished AAA game again. Between this and Battlefield 6, it feels like a breath of a fresh air to have games that aren't early access and that just bloody work. The menus, the animations, the effects - there's so much love and care on display here that it's almost impossible not to stand up and clap. But it's really the polished mechanics that elevates this game. Everything - everything - is intelligently thought out, considered, and meaningful. It all comes together into an amazingly polished gameplay experience. Why does Scrappy exist? To ensure you can spend more time raiding for cool stuff and less time doing simple raids for basic components. Why are there keys for special doors? So you have to include it in The Plan® before you launch, making it a mission onto itself. Why are the Arc so dang tough? So fighting them is a decision that has consequences. I can see that the reason Arc Raiders got hyped wasn't just that the core concept is solid, it's that Embark's execution of it is damn near perfect. There isn't much I'd change here - and that's rare in 2025.
