It’s time for me to write a couple of words about some gaming.

ARC Raiders.

The “Server Slam” free weekend just finished yesterday, and I’m beyond excited for the game to release on October 30th so I can continue playing. (I might’ve accidentally miss-clicked the preorder button – hey, don’t judge me, it was after playing for 5+ hours already.)

I had the luxury of playing Hyenas – SEGA’s extraction shooter – for a bit before it got axed, and beyond that, I never played another extraction shooter. Escape from Tarkov always looked really interesting to me, but to be honest, after reading all those articles and watching videos about its cheater problems, I wasn’t going anywhere near it.

Well, there was another reason too – the game is quite serious, so a 9-to-5 gamer like me might have some issues with it.

And so, I waited.

After joining the ARC Raiders subreddit, I saw a lot of other titles in the same genre that I had never even heard of before.
Which says a lot – if their marketing never reached me, and I never went looking for an extraction shooter myself, they simply slipped under my radar.

So, with all that said, let’s jump – hop (yeah, my knees are bad) – straight into ARC Raiders.

If my memory still serves me right, the previous tech beta for the game was around mid-summer, and it got my attention back then. When I later saw that it’s from the same studio that released The Finals (which I absolutely loved playing for a bit), my interest skyrocketed.

When you’re watching a streamer play a game and you can’t take your eyes off the screen, you know it’s a sign.

Everything – from visuals to gameplay to gunplay – had me hooked.

Cut to three days ago, when I was finally downloading the game. I had the privilege of being invited by a lovely streamer, Its_Bitz (go check him out, and if you like the vibe, drop him a follow!), to squad up with him and Dragonsniper from the mod team. While waiting for them, I ran a couple of solo sessions to experience the solo gameplay.

Despite a rough start – my game crashed around 15 times during the “Intro” sequence (where it teaches you the basics) – the issue was fortunately resolved after a PC restart. Maybe it was because I had just updated the Nvidia drivers, or maybe because Microsoft pushed an update the night before. No clue.

But after that restart, and about 25 hours of playtime over those three days, I had zero crashes, zero hiccups, nothing.

Before diving into gameplay details, let me just express my appreciation for how well the game ran.

Smooth performance, a solid 130+ FPS, no DLSS, no Ray Tracing (I initially turned those off, thinking they were causing the crashes), and everything running on max settings.

(Quick specs: ASRock Z70 PG Lightning, Intel i5-14600KF, Kingston FURY Renegade RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3600MHz, Samsung M.2 980 PRO, GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 EAGLE OC V2 12GB GDDR6X, Corsair RM750e V2 80 PLUS GOLD.)

This isn’t a flex – just a point of reference so you know what kind of setup I’m running.

With that out of the way: visually, the game is gorgeous. The mix of lighting, reflections, and environmental detail is just spot-on – every shadow feels scary, every flickering light makes me look over my shoulder, and every piece of drifting debris or rolling tumbleweed keeps tricking my brain into thinking someone’s there.

The sound design is maybe the best I’ve heard in a while – so good that when I try to be sneaky, my own crouched footsteps echo through the buildings and scare the bejesus out of me. I’m convinced everyone in the area can hear me stomping around like a madman.

Compared to most games, going solo here actually feels surprisingly manageable. The world is harsh, sure, but it never feels unfair – you can sneak, scavenge, and survive on your own if you play smart.

Talents aren’t overpowered – think of them as perks. For example, after opening a bunch of containers, you’ll make less noise while doing it. The more you loot, the faster your character searches through stashes – little things like that.

Even with the limited progression allowed during the Server Slam, you get a pretty good sense of how things will work – what you need, what’s scarce, and what you burn through quickly.

If you’ve played Tarkov before, hearing that duct tape is rare and often needed might not surprise you.

PvE feels tense and satisfying. PvP feels tense and… well, sometimes satisfying – depending on how much you whiff like an idiot.

I’ll dive deeper into everything ARC Raiders in another post – all ARC types, what they do, how to survive, how to destroy them. For now, I just wanted to get all my first impressions out after finally getting my hands on the game.

What I also love about ARC Raiders is how much it respects your time.

A single match lasts a maximum of 30 minutes, and that timer creates this natural sense of urgency – you get in, do as much as you can, and then make a run for the extraction point before things go south.

The tension in the game comes from everywhere.
PvE-wise, the ARCs are absolutely not to be underestimated.
If you decide to ignore them, give it a minute – suddenly you’ve got three Wasps above your head, two Hornets strafing nearby, a Bombardier blasting from somewhere behind, and a Leaper in the distance staring suspiciously in your direction.

Moments like that are when you realize that running and hiding aren’t just options – they’re survival instincts.

PvP feels unique. If you’re not careful, if you don’t check your corners, if you rush head-on into a fight – getting “downed” is guaranteed. Upgrading your weapons actually matters and you feel the difference in combat.

And when a firefight breaks out, all that noise attracts nearby ARCs – meaning you suddenly have two problems, both potentially coming from all directions. In the chaos, it’s very easy to end up cornered somewhere you really don’t want to be.

Finding ammo on the surface is rare, almost too rare.
So when you run out of bullets mid-fight, you’ve got two choices: run for your life or pull out that trusty hammer and hope your enemy is more afraid of you than you are of them.

Each run may last 30 minutes, but not every extraction elevator stays open that long.
Sometimes, the one closest to you closes in 90 seconds, you’re 200 meters away, there’s a Bombardier between you and it, you’ve got one heal left and zero ammo.
What do you do? Run for the next one, 550 meters away, or take the risk?

Chances are, there’ll be others heading for that elevator too – six, maybe seven players, a bunch of ARCs, and not everyone’s getting out of Speranza alive.

All of this makes ARC Raiders a tense, thrilling, and strangely addictive experience – a game that keeps you on edge in the best possible way.

I’m counting the days until October 30th, ready to dive back into this world of metal, scraps, dust and tension.

ARC Raiders makes survival feel real, and I’m here for it.

Stay safe out there.
Commodore Bo, out.