The latest hot shooter game ARC Raiders is off to a solid start on Steam on its launch day with a Very Positive rating and almost 200,000 concurrent players in its first few hours, marking another hit 2025 title.
ARC Raiders is indeed a great game, and that’s saying a lot coming from me when I don’t really enjoy the extraction shooter genre all that much. It’s well-polished, strikes a good balance between PvP and PvE, and feels really fun to play, regardless of how perpetually bad it feels to lose all of your loot on a doomed run.
One thing that players are already speaking out about is the lack of a purely PvE mode, which is a trend as far as conversations go in this genre. This stems from the fact that a lot of gamers do not enjoy PvP experiences, but still want to play the latest shooter game with friends. Are extraction shooters inherently PvPvE? Yes, but do they have to always be? I think that there’s a missing niche out there for an extraction shooter that’s purely PvE, and I know I’m not alone in this sentiment.
“Good game, but I still hope one day someone will make a good extraction shooter that lets you just do the PvE,” one positive Steam review said.
After my first excursion in ARC Raiders this morning, I agree more than ever. I was attempting to return safely with some loot when I came behind another player. Using VOIP, I told them I was friendly and that we should team up to take down the ARC that was blocking our exit. They turned around and shot me. So I ran, we both got downed by the ARC, and I got the last laugh by extracting safely before they could crawl to the elevator. It was hilarious, but I would have liked to see how the encounter would’ve went as purely co-op. Not having that option at all feels like a missed opportunity.
I think nothing proves the desire for a purely PvE extraction game more than the explosive popularity of recent release Escape From Duckov. The silly top-down duck game inspired by Escape From Tarkov is PvE only, and it’s currently got more concurrent players on Steam than ARC Raiders on its launch day. I know it’s not a direct comparison to a game like ARC Raiders or Tarkov, but it does make me think.
Imagine ARC Raiders (or a game like it) finding a way to nail the thrill of the extraction genre without the need to run into other players who can ruin the experience. Extraction shooter purists will likely hate this idea, and I think that offering multiple modes on top of the base game may segment the playerbase, but it’s something that should be considered.
Another upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, features similarly fun PvE combat that is interrupted by PvP experiences. Fans of that game who’ve played in previous playtests have also asked for a PvE only mode, but I doubt it will happen right away. But hey, maybe that could be Marathon’s niche in the market.
I’m sure there are various reasons why games in the genre don’t go purely PvE, but I think the first game to truly tackle and master it may find success like Duckov.
Like our content? Set Destructoid as a Preferred Source on Google in just one step to ensure you see us more frequently in your Google searches!
The post ARC Raiders finds success in early hours of launch—but there’s still one change players want from the extraction genre as a whole appeared first on Destructoid.