ARC Raiders Devs Always Wanted Balanced PvP To Avoid ‘Tryhards’

In a new documentary episode uploaded to showcase the origins of ARC Raiders, Embark Studios took a deep dive into where the game came from. It walks viewers through the original PvE title that saw players team up against enormous robotic enemies, to the extraction shooter with intense PvP mechanics that we know today.

It was revealed in one segment that the team at Embark wanted to balance PvP so perfectly that it would placate players who didn’t want to fight other users for fear of stumbling upon ‘tryhards’ who could defeat them in every engagement.

ARC Raiders Was Very Different

In the documentary uploaded on YouTube today, we get a glimpse behind the curtain at the development lifecycle of ARC Raiders, which unfolded over more than seven years. It started as a PvE-exclusive game that would see players team up to take down extremely threatening ARC enemies, and it evolved into a PvPvE extraction shooter out of necessity and to become more marketable.

In one segment of the documentary, David Dixon, Embark Studios’ Animation Director, explained how PvP was addressed to ensure that all comers could have as much fun as possible, even when fighting tougher opponents:

That’s why PvP is such an important addition to the game. A lot people have a strong reaction to what that might mean, but if you think about what happens when you play against other humans, you just realize that the finite distance gets closer to infinite, because now you have all the permutations of human behaviour in the session.

Some players might not like playing another person because they’ll get tryhards that are very, very good, but if we do our job well, then you’ll have something that feels balanced and fun, even if you’re not the best at aiming or the best at shooting.

You should still be able to find something rewarding in that experience of extracting stuff back out of the world.

When ARC Raiders hit the market, it felt like a positive and refreshing title that had everyone collaborating to explore this new world. Within a matter of days, the PvP theme had spiked, and every engagement felt heated and ‘on sight’. There are still positive interactions to be found, but as players became more capable and better equipped, the collaborative aspect mostly went out the window.

But fans accept that’s part of the PvPvE loop. It’s still not as bad as games like Escape from Tarkov, in which you have almost no chance whatsoever of collaborating with other random players.

Do you think ARC Raiders has good PvE, or is there something you’d change? Let your thoughts be heard on the Insider Gaming Discord server.

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