Embark Studios release the first trailer for their upcoming free-to-play PC game, ARC Raiders.

Embark Studios just unveiled an absolutely phenomenal trailer at The Game Awards for their upcoming game ARC Raiders.

I've published a video looking at all the details of the ARC Raiders trailer. You can also check out the ARC Raiders website, which is now live.

ARC Raiders is being developed by Embark Studios, which was formed just over 3 years ago, and is now made up of more than 250 game makers, many of whom are industry veterans that left DICE, creator of the Battlefield and Battlefront game franchises, to start Embark. That alone should already start to set your expectations of how good the game could be.

So, this is a new AAA studio, which is also owned by NEXON, one of Asia’s largest gaming developers. To give you an idea of the backing that gives Embark, one of NEXON’s games, Dungeon Fighter, has grossed more revenue than the total box-office takings for the entire Star Wars franchise.

So, what is ARC Raiders in the broadest sense? The game is going to be a free-to-play, cooperative, third-person shooter where players, known as Raiders, must team up to resist the onslaught of ARC, which are fearless enemies that drop into the world from orbit. The Raider’s dystopian world is presumably the result of the arrival of ARC at some time in the past.

A press release from Embark adds that “defeating ARC requires more than simply pointing and shooting a gun, and more than one person trying to be a hero. It’s a game that both emphasizes and rewards teamwork at every turn.

● Loot your fallen foes, and scavenge the ruins of the past for tools and gadgets to outsmart the

enemy.

● Do the unexpected and improvise, using physics and your surroundings to your advantage.

● Come prepared and plan ahead, but remember that sometimes you just have to wing it.”

So, we know it’s PvE not PvP, and that there may be some part of the gameplay where players have to roam, what we already know is a large highly detailed world, looking for equipment and resources they can use to help them and their squad. At this stage, we’ve seen four characters, two of which we know details about.

ARC Raiders character, Celeste

This is Celeste, who sounds like the squad leader. The website says she was uprooted and abandoned and lost everything to ARC. Yet, she picked herself up, built a new home, and forged a new family of diverse and skillful resistance fighters, the Raiders. So, now we know how the game name is derived.

The website goes on to say Celeste knows she can count on us every time enemies drop from orbit, but it’s just too bad we can’t count on her when it’s her turn to restock inventories. So, I think this hints at the Raiders characters being essentially classes or specialists, with Celeste clearly not being one to rely on for an ammo top-up.

ARC Raiders character Lance.

We are also given info about the Raider known as Lance, who is a droid. Lance appears to be an engineering specialist, and the website talks about him crafting weapons from the scraps of a defeated Rollerbot, which you’ll meet shortly. Lance also seems to be wearing what are likely to be customisable gear, such as this stylish life jacket and accompanying boxing gloves.

As ARC Raiders is going to be free-to-play we should expect some sort of microtransactions for character customisations like this, or season passes to effectively allow us the same. However, there’s no details on how the monetisation for the game will work yet, so stay tuned, but I hope Embark put a lot of thought into how they’ll make money from the game, so it’s not detrimental to our enjoyment.

ARC Raiders' character 'Bilguun' (name not officially confirmed)

The third character is this chap, who appears to be brandishing a flamethrower. No official name for him yet, but the file name for this image supplied by Embark suggests his name might be 'Bilguun'. He brandishes a pair of binoculars, as seen here. And maybe this visor he sports allows him to scout enemies from further afield than other characters.

ARC Raiders' as-yet-unnamed ninja-like character.

Lastly, we have this Ninja-like female character who remains, as you might expect, almost a complete mystery. However, this shot here shows her carrying what looks like a sniper rifle.

Also, we see here, and in other gameplay that there are more than four characters in action at once, but maybe Embark will divide us up into squads of four, but teams of several squads who all take ARC on at once, almost like a PvE Battlefield game, in some ways.

The ARC enemies are also widely varied in both size and movement. Embark Studios have been working hard on AI that use machine learning, so their movements are organic and improve over time. This may be where the game innovates the most. Personally, I have always preferred playing PvP games because often the AI feel either too clumsy, like or too lethal. If Embark can break through that barrier, then it could attract a lot of players that feel the same way. How good ARC Raiders’ AI are from a combat perspective will likely be the making or breaking of the game.

The smallest ARC appear to be drones that have two guns, but look relatively easy to shoot down.

ARC Raiders Snap Hook

Drones can also be grenaded, and can be taken down using this Snap Hook, which apparently can also be used to transport the player up to ledges or ridges. In addition, we also see jump pads in use, which presumably can be deployed by players just before they leap into the air to gain a tactical advantage.

Next up in the current ARC hierarchy, we have scouts who hover above the environment with scanning lasers looking for Raiders and make a wonderfully alien noise when they detect someone. They fire air-to-ground missiles and appear to be a much stronger adversary than the drones.

A lot of the devs Battlefield and Battlefront experience seems to be coming to the fore in this game. And the destruction and explosions we see throughout the trailer look phenomenal.

ARC Raiders Rollerbot.

Rollerbots we haven’t seen much of except this brief encounter, but the detailed image here looks like they’ll be fun to come up against.

Baron’s appear to be the lowest level of massive ground-bound ARC, like the ones we’ve seen being worked on previously here. They fire missiles, and it’s an easy assumption that you don’t want to get caught under their feet.

ARC Raiders gameplay footage shows what also look like either the snap hooks or larger cables being used to bring down the multi-legged foe.

At the end of the trailer we see what is likely to be one of the two largest ARC - let’s call this one the King for the moment. Which means we’re yet to see a reveal of the Queen.

Overall, the game and trailer ooze an early 1980s sci-fi feel. The significant amounts of gameplay in the trailer are backed by a remix of the 80s-synth-heavy 2010 song ‘Dancing on My Own’ by Swedish singer-songwriter, Robyn.

When I first watched the trailer, I thought the song was a slightly odd selection for the action, but now after having watched the trailer about a hundred times, it’s hugely grown on me - mostly because it conveys a feeling of just having fun. I won’t play the song during this video to avoid monetisation issues, but definitely check out the trailer link in the video description, to make your own judgement about it.

As well as the music, the trailer includes VHS video tape-style glitchy transitions adding to the early 80s feel. The game environment in this scene also points to an early 80s vibe, with old-school monitors and 80s style technology.

I’m a fan of easter eggs in games and those of you that have played Battlefield for a few years or more will know that easter eggs were a big part of DICE’s Battlefield culture and I hope that Embark Studios take that with them to their games.

ARC Raiders Easter Egg - 1337

The time on the clock here is a very subtle easter egg - 1337 is not only 1:37pm, but also was used used as a representation of Leet, which was a system of modified spellings used on internet bulletin boards in the 1980s - and believe it or not those modified spellings were the origins of these words: Noob, Haxor, Pwned. A cryptic little nod to the 1980s gaming days from the Embark dev team.

This large map on the wall has Italian names for locations on it - Formica, Andazzo and Trecase - the relevance of those names has yet to be seen.

Ok, overall I’m pretty blown away by how good the ARC Raiders trailer is. Embark have done a great job.

The environment throughout looks stunning - misty fog, volumetric clouds and spectacular landscapes. The extensive use of fast-paced gameplay rather than just cinematics. Great destruction and explosions throughout, as you would expect from this team of ex-Battlefield veterans.

ARC Raiders Speeder

We also didn’t see these Star Wars-like speeders in the trailer that have been teased previously, so maybe they’re still being worked on by the team.

Aside from that, really my biggest question marks at this point are what will the AI combat be like and how is monetisation going to work, but overall, I’d say well-played Embark Studios, well-played.

Now, the press release from Embark Studios also confirms the game will be released to PC, Playstation 5 and XBox Series X and S - no word on whether that means there will be cross-platform play. And we learned during the trailer that the game will release sometime in 2022, and is now available to be added to your wishlist on Steam.

I’m really looking forward to the next info we get about ARC Raiders, and if you want to watch deep dives into the developer videos for the game, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day. Kia kaha (stay strong)!