April feels like a lifetime ago, but that’s when Arc Raiders, the extraction shooter from ex-DICE developers at Embark, was last available to play. The game’s second tech testbegan and ended in April, and remained invite-only throughout its runtime.
The test was immensely successful, and almost everyone who played it came away wanting more. Most assumed the developer would open the test up for one final weekend, or host some sort of open beta in the weeks to follow. None of that happened.
Instead, we got a lot of radio silence, that was briefly broken by the release date news. Then, Embark went dark yet again. Until now, when the developer actually announced that we’ll be able to get our hands on the game one last time ahead of its October 30 launch.
Arc Raiders is hosting a server slam, a limited-time event that runs October 17-19. It’s free for anyone to try across all platforms, and it falls on a weekend to maximise visibility. The game has also gone up for pre-orders on PC, PS5, and Xbox.
The focus of the server slam is to stress-test the game’s server capacity and netcode ahead of launch. In gameplay terms, we’ll be going to the Dam Battlegrounds, which is a map that was also part of the tech test.
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Embark said some progression elements will be available, alongside early crafting. You’ll also be able to take on quests, but don’t expect anything massive at this stage. It goes without saying that all progress made during this event will not carry over to the full game.
That said, you will get an exclusive backpack to prove you showed up for it (in the full game), assuming you do buy it.
Arc Raiders is PvPvE extraction shooter from the developers of The Finals. It’s priced $40 ($60 for Deluxe), and will be available on October 30 for PC (Steam/EGS), PS5, and Xbox Series X/S with cross-play.