Arc Raiders PvE Test Ends: Devs Admit Mode Is 'Polarizing'

Did you get a chance to try out the PvE mode in Arc Raiders during its recent playtest? If so, you're not alone—Embark Studios just revealed that players completed over 30 million PvE rounds during the test. But now that the testing period has ended, the devs are stepping back to make sense of it all, and they're openly admitting that the mode has been 'polarizing.'

In a post on the Arc Raiders website, Embark thanked players for their participation and urged them to join the game's Discord to fill out a survey that's coming soon. The studio wants to hear how you felt about the test and how you think PvE should factor into the game going forward. 'We need a bit of time to understand what the data is telling us, and what our community is saying,' the post reads, before any next steps are taken. The team also emphasized that 'our decision on how to proceed will prioritize the overall health and enjoyability of the game.'

So what's the issue? Well, reactions have been all over the map. Some players felt the mode made Arc Raiders feel 'bland, soulless' and ruined the game's tension—the core of its extraction shooter identity. Others loved it, saying it's the game they wanted all along. And then there's the middle ground: plenty of folks found the lowered stakes kind of boring. It's a classic case of different strokes for different folks, but for a game built on high-stakes PvPvE, adding a purely PvE option was always going to stir the pot.

Even streamers are weighing in. Loochy, a well-known Arc Raiders streamer, said, 'The reality is Arc Raiders doesn't have a strong enough endgame to support a meaningful PvE experience,' calling the mode 'hollow.' That's a tough critique, but it's also something the developers can target as they figure out how to improve the mode—if they decide to keep it around.

For now, Embark is playing it cool. They've made it clear that they don't yet know what the outcome of the data analysis will be, but they expect to follow up with more information in November. So we'll have to wait a bit to see what the future holds for PvE in Arc Raiders. In the meantime, the studio is actively collecting feedback through that upcoming survey, so if you've got opinions, make sure to make your voice heard.

It's worth noting that the devs themselves had similar debates about PvE before the test, but according to the source, 'dad gamers' pushed them to try it anyway. That's a fun little detail that shows how community feedback can shape development. Now it's up to Embark to sift through the data and decide what's best for the game's overall health.

What do you think? Did you enjoy the PvE mode, or do you prefer the tension of the original extraction shooter experience? Let us know in the comments below!