ARC Raiders Player Reveals What the Game Could Have Looked Like As a First-Person Shooter

A recently-discovered ARC Raiders exploit has offered a glimpse at what the popular shooter would look like from a first-person perspective. Although it’s not perfect, it still remains an interesting look at what might’ve been, had Embark Studios taken a more typical extraction shooter approach and made ARC Raiders a first-person shooter.

Prior to ARC Raiders, the extraction shooter genre was dominated by games such as Escape From Tarkov and Arena Breakout: Infinite, which are both played exclusively in first-person. This limited perspective undoubtedly adds tons of immersion to these games, but ARC Raiders was able to break the mold and still find a lot of success regardless. Now, ARC Raiders is arguably the most successful extraction shooter on the market, and was an introduction to the genre for many gamers. Still, some who have wondered how the game would play if it were closer to other games in the genre now have their answer.

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This is What ARC Raiders Looks Like in First-Person

A recent Reddit post by user Short_Satisfaction_9 showed off extensive ARC Raiders gameplay from a first-person perspective, and frankly, it looks really cool. Players in first-person would definitely be at a disadvantage compared to those in third-person, but equally, there’s no doubt that it’s extremely immersive. Because it’s not official, there are some janky elements here, with tons of clipping into the character. Still, it really highlights how great ARC Raiders‘ animation work is when viewed up close. Aiming works fine, and all around, it looks surprisingly playable.

Short_Satisfaction_9 described playing ARC Raiders in first-person as “surreal,” and said, “seeing the atmosphere closer was so amazing.” They claimed that while they “don’t think arc raiders needs first person at all,” they also “wouldn’t mind a first person feature even if that means I would be in a disadvantage against third person players.” A first-person option has been one of the features some ARC Raiders players have wanted since launch, but the sentiment in the thread was mixed. One user had a great solution, suggesting that if it were to happen, it could come with separate lobbies to avoid any potential integrity issues. Ultimately, though, it’s not the way ARC Raiders was designed to be played, so anyone using it would be knowingly putting themselves at a disadvantage, but whether Embark Studios is even willing to include such a feature is another matter entirely.

According to the user, they were able to play ARC Raiders in first-person by using an exploit that allowed PC players to use the in-game console. This bug was being abused by ARC Raiders players to disable graphical effects, allowing them to see further distances than console players and gain an unfair advantage. Short_Satisfaction_9’s approach was different, opting instead to put themselves at an in-game disadvantage in pursuit of some really cool footage. However, this ARC Raiders issue has since been patched. This is undoubtedly a good thing, given that players were abusing it to gain an advantage over console users, but to lose the first-person perspective as a result is a sad but necessary side effect.

If ARC Raiders is going to add a first-person option in any official capacity, it likely won’t happen any time soon. It’s clear from the footage that there would still be a lot of necessary work to get it fully working without significant issues, and ARC Raiders simply has other focuses at the moment. The game continues to go from strength to strength, and it still maintains concurrent Steam player counts well over 300,000 on a daily basis.