“You Don’t Need a Health Bar” – ARC Raiders Devs Explain Why Immersion Begins With Physics

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What really grabbed me about ARC Raiders is how totally immersed I felt while playing. It wasn’t just pretty graphics and a cool atmosphere, though those helped! The developers, Embark Studios, really wanted me to feel like I was there, not just watch something happen. They did this by building a really cool physics system that gives you visual feedback for everything. It’s so good, they didn’t even need a traditional UI – everything you need to know is shown in the world around you, which is amazing and keeps you totally focused on the action.

ARC Raiders is a game where you’ll face both other players and powerful machines called ARCs. While exploring the world, you’ll run into these ARCs much more often than other people – and they’re determined to destroy any humans they find. The game focuses on making combat feel realistic, with clear visual effects and physics that show you exactly what’s happening and how well you’re doing in a fight.

ARC Raiders Uses Physics Rather Than UI to Keep Players Immersed in the Experience

A new episode of the ARC Raiders development docuseries is now available on the official YouTube channel. This installment takes a closer look at the decision to use physics-based mechanics instead of a traditional user interface. Creative director Stefan Strandberg explains the reasoning behind this choice, focusing on how it enhances immersion while still keeping the game accessible to all players.

The goal is to make the game feel authentic and responsive. That’s why the developers are using realistic damage – for example, shooting off a drone’s thruster will stop it from flying. This isn’t just about visual effects; it’s based on how things would actually work, and that creates a more engaging experience. According to Strandberg, you shouldn’t need a health bar to understand what’s happening. The team at Embark wants the world itself, through physics and realistic reactions, to clearly show players the impact of their actions, making decisions feel natural and intuitive.

Allow the things in there to be real.

According to Strandberg, the key to the game’s design was trusting players to interpret what they see and hear to understand what’s happening. Things like how enemies stumble or pieces breaking off machines aren’t just visual effects—they’re clues. This creates a cycle in ARC Raiders where players react to what’s happening in the game world, rather than constantly checking health bars or other on-screen indicators. As the creative director explained, the goal was to let players use their own senses to understand the situation, “listening, looking, and not relying on a UI to tell you the actual truth of what’s going on.”

Image via Embark Studios

One of the things that really draws you into ARC Raiders is how it lets you figure things out on your own. The game doesn’t constantly tell you what to do next, but with a little playtime, you’ll naturally learn how enemies react. For example, shooting off a rotor on a Wasp makes it wobble, and taking out rotors on both sides will cause it to crash or spin wildly. Similarly, if you damage a Bastion’s leg enough with a Hullcracker, it will eventually kneel. The game aims for a feeling of being in the world, rather than simply overcoming challenges, so it intentionally avoids hand-holding with a traditional user interface.

The design of ARC Raiders focuses on using physics to clearly show players what’s happening in the game. A recent development update explained how the team created systems where things like movement, damage, and enemy reactions visually communicate how a battle is going. This approach, described by the developers, aims to make ARC Raiders feel immersive while avoiding a cluttered screen with traditional user interface elements. As the game continues to be developed, these physics-based systems will remain a key way players understand and experience the world.

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2025-11-28 23:04