A recent interview with the developers at Embark shows that the initial idea for ARC Raiders was quite different from the game we see today. Although ARC Raiders has become popular as a PvPvE extraction shooter, it almost featured a completely different way to play.
Extraction shooter games haven’t typically been very popular, so it’s remarkable that ARC Raiders has attracted more players at the same time than huge games like Battlefield 6. Right now, over 400,000 people are playing ARC Raiders on Steam. Players might be surprised to learn where the game’s development actually began.
ARC Raiders Was Originally Pitched as an Open-World Co-Op PvE Game
A new video series on the official ARC Raiders YouTube channel is giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the game’s development, showing how the gameplay and design have evolved. The series details the differences between the initial concept for ARC Raiders and the game players can experience now. According to Creative Director Stefan Strandberg, the team initially envisioned a blend of elements from Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Dead, and PUBG when figuring out the game’s core identity.
This idea sparked the team’s quest to find a game centered around “session-based raids.” They were looking for something that would fit perfectly between the types of games they admired. Strandberg explained that a game combining the best elements of these titles would be a really exciting project for them.
Despite its Gameplay Shift, ARC Raiders Wears Its Inspirations on Its Sleeve
- Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
- Left 4 Dead (2008)
- PUBG (2017)
Players familiar with the player-versus-player-versus-environment gameplay of ARC Raiders might be surprised to learn what inspired its development. Shadow of the Colossus, a 2005 game from Sony Japan, is a single-player adventure where you defeat giant bosses by climbing them and exploiting their weaknesses. Left 4 Dead, Valve’s popular 2008 co-op game, lets up to four players fight off waves of zombies together across various levels. And PUBG, released in 2017, was one of the first and most influential games in the battle royale genre, offering both solo and team-based matches.
The original concept for ARC Raiders didn’t include player-versus-player combat, which is now a key part of the game. However, you can still see hints of those early ideas in the current version. The boss fights in ARC Raiders, where players take on huge machines like Queens and Matriarchs, are clearly inspired by the mechanics of Shadow of the Colossus. And the way ARC Raiders focuses on teamwork and playing with a squad is very similar to the cooperative gameplay that made Left 4 Dead so popular.
At first, PUBG seemed to influence the idea for a game where players would parachute into a randomly created world to find and collect items. However, when ARC Raiders added player-versus-player combat during development, the similarities to PUBG‘s battle royale style became much more obvious. According to Strandberg, the developers always intended to borrow elements from other games, even before they fully decided how ARC Raiders would play. While the final version of ARC Raiders focuses less on cooperative gameplay, the core ideas from the original concept still shaped the game we see today.
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2025-11-24 02:04