Arc Raiders Has One Major Flaw That Needs to Be Fixed

The popularity of ARC Raiders is a testament to the extraction shooter’s many successful parts, but much like any game with a wide audience, some community issues are going to pose an inevitable problem. Beyond just harmful language that proximity voice chat brings in any game, deeper problems can derail the hype developers took so much care to cultivate. At worst, a big flaw might be a sour spot in an otherwise great experience.

One of the best features in ARC Raiders‘ multiplayer matchmaking is how it sorts players based on what modes they tend to prefer. This style of “aggressive” matchmaking combines with skill-based searches to organize players into PvE or PvP match types, dependent on what gameplay they participate in more often. This is a wonderful system, but one side of it has led to an important caveat that hasn’t been addressed as seriously as it might need to be.

ARC Raiders Has More Cheaters Than Even Call Of Duty

The rapid growth of ARC Raiders has led to a common trope in shooters — an influx of cheaters within its populous. Aimbots, wall hacks, and other exploits are running rampant, with developer Embark Studios having a hard time cutting down on the sheer number of players manipulating the game’s systems in a negative way. This always tends to happen with big hits, but ARC Raiders may just have the largest cheater community among any shooter at the moment.

Some top players from other scenes have commented on this issue frequently, saying that it might be “worse than peak Call of Duty,” as stated in a post from GamesRadar. Growing frustrations from cheating stem from Embark’s far smaller team than most AAA games, but that is hardly an excuse to be dealing with such an ongoing problem. Despite Embark’s stated plans to invoke new detection mechanisms to cut back on cheating, only significant changes will likely have an impact.

Cheating gives players who use those exploits an undeniable advantage over others, no matter what mode it takes place in. That being said, PvP is where cheaters thrive the most, shooting through walls or using “out of map” systems to gain an unfair upper hand. ARC Raiders has been notoriously lax on punishing cheating players as well, sometimes only implementing a 30-day ban on some accounts where other games would make a similar expulsion permanent.

PvP Might Suffer An Incredible Loss Of Players If Cheaters Run Wild

With some cheats requiring little to no setup for ARC Raiders, it poses a much bigger threat than other shooters might have to deal with. PvP in particular sees cheaters almost every other match, especially on maps like Stella Montis, which seems to be a breeding ground for exploits to be used frequently. Even as anti-cheat software improves, it will take time to snuff out all “out of map” cheats that are growing in use in competitive settings.

As ARC Raiders‘ price drops during sales and its player base grows even more, so too will the amount of cheaters who disrupt the game. Unless Embark Studios imposes harsher consequences for exploits, it could lead to every match forcing players to interact with at least one cheater, regardless of where matchmaking put them. It wouldn’t be surprising if some players opted out of playing ARC Raiders at all at that point, moving on to the next popular shooter.

While your experience with cheaters might depend on your region, platform, and other factors, their spread poses a threat to any aspect of the game’s widespread community. High existence of exploits in ARC Raiders will lead to more accusations across the board, even if players being reported for cheating aren’t going against the game’s rules at all. The toxicity that comes with cheaters, even at a small level, has a chance to sour any type of shooter to its audience.

To protect the success of this game’s multiplayer, drastic actions should be considered against cheaters, including permanent bans or legal action in more severe cases. Publishing team Epic Games could extend its resources to Embark Studios to help it crack down on its cheating problem, but for now, this remains a large flaw in ARC Raiders that could be the start of its decline in popularity later.

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