The term “extraction shooter” is a genre of games that can mean many different things. At its most basic form, it is a game that involves entering an area to complete an objective with the possibility of combat with AI controlled enemies and possibly other players, and then leaving once the objective is completed. Extraction shooters typically involve looting as well. Extracting with loot means that you get to keep it for future matches, failing to extract means that you lose everything currently on your person. You probably recognize the name Escape from Tarkov as the most recognizable extraction shooter. This game, however, is currently exclusive to PC. There are extraction shooters on console, but the best is ARC Raiders.
What makes ARC Raiders so special? Its core gameplay is very similar to other extraction shooters. ARC Raiders, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 DMZ, Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone, and Hunt: Showdown all have the core gameplay loop typical of extraction shooters with a focus on looting. ARC Raiders may be the most recognizable name in this list. Why is that?
Let’s take a look at DMZ and Hazard Zone; they both had the benefit (and misfortune) of being attached as modes to much larger games that up until their release and were completely divorced from the extraction shooter genre. The reason that they failed was because they were introduced at the wrong time. At the time of the release of DMZ and Hazard Zone, extraction shooters on console were not even a conversation. The market trend at the time showed that battle royales were the most profitable approach to follow. Even Hunt: Showdown existed at the time and was sold as a battle royale. Put simply, everyone at the time wanted to play battle royales. I believe that if DMZ was relaunched today, it would perform much better than when it debuted, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Image Credit: Embark Studios
Hunt: Showdown is probably the next best extraction shooter on console behind ARC Raiders. Initially marketed as a battle royale where the players needed to extract with a bounty rather than be the last survivors, Hunt: Showdown has kept its core while branching out with updates to become the extraction shooter that it is known as today. What makes the game unique from the others, even ARC Raiders, is the fact that it is a blend of battle royale and extraction shooter. While DMZ, Hazard Zone, and ARC Raiders have no discernible winners, Hunt: Showdown does. It is an extraction shooter that you can win. That is its edge. So, if Hunt: Showdown differentiates itself from the competition and is successful doing so, why is ARC Raiders considered the best extraction shooter on console?
ARC Raiders is the best extraction shooter on console, not because it has features that the others lack, but because it takes the core PvPvE gameplay of extraction shooters and turns it on its head by encouraging cooperation. All other games that I have mentioned before are competitive by nature. The enemies are more like set dressing to flesh out a world rather than provide a true challenge barring special event enemies bound to locations. In ARC Raiders, the world you are in, the robotic enemies that you fight, that is the true enemy. A small roaming band of Wasps, the basic enemies of ARC Raiders, is enough to quickly dispatch a player. The special units sprinkled around the map warrant outright avoidance.
Extraction shooters are innately selfish games. You compete with everyone else to get the best loot, and everyone is willing to kill you for it. ARC Raiders takes the simple approach of, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” At the end of the day, both of you want to extract with the loot that you have gathered. This setting aside of differences for the sake of saving your loot creates unforgettable moments of cooperation between total strangers who fight a wave of ARC units side by side and then extract from the match as newfound friends. That or they kill and loot you at extraction. The unpredictability of people combined with a hostile world that encourages teamwork for your benefit currently cannot be found anywhere else. That is what makes ARC Raiders the best extraction shooter on console.
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