Frozen Trails Brings the Chill to ARC Raiders

Summer is ending. Another year passes. Indeed, it seems incredible, but a year has already passed since Embark surprised everyone with a frantic, fun, and immediate extraction shooter, capable of establishing itself even without embracing the now-dominant free-to-play model: ARC Raiders. 

After 12 months and 16 million copies sold worldwide, ARC Raiders has now established itself in the current online landscape, both on PC and console. To the point that the first projects born to capitalize on Embark's game are beginning to emerge: after all, there's no better flattery than imitation. At Embark, however, they seem to know very well that to survive, one must evolve, as evidenced by a series of additions and various adjustments that have arrived in recent months. A year, however, is an important milestone to celebrate, and so here is Frozen Trails, the 2.0 update for ARC Raiders arriving tomorrow, which introduces a large number of new features, including a new map. We previewed it for a couple of hours a few days ago, and these are our impressions. 

The Cold Has Arrived

You will have noticed from the images scattered across the page: snow has arrived in ARC Raiders. On the other hand, the title of this update, Frozen Trails, made that clear. Forget the dusty Rust Belt with its barren and dusty landscapes. With the change of season, it's finally time to explore new territories and venture outside the comfort zone to discover the astonishing and formidable wonders found in the icy territory of Pendula Pass.  

The first thing you notice after crossing the northern border of the Rust Belt is the noticeable change in chromatic tones: here white replaces yellow with a thick blanket of snow covering every object or building in sight. A menacing icy haze suspended over the landscape prevents clear distinction of shapes at a distance, but the profile of the mountains remains easily identifiable. As does the gigantic Emperor lying in the hollow of a valley, an immense ARC whose long mechanical limbs extend spider-like legs to the buildings. 

With the English-speaking colleague with whom we spent the preview game time in a group, we immediately tried to approach the Emperor's crash site, but as expected, it was teeming with ARCs busy peppering groups of exploring Raiders. Too risky for a quick in-and-out like ours; after all, there will be plenty of time from tomorrow to try to raid the monumental arachnid; so we decide to explore the surroundings in search of some trinket that allows us more daring actions.

What surprised us instead was a rapid intensification of the already freezing climate, which forced us to seek shelter as quickly as possible before ending up as ice cubes. From there, the usual flurry of unexpected events, random encounters, and ruthless battles that characterize every ARC Raiders match broke out. Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to delve deeper, but the first confirmation we take home from this test is that even in the snow, ARC Raiders doesn't lose its spirit and remains the frantic and unpredictable experience we knew under the scorching sun. The bad news is that in addition to the cold, new threats also await us. 

Frozen Trails and Enraged ARCs

Treading the crunching snow that covers every surface of Pendula Pass (by the way, the rendering of the dirty snow is truly remarkable), it's easy to encounter new types of ARCs, excluding the enormous Frigate, a craft simply observed and which in the coming weeks will challenge even the most experienced Raiders. This doesn't mean, however, that it's not a good idea to check what's happening in the sky or even just prick up your ears to avoid being discovered at the least opportune moment. The Skulkers, in fact, are able to identify their targets from a distance and then unleash powerful and precise laser shots. 

That the Bully is an unsavory character is understood, once again, simply by its name: a beast that adopts a hit-and-run tactic against which it's not easy to cope alone: Imagine a large, nervous version of the robotic dogs seen on social media, but with four arachnid limbs. The most formidable opponent in these icy lands, however, is certainly Hydra, a kind of turret capable of targeting multiple Raiders at the same time thanks to its triple pair of muzzles. 

We are not ashamed to admit that we took advantage more than once in the two hours played of the new Ballistic Gondola, a new summonable and rapid (also missable) extraction system to return to base and secure the loot. After all, from tomorrow we will have all the time we want to try out all the new features in more detail, including the personal Outposts that intrigue us a lot (in addition to all the other small and large innovations listed here). Our road test (or rather, snow test) left us with an excellent impression: the impact is not the same as a year ago, of course, but there's a lot of meat on the bone, and ARC Raiders has remained consistently enjoyable over the past year, also blessed by a well-disposed community. Its main limitation has probably always been a certain homogeneity in the environments, and Frozen Trails shows that Embark is aware of this and has started working on it.