ARC Raiders has enjoyed almost unbridled success since its launch back in October, but it looks like the tide might be starting to turn for some fans.

Over on Steam, the review score has dipped from ‘Very Positive’ to ‘Mostly Positive’, indicating that more recent reviews are less favourable than ones written at launch. Taking a stroll through the most recent writeups left on the game’s store page, it appears that negative sentiment once again boils down to developer Embark’s approach to PvP and PvE design.

“I’ve played over 400 hours and earned all 50 achievements, and I can honestly say that I love and hate this game at the same time,” reads one review. “PvE players feel tricked and betrayed, while PvP players often get shamed and harassed by the people they turn down before finishing them off. A lot of PvP players don’t even enjoy the experience because dealing with constant insults and accusations just isn’t fun.

“Neither side ends up happy.”

Another reviewer shares the same sentiment, explaining that most PvP tactics now resort to players lurking in dark corners and waiting for their prey to walk on by. “If you enjoy meaningful progression and skill-based encounters, stay away. Until the developers address the way PvP incentivizes this “infamous” behavior, the game is just a waste of time,” reads another review.

Dying to unsavoury players is especially frustrating in a game like ARC Raiders as anything you take into the game, or find within a match, is lost forever. While the game started out in a fairly balanced state as gamers all got used to the game together, higher level players with the best loot are starting to turn the sentiment sour for the rest of the community.

The negative feeling among players has started to translate to a downward trend in player numbers. While ARC Raiders was pulling in an average of 235,000 daily concurrent players at the start of the month, that figure has almost halved to 130,000 at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, Bungie has also just launched its own extraction shooter in the form of Marathon. A much more oppressive style of shooter, it caters much more towards the PvP fans.

It’s not clear whether ARC Raiders players are flocking towards Marathon as Bungie’s title doesn’t seem to be growing in terms of player numbers, per se. However, it is holding strong, averaging just under 50,000 concurrent players on a daily basis.

Are you still playing ARC Raiders, or are you starting to turn your attention elsewhere?

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