ARC Raiders has an amazing atmosphere and the gunplay feels really solid. The constant tension of going in, looting, and trying to make it out alive is super addictive, and visually the game looks great. Playing with friends is also a lot of fun, and every match can feel completely different.

On the downside, the pacing can feel slow at times, grinding gets repetitive after a while, and the PvP can be frustrating when you run into players with much better gear. It also needs a bit more content and variety to keep people hooked long term.

Overall, it’s a really good extraction shooter with a lot of potential if the developers keep supporting it properly.

I jumped on to play this came for a little thinking I'd just get a town started. All of a sudden it was 10 hours later and I still didn't want to stop playing. It takes me back to Banished but with modern quality of life features. The game is still actively being worked on and I'm hoping outdoor decor will be added.

Entered the series in 2017 with FH3, and have since gotten all from FH4 to now this one and its a good game, very optimised relative to current game releases - just slight shader compilations during loading but I expect it to be fine soon. overall a great entry in the series - the world of Japan is well done although I do feel like Avatars feel "off" compared to prior releases plus the car list despite being large - for returning players, it feels like copy paste from old releases _ cant even find a current model G Class and still stuck on the old 2013 G65 and 2012 BMW X5M

PLAY EXPERIENCE & DISPLAY

I play this in my lounge on a 65-inch LG C1 OLED TV, sitting about 1.8m to 2m away. The HDR looks incredible on this panel.

Because the TV's VRR, G-Sync, and ALLM handling are so superb, the gameplay feels fluid without needing to use Frame Generation.

#BENCHMARKS & HARDWARE METRICS

Tested at full 4K with all graphics settings at their absolute maximum (Extreme/Ultra) except for the two Ray Tracing options, which are set to Medium. Ambient room temperature is 20C. Game is installed on the Crucial NVMe SSD.

#Heavy City + Rain Scenario Benchmarks:

Native 4K (DLSS Off, Frame Gen Off): 61 FPS consistent

4K DLSS Quality (Frame Gen Off): 76 FPS

4K DLAA (No Upscaling, Frame Gen Off): 35 FPS (System crawled, completely unplayable)

Note on Frame Gen: I tried it, and it honestly wasn't that bad but I just prefer without it since with the LG C1's native G-Sync, Frame Drops aren't noticeable targeting the TV's 120Hz display

#Resource Allocation & Thermals:

VRAM/RAM: Game uses 10-12GB of my 16GB VRAM, and roughly 8GB of system RAM.

GPU (Palit 5070 Ti): 95-99% utilisation, drawing 250W max. Stays at a cool 65C with the fans barely spinning at all.

CPU (Ryzen 7 5700X): 30-50% utilisation, boosting up to 4.75GHz at a 70W draw. Hits a maximum temperature of just 55C under the 240mm AIO.

#TEST SYSTEM SPECS

OS: Windows 11 Pro (Build 26200)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (Deepcool Mystique 240mm AIO)

GPU: Palit GamingPro NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB GDDR7

RAM: 32GB (16x2) TeamGroup Viper Elite II DDR4 @ 3600MT/s

Motherboard: ASUS X570 TUF Gaming Plus

Storage: 2TB Crucial T500 NVMe (Game Drive) / 4TB Lexar NQ790 / 512GB Samsung 860 EVO / 2TB Seagate BarraCuda

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 750W

Case: NZXT H710i (3 front 120mm fans)

Excellent game. I played a lot of HoM&M5, and it brang back so many good feelings !

For an early access, you feel like you already have a full game, which is nice nowadays.

If you like the formula, go for it, you won't be disapointed.