Several posts ago, I mentioned Arc Raiders as a game I might get into. I played their Server Slam (or whatever they called their demo weekend) and had a decent time, but then I never picked up the game. As I read more about it, it seemed fine, but people were progressing through it quickly, so jumping in later seemed like a bad time. Now it has (basically) dedicated PvP or PvE queues, which sounds nice, but also kind of boring. The world of the game was nice. It’s very distinct; everything really does feel cobbled together out of scraps. The enemies come in pretty distinct forms. It’s all-in-all a nice time. I just never felt “grabbed,” you know?
A couple of weeks ago, I played the Marathon Server Slam. Visually, it’s incredible. The sounds in the game are immersive to the point of being almost a downside. (Was that lightning or some sort of energy weapon? Is that robot I hear a UESC guard, another runner, or my squadmate? (Or me?) Is that banging in the next room someone looting, someone shooting, or just a machine running?) Overall, it went ok. I had some good runs, and I had some terrible runs. However, each terrible run made me say “damn, wanna try one more?” Maybe it’s just because I found people to play with (some via online communities, and some just organically in the game), but even everything falling apart and losing a pile of gear doesn’t make me want to quit, like it kind of did with Arc. I’ve basically put my other games aside for the time, so my last week or so has been work, curling, watching wrestling, and playing Marathon. Time I would spend in the evening idly searching YouTube for things to watch is now doing terrible runs on Tau Ceti IV.
The rest of the player base is progressing much faster. The parts I want/need to do for missions, everyone is already past. That’s a little bit of a pain. Luckily, I think some new people are still joining the game, so there are still people early in the progression. Or maybe people are just not playing as frequently. I hope I don’t just end up hopelessly behind until the season resets. (And I hope whatever I miss due to not being ready for it before season reset isn’t just gone forever.)
Is Sony going to kill off Bungie because the game isn’t selling billions? I hope not! Is the game going to last as long as Escape From Tarkov? Probably not. (Although technically, Tarkov just released in November, despite being in alpha/beta/whatever early versions since like 2016.)
It’s frustrating. It’s exciting. It’s incomprehensible. It’s beautiful. It’s weird. It’s fun.
It’s fine.
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