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Post-Expedition Thoughts ARC Raiders

2026-03-06T16:17:00.005-05:00

Signed up and ready to depart.

ARC Raiders’ second expedition window closed this past weekend, and with it I chose to have my first character depart. Goodbye, buddy! With that departure comes a full restart. No levels, no skills, no workbenches—nothing except my best friend Scrappy and me starting fresh from the underground town of Speranza.

Expeditions are ARC Raiders’ optional form of character wipes that open every few months. The idea of optional wipes was a contentious point before the game launched, but judging by the game’s success, the concept hasn’t scared anyone away. Other games in the extraction shooter genre tend to rely on forced wipes where everyone restarts at the same time.

The fact that the wipe is optional meant I didn’t have to worry about how quickly I was progressing. I could take my time, and when the first expedition window opened, I felt no guilt about not grinding more. I simply declined the first expedition departure and kept playing. By the time the second expedition opened, I had hit max level, built up a massive stash, and exhausted most of the progression systems, so I was ready for a change.

A slightly new look for a new "me"; still the same ole' heartlessgamer

Looking back now that I’ve reset my character, I’m glad I made the decision. Starting over has been a breath of fresh air this week. Items, loot, and tasks that had become mundane suddenly feel meaningful again on a fresh character. Every time I hit the extract this week, the excitement was back because I knew I was returning to Speranza with a bag full of materials to upgrade workbenches, complete quests, and rebuild my stash.

I was worried I’d be irritated by not having access to my favorite weapons and augments since I didn’t have the blueprints anymore, but I’ve found myself making do with what’s available. Instead of a Venator IV, I’ve been relying on Il Toro shotguns, Rattler IIIs, and a number of weapons and upgrade levels I hadn’t spent much time with before.

It also helps that the core gameplay loop of ARC Raiders is so good. I love fighting the various ARC robots, and the recent addition of the Comet and Firefly has really spiced up encounters. Add in the fact that my buddies and I no longer have access to our old arsenal, and we’re having to find new ways to take down larger ARC enemies so we can grab upgrade materials. We spent multiple hours last night using Renegade rifles to take potshots at Bastions and Bombardiers. Before the wipe, we had so many Wolfpack grenades and Deadline explosives that hunting big ARC enemies had become almost trivial.

The PvP is also great. I’ll admit I lose more fights than I win, but I still keep coming back for more. I love the tension in those moments where you know the enemy is there, and they know you know they’re there, and it’s just a question of who makes the first move. Even better is the aggression-based matchmaking system: the less you shoot other players, the friendlier your matches tend to be. But there’s always that chance—always that chance—that someone betrays the friendly “Don’t Shoot” moment by putting a shotgun in the back of your head. And when I inevitably die and lose all my gear, it doesn’t sting nearly as much as I expected compared to similar modes in other games.

The RNG blessed me with a Tempest blueprint! A blueprint that I never found with my first character!

ARC Raiders is a special game with an addictive quality and social gaming structure that keeps pulling me back in. Choosing to reset with the expedition—knowing it was entirely my decision—has breathed new life into the experience. I can definitely see myself continuing to play this game for a while.

Eventually the MMORPG itch will become impossible to ignore again. But for now, I’m a happy extraction shooter fan—as long as it’s ARC Raiders.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.

Thoughts on Marathon

2026-03-02T10:59:00.003-05:00

Aww yeah... here we go again. The tutorial stars with a knife in hand.

I had the opportunity to put a couple of hours into Marathon’s Server Slam that wrapped up over the weekend. The game is a first-person extraction shooter that mixes in hero shooter elements—you select a “hero” to play each round. I equipped some weapons, dropped in, killed some players and robots, grabbed some loot, and came away with a few thoughts.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the theme: a colorful sci-fi extravaganza. I’d be lying if I said I paid much attention to the story elements (limited time + limited-duration server slam = get to the shootin’), so I can’t speak to why things look the way they do. But I can say they are very colorful—futuristic shipping-container buildings in neon hues, vibrant alien plants scattered throughout the map. It’s visually interesting, but some of the color combinations felt off-putting. So while it’s bold and distinct, it also felt odd to me at times.

Not a big fan of the UI

I was not a fan of the UI. It was confusing out of the gate. The health and shield bars morph colors, blink, and show shaded areas that look depleted—but aren’t. I adjusted after a couple of matches, but something that core to a game like Marathon should feel intuitive from the start.

The menus were mechanically fine (at least on PC), but the 8-bit graphic style and font made things harder to interpret than they needed to be. Whether I was trying to sort inventory items or understand the faction system—which feels like a skill tree—the pixel-art approach made everything blur together. The longer I played, the more irritating it became.

I would have much preferred a clean UI without the artistic flair. There are smaller annoyances too—like the plus signs in the inventory screen that initially look like empty or unlockable slots. Nope. They’re just decorative placeholders blocking unused screen space. Like the health bar, you get used to it. But taken together, it shows a pattern of UI friction that dampened my first impressions.

To sum up the UI, I’ll steal this quote I saw on Reddit (sadly the comments were deleted):

“The game is already blocky with an eyesore color scheme. The UI should be clean with easy navigation to balance the aesthetic.”

Performance, on the other hand, was stellar. Running, gunplay, loading—everything was smooth. No frame rate dips, no hitches. I spent my time focused on playing instead of troubleshooting. Between ARC Raiders recently and now Marathon, I could get used to games launching in optimized states.

As for gameplay, the movement felt slower—at least early on before upgrades—which was honestly refreshing. I know some players prefer faster pacing, but I liked the weightier feel. Sprinting helps in open areas, but it doesn’t dominate moment-to-moment combat. Vaulting, climbing ladders, and general traversal all felt smooth. My one minor gripe: you have to press a button to grab a ladder. I’d prefer auto-grab if I’m clearly in position.

Gunplay felt good—but not great. I’ll admit I’m past my prime in FPS skills, so take that with a grain of salt. The weapons I used had clear distinctions: a high-damage pistol, a heavy machine gun, and an energy weapon with lock-on targeting (at least for NPCs—I’m not sure if it works in PvP). Shooting, aiming down sights, and swapping weapons all felt solid, just not exceptional.

NPC combat surprised me. In fact, I only died to NPCs—and I died more than I successfully extracted. There are far more NPCs than I expected, and many areas are swarmed. Some enemies appear “hidden,” like turrets that pop up unexpectedly. What frustrated me most was the lack of visual clarity around enemy strength. One enemy would drop in a couple of shots, while a nearly identical one would steamroll me—apparently because it was a boss. I’m fine with challenge in PvE, but the game needs to communicate enemy tiers better. Bosses should stand out at a glance.

PvP combat was what you’d expect in an FPS: see someone, shoot, and hope you win the exchange. Without third-person corner peeking, surprises go both ways—which I enjoyed. The slower movement adds weight to engagements. Positioning feels intentional rather than chaotic. Because of the hero system, there are abilities and modifiers in play, but in my limited time, those differences didn’t stand out much. Everyone felt fairly similar. On the bright side, I didn’t lose a single PvP fight, even though I got into several.

Running across the world, gun ready

Audio was a mixed bag. Some moments were great, but others left me confused. In one instance, my team was fighting NPCs when two other teams rolled in and a full PvPvE brawl broke out. Yet from my position, it sounded oddly subdued. Positional audio works well in terms of direction, but the intensity didn’t match the chaos. It created a strange sense of calm during what should have felt overwhelming.

Looting is standard extraction-shooter fare: open container, wait for reveal, take what you want. On the early maps, loot was plentiful—I was nearly full after clearing a building or two. However, the pixelated inventory design made identifying items at a glance frustrating. The font, in particular, was harder to read than expected.

One thing I liked about the loot system is that it doesn’t revolve around sprinting to a single high-value room at match start. Loot value scales as the round progresses and ties into map events. The longer you stay, the harder the events—but the better the rewards. That’s a refreshing alternative to the “spawn and dead sprint” meta common in other extraction shooters.

I didn’t engage much with the story, but it never felt intrusive. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, given how much emphasis seems to be placed on it. From what I’ve seen in story clips, it may not be my style. I play extraction shooters for the “get in, get out” loop—not seasonal narratives or long quest chains.

Finally, the extraction mechanic itself didn’t land for me. Extraction beacons are placed out in the open and require you to stand still while your screen distorts in a drug-trip visual effect. It makes extraction fights feel awkward and frustrating. I don’t understand the design choice here. Extractions should feel tense and tactical—not like you’re stuck in the open, progressively blinded by graphical chaos.

Overall, my feelings on Marathon are tepid. I liked elements like round progression, map events, and scaling loot value. But moment-to-moment gameplay didn’t wow me, and the UI feels cluttered in a game that desperately needs clarity. There’s potential here—but it needs refinement.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.

ARC Raiders has an Item Value Problem

2026-02-10T09:06:00.011-05:00

ARC Raiders is nearing its second departure window for the expedition system, which allows players to voluntarily opt to “depart” and wipe their character for a fresh start. In order to maximize their departure, players are required to amass a large amount of stash value (3 million this time around), which creates some problems.

The biggest problem is that players often have to make choices between keeping or selling items. Players could keep that fancy Bobcat IV gun, or they could sell it for a nice payday. Knowing that millions of coins are needed to depart on an expedition, most players opt to sell that Bobcat IV—and that is the heart of the problem as I see it.

The secondary problem is that while the game features various trinkets that only serve the purpose of being sold for coins (i.e., they can’t be salvaged into crafting supplies), the values of most trinkets are not higher than many other types of items that can be picked up. For example, I can find a coffee pot trinket worth 1,000 coins and I’ll likely only find one of them, or I can get a stack of 50 basic materials (fabric, plastic parts, etc.) that will sell for 2,500+ coins per stack—and most raids I am walking away with two to four stacks of materials. With limited storage space, I am often dropping trinkets in favor of other items.

My recommendation would be that trinkets should be more valuable at every level, and items like weapons or crafting materials should be less valuable. Players should be encouraged to bring their best weapons into raids! Players should be crafting with supplies, not always defaulting to selling them! Yes, weapons cost a lot to craft and upgrade, but that doesn’t mean they also need to be valuable to resell. Keep the high cost to craft/upgrade but reduce their resale value.

This would also create a different—and I’d argue improved—gameplay loop around trinkets and areas that house lots of them. These would become more targeted locations to visit when looking to build up a stash of coins. My personal feeling with ARC Raiders is that anytime I have more direction and purpose going into a raid, the more interested I am as a player.

As the first expedition window has aged and I’ve completed more and more content, I’ve become less interested in heading topside, as I’m not a player who is interested in going in just to hunt other players. Reducing the value of guns and crafting supplies would drive me to bring them topside. Increasing the value of trinkets would give me a reason to target my runs when I need coins. This approach feels like a win-win to me.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.

Super Bowl Thoughts

2026-02-09T09:05:00.002-05:00

My Super Bowl thoughts? Who cares.

Ashes of Creation Ends... now?

2026-02-02T10:00:00.003-05:00

It’s rare that MMO news makes the front page of Reddit, so when I saw Ashes of Creation trending, I figured it wasn’t going to be for any sort of good news. Sure enough, as the doomers have prophesied for several years, the scam that was Steven Sharif’s Ashes of Creation has come to an end—and a very abrupt one at that.

I’ll spare regurgitating the details here, as Kira has that covered (and apparently also had the inside scoop days ahead of time, based on his first video). Feel free to watch through his video before reading on to my thoughts.

I’ve had a mixed history with Ashes of Creation. I have no shortage of gaming projects I backed in the early Kickstarter days, but for some reason I missed Ashes. By the time I was fully attuned to it, there was already a dedicated fanbase full of podcasts, websites, and a bustling subreddit. Still, I kept myself from becoming a funder. My younger self’s experience as an overzealous Warhammer Online fanboy—combined with other Kickstarter implosions—had hardened my wallet.

I kept up with the game in passing and at one point told myself I’d start blogging about it more. I figured it might be worth sharing my thoughts on updates and the direction the game was heading. Regardless of how all of this worked out, or what people think now, one thing was certain: Ashes was important to the future of MMOs. To what degree it was important can be debated, but there is pent-up demand for an MMO that doesn’t pull its punches.

One person who is likely breathing easier through all of this is Narc. He went from Ashes’ most public fanboy to its biggest critic in a heartbeat. The drama surrounding Narc’s departure really emphasized the split in the MMO community: those who believed in Ashes, and the doomers screaming, “Narc is right—it’s a scam!” The believers rushed in to defend Steven and Ashes, while the doomers trumpeted Narc’s departure. At the end of the day, as Narc stated in his final comment on the situation, the real reason he left was that he couldn’t trust Steven Sharif.

Narc wasn’t wrong about Steven, and that’s what stands out to me most from that entire saga. Steven defended Ashes against Narc’s claims vociferously, with one of his most poignant arguments being that those claims were damaging and putting the livelihoods of Intrepid’s employees at risk.

Fast forward to what we know so far, and it’s clear that the only real danger to Intrepid was Steven himself—and the business practices he used to finance the studio. Any of the day-one doomers will tell you this should have been obvious, given Steven’s history with MLM scams that were the source of his wealth to begin with. I can overlook Steven’s arguments about the game, but I won’t be able to look past his comments about protecting a company he ultimately ended up swindling.

So what’s next for Ashes? The original intent sounds like it was to continue with a smaller staff and without Steven involved. Unfortunately, multiple senior leaders also resigned alongside him, and it now sounds like the plug is going to be pulled entirely. Ashes of Creation is effectively just ashes. While those ashes may be shipped off to an offshore developer to try to sift something usable out of them, the Ashes of Creation everyone was hoping for is no more.

Let this be yet another cautionary tale for the MMO community. Whether it’s a trillion-dollar company like Amazon or a wannabe developer like Intrepid, there is no safety in being a loyal fan of any of these games. Nothing can keep our beloved genre safe any longer.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.