Embark Studios pushed out the Riven Tides update across the ARC Raiders ecosystem just a few days ago, but it has proven to be a very divisive patch. It was supposed to be the grand finale of the Escalation roadmap, unveiling a new map, a large ARC threat, and new ways to enjoy the game, but it hasn’t landed well with fans of the ambitious extraction adventure game.
On Steam, ARC Raiders has just dropped to ‘Mixed’ in the recent review stakes, and for the first time since launch, negative reviews are outpacing the positive ones by almost double.
Riven Tides Wasn’t The Hit They Wanted
Riven Tides was penned as being the largest ARC Raiders update since the game came out in October, but it failed to generate much traction for the extraction title. The feedback was dim, and on Steam, negative reviews started rolling in thick and fast from the minute Riven Tides hit the market.
On April 29, the game secured 364 negative reviews versus 221 positive reviews. That trend continued, and every day since, ARC Raiders has generated more negativity than positivity. Things started balancing out on May 1, with the difference being a single negative review, but today is proving to be the worst day yet: 285 negative to just 154 positive, at the time of writing.
Riven Tides didn’t do too much for the player count, either. It brought about a minor spike that dissipated in just one day, even going into the weekend circulation of the update. Unfortunately, some of the changes Embark made, especially those related to PvP encouragement and weapon durability, were not well-received.
Of course, all we’re going on here is Steam, and that’s supposedly not the game’s most major platform, but it’s safe ground for a little extrapolation.
Overall, ARC Raiders still maintains a hugely high rating on Steam of 85% positivity, and that’s because it came out of the gate with such immense power. It became a whirlwind success, generating hundreds of thousands of shining reviews very early on, and it’ll take weeks of negativity to impact that overall rating.
Recently, we gave ARC Raiders another review, six months down the line, which resulted in a drop from our previous score of 10/10.
Are you still playing ARC Raiders? Let us know if you think it’s getting worse on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Crimson Desert has had a huge update
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Once again it seems I was ahead of the curve. I gave this crappy game a bad review after the first time I played it.
Want a cookie? Disliking a game doesn’t mean you are “ahead of the curve”. It just means you disliked a game. An update disliked by many doesnt change the fact this game was a huge success. By no metric, in any form or fashion, was this a crappy game. Just bcuz you’re bad at the game doesnt make it bad either lol get over yourself. This coming from someone who quit playing Arc months ago.
Game has become way too toxic now with the pvp aspect , nothing for the casual player anymore , the matchmaking is broken
The game has been a series of nerfs since launch that has made what was enjoyable about the game now more of a chore. From the excessive crafting updates / low blue print spawns / over powered arc, and now extreme durability loss. What was once a game for casual players has now boxed out those players in favor of the vocal minority. Most of the nerfs where completely unnecessary.
They sure did hype this map way to much when concept art came out of that map they should of told the truth i would of respected that more . By them saying it wont be as big as art frames! Then pushing pvp on pve players i bought this game cause it was new and different i never played space games ever and this was like a Drug!!!!! But not they are pushing me away the devs seem split in home-basecamp all in if this is the direction they are going in. Id of never took a chance on space games! Please fix this Embark!!!!
The game was fun to play …from december they NERF every item in game every update…every update bring a nerf …assesors have 10 more ARC on it..now the cloack hide 2 seconds….how we are supposed to loot it in solo mode …and rats near ? “weapon accumulation” i am a solo player i have only MATS in my inventory to craft what i need for what map i play…”weapon accumulation” only pvp-ers have 300 weapon in inventory ….becouse of pvp-ers now my guns broke mid game where is the fun ? we are obliged to craft legendary weapons ….BUT we cant kill ARCS becouse they are OP and weapons broke to fast….now we find weapons with 0 durability …WHERE is the fun to play anymore ?
I started playing this game late after release, just February 2026 as an anniversary present to us. He’s on Xbox & me on PS.
I really enjoyed the storyline, looting, building work benches & arc interaction as we are only pve. I really liked the camaraderie we had experienced with other players in the wild. I always carry extra healing for those in need & help those who are in trouble but man this update favouring rats has killed the game for us. Why can’t they have pve lobbies & pvp lobbies?
Why nerf our tools & weapons so harshly unless your playing pvp?
Is it true they made so much money after release of the game that they’re creating half-baked updates to create another payday with a new game?
I want to like this game but devs do not seem to care about all of their customers equally.
It’s a great game but it’s pvp element is just hard especially with rats, exit campers and other low life’s who say that want to work with you then shoot you in the back. Yes it’s a wasteland – get used to it, but it really sours the game when you can’t defend a point blank shot in the back even with a medium shield equipped. Would love for the devs to figure out some way of balancing this aspect which I think would lead to players enjoying the pvp aspect a bit more.
People have been enjoying this game despite the pvp not because of it. The sinking player numbers and the recent changes mean more and more players are getting griefed. If you look back, Tarkov wasn’t a shoot on sight kinda game in the beginning but the rats drive away the for fun players until only rats are left. People said this in the beginning and Embark clearly did not pay attention.
Yup. Will soon be nothing but pvpers getting bored, then no one. Make surviving rat attacks possible & maybe we’ll come back. Until then, I’m done.
What they need to do is have a kind of radar for other players. A kind of sonar or radar that pings movement every couple of seconds and that ONLY picks up other players. THAT would take care of the rats and backstabbers. Most of em wouldnt be rats if it wasn’t so easy