After watching all these teasers and trailers, I avoided any of the early impressions of Arc Raiders’ latest update from gaming channels on YouTube and dived right into the new map, Pendola Pass. Embark’s massive 2.0 update introduces a snowy Italian mountain settlement above the Rust Belt, where one of the enormous Emperor ARC machines has somehow crashed.
After a few raids I thought I had seen it all, from the new arc enemies to the new map. But just before I managed to drop into Pendola Pass for the fifth time, I noticed the frigate mentioned at the Blue Gate. So of course I went to have a look. When I first laid eyes on this flying fortress, I knew we were way back.
A few hours with the Frozen trail, and I’m just as hooked as when the game first dropped. Embark calls it the biggest update to the game since launch, and there really is a lot here: Pendola Pass, the Frigate, Bully, Skulker and Hydra enemies, two new weapons, grappling hooks, tethers, an expanded skill tree, outposts, amplified weapons, and a completely new progression system.
I barely scratched the surface of it all because I was too busy trying to survive the crazy stuff.
Pendola Pass is familiar until you see the emperor
Visually, the Pendola Pass didn’t excite me that much. There are stretches where the architecture and layout remind me of places we’ve already visited elsewhere in Arc Raiders. That makes in-universe sense. This is still part of the same broad region, with abandoned villages, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and remnants of the Exodus Project scattered around the mountains.
Embark’s new map is an old Italian village and transportation hub with a supermarket, town square, observatory, and buried train depot as the main attractions. Coming after Riven Tides, I expected something a little more. I quickly dropped that thought when I saw the giant emperor.
The machine dwarfs absolutely everything around it, collapsed over the mountain like a dead mechanical god. My screenshots barely communicate the scale properly. One moment I’m moving through an ordinary snowy settlement, and the next I’m standing under machines big enough to make the buildings next to them look like props.
Getting into it requires progress that I haven’t completed yet, so I’m still working on the full experience. But Embark apparently put rare technology hidden in the fallen machine, which gives me one more reason to go back.
The frigate knows how to make an entrance
You hear the frigate before you really process what is happening. There is this enormous mechanical roar overhead. Then the clouds around its engines begin to clear as this huge ARC ship pushes into view across the landscape. It is one of the largest ships of the Arc, sent in response to the fallen emperor. This just shows how outgunned humans are, hopefully.
It wouldn’t be fun if it just sat there in the sky so Embark would let you go. Players can navigate their internal passages, open paths, fight ARC, and inevitably deal with other raiders who had the exact same idea. Getting on board is technically easy. You use the circular reclaimers that move between the ground and ship, with protective shielding around you as you travel upwards.
But that’s easier said than done. The frigate literally rains aerial bombardment around the approach. Missiles hit the ground while crawling up the platform.
We formed a small army up there
During my first real attempt, I made it all the way to the frigate. In a brief glimpse of the OG Arc Raider lobbies, almost the entire lobby stopped trying to assassinate each other long enough to form this fun collection of squads that work together. For a few minutes it felt like everyone had a collective goal.
Embark actually designed the excitement around this. The frigate was made to force raiders to collaborate or cut through each other while fighting hundreds of feet above the ground. While we chose to work together, it didn’t go well for us. We tried to work through the puzzle inside while ARC continued to pour pressure on the group, and it quickly became apparent that quite a few of us had arrived dramatically underprepared. People were dropping like flies, and I was one of the few who made it out alive.
Of course, the raiders have already found the nasty option
There is a small problem with those reclaimers, and that they make it very easy for you to camp. Once a team has made it to the frigate, they have a huge advantage over anyone trying to follow. When the first squad decides they want to make life miserable for everyone else, the landing area turns into an extremely predictable kill zone.
So yes, Obi-Wan was right about the high ground. I can already see this becoming one of those ARC Raiders social experiments where some lobbies cooperate and others become complete nightmares. Personally, I hope Embark doesn’t force PvE modes on everyone, because the uncertainty is what defines the experience. The possibility that another squad might help me, betray me, or simply sit on top to wait for someone brave enough to ride up there is what makes these encounters memorable.
The bully lives up to his name
Frozen Trail’s new ARC enemies were another highlight. The Bully, as its name suggests, is an aggressive machine that relentlessly pushes your position. It’s a bit of a ball sponge and has surprisingly good eyesight. It seems quite proactive in examining nearby gunfire compared to some existing arcs.
And when it finds you, it hits you like a damn truck with its shotgun-like cannon. Breaking line of sight doesn’t necessarily solve the problem either. I saw the thing start launching grenades when it couldn’t get a clean angle on me, which made hiding behind cover significantly less reassuring.
The smaller skulker irritates in a very different way. It hangs around the edges of encounters and chips away at you when you look away. Deal with it as soon as you get the chance.
Also extract is brand new
Frozen Trail also gave me one of the funniest new ways I’ve ever left an extraction shooter map. Pendola Pass uses ballistic gondolas that allow you to climb into this industrial capsule and be shot out of the map. One of my runs made the whole thing even better as I barely made it to the gondola after getting hammered by ARC including a Bully and Firefly. I climbed with practically nothing left in the extraction hit.
There is still a lot left for me to do, and the new weapons still elude me. The update is huge enough that Embark has added 22 new quests alongside all of that. So yes, I’m putting in a few hours this weekend.
Related Coverage: