What a freaking INCREDIBLE game. I did not follow ARC Raiders' development, no playtests, no betas, barely even heard of the game until its release. Never played a pure extraction shooter like this, and at most dabbled in looter shooters (Helldivers). But HOLY, I did not know how badly I needed this kind of game in my life. I could blab on about all the things I enjoy about the game, from the UI to the sound quality, to the map design.

But I'll just point out the #1 things that came to mind: this game opens up the extraction shooter genre to the casual audience. I think this game broke the mold of extraction shooter to someone like me that doesn't come from a background of enjoying games like Tarkov/ permadeath/ lose-all-progress-if-you-die. The meta-progression systems (like skill points, Scrappy the chicken, and workbenches) are so well made and it helped me go over a lot of the fears of PVPing. And because of that, I was ABLE to experience the thrill of looting high value items and engaging in gunfights. And that feeling of successfully extracting after fighting all sorts of AI bots and surviving multiple third-parties... I loved every bit of that. This game made me fall in love with the extraction shooter genre, a genre that I wouldn't have engaged with otherwise.

I am hoping Embark continues to pour their blood, sweat, and tears into this game. ARC Raiders is a game that many should try out. And it really does deserve the success it has achieved thus far. I read up on Embark's history with the dev of this game, and it looks like they took a huge gambit with the extraction shooter genre and it paid off. This dev seems very in-tune with the community and I respect the hell out of that.

No game is perfect. Sure, there is a list of small things I wish this game had that could make me even more impressed. But I personally feel this game is a 10/10 for me. Cheers to the devs!

[Edit] fixed some typos :)

I absolutely recommend Shape of Dreams to any rogue-like enjoyer. The game is easy to pick up and satisfying from the get-go, that any fan of this genre should definitely check it out. This game reminds me a lot of Hades and Ravenswatch, with the core gameplay loop being choosing a build, progressing through a roguelike map, defeating bosses, and returning to the lobby to advance your chosen build/character further. But something about Shape of Dreams' progression system popped and made it a worthwhile play beyond the credits screen the first time.

Currently, I have beat all 4 of the difficulty modes at least once and fully built 2 of the characters (Lacerta and Mist). And despite that, every single run felt quite different due to the memory-slot system and the many essences (sub-skill add-ons) that the game has to offer. This led to wide gameplay variety and skill expresion, while still being able to aim for a specific build. For most runs, I knew what I wanted to build going in, but I was often surprised by the memories/essences the game threw at me. But at no point did it feel unfair even if I didn't get what I was looking for. By the 3rd-4th world, I always felt like the game fairly rewarded me for my decisions and I was able to go into the final boss with a decent-enough build.

Even on normal difficulty, the game is not a walk in the park. Some of the bosses and their special moves are really punishing and "skill-issue" is definitely a factor that plays heavily into Shape of Dreams. After a few playthroughs, a player can fully learn a bosses attack patterns, allowing them to focus more on their build and how they want to tackle the boss (like movement speed/dodging vs. dealing high dmg). I do have to mention that the FINAL boss feels much more difficult than any boss in the game. To some people, it may feel like for the first 30-40 min of a run, you're kinda just bashing on small mobs... only to get absolutely thrashed by the final boss and have to start all over. This may be frustrating to some, but I felt like I still thoroughly enjoyed it because it meant you needed to really flesh out your build before the final fight. And also, even if the mobs/pre-boss enemies are easier, it feels really good to swiftly move around the map and delete tens of mobs within seconds by the final map.

My biggest complaint with the game is just the lag. As of 10/1, the developers have announced an upcoming patch to fix a lot of the technical issues, but on launch the game has really bad optimization for bigger lobbies (3-4 players). It seems by the 2nd world, the amount of mobs and effects going on really lags out the game. Even on my spec'd out PC, my frames drop to <15 fps, and on my gf's PC, its like <5 fps, which is borderline unplayable. While it's been a fun experience so far even with this lag, I do hope the devs can patch up the lag/glitches/bugs/optimization because that has turned away some of my friends from continuing to play.

We'll see what the future of the game is but my 40+ hours in the game so far have been incredibly enjoyable. I am a huge fan of the skill expression and build variety with the memory and essence system in this game. It is unique enough that I feel I am getting something much different from the other rogue-likes I have played. Cheers to the devs for making a wonderful game!