The Way For Arc Raiders Was Paved By A Brilliant Indie You May Not Remember

I’ve been playing quite a lot of Arc Raiders lately while waiting for Pokémon Legends Z-A‘s upcoming DLC. It’s a brand new extraction shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world where AI machines known collectively as the ARC have killed billions of people and now roam in search of the last remnants of humanity.

Players are Raiders, and, like the game’s name suggests, they search the surface for loot. Sometimes from the ARC. It’s this AI machine enemy, coupled with a fantastic open world and meaningful progression through NPC vendors, that makes it so engrossing and memorable. While it’s fantastic, I see a lot of another game in it. A game I believe, paved the way to open up the genre so fans could eventually enjoy it.

The Cycle: Frontier Crawled So Arc Raiders Could Run

The game I’m talking about is The Cycle: Frontier, from developer Yager. It actually started life as The Cycle, a title that saw players matchmake into teams of three before dropping onto a hostile world to complete objectives in tense PVPVE sessions.

The version of the game that was eventually released bore many similarities to Arc Raiders. You played as spacefaring mercenaries living on a space station around a dangerous planet that humans attempted and failed to settle. Storms ravage its surface, and alien creatures hunt and kill any people they see.

You’d pick up missions in the station from vendors representing various factions. From there, your goal was to head down to the planet to gather resources, mostly for your missions but also to craft gear. There were seriously nasty creatures to contend with, but it was other players that really posed a threat.

This is exactly the same as any session in Arc Raiders. You’ve got to be so careful with other players, because they could just end you if they have better gear and don’t fancy having a friendly chat. Likewise, the ARC, which can be mountain-sized in some cases, will end you without a thought.

I’ve been keeping up with what various content creators are saying they love about Arc Raiders, and they all agree that the AI machines make the world so much more interesting. I couldn’t agree more, and see them as the same as The Cycle: Frontier‘s aliens.

If you follow this thread, you can see so much of Yager’s game in Arc Raiders. The potential for PVP, the way you can have a chill session gathering scraps and then a frantic one with player battles and ARC kills, and even just the feel of a completely realized world.

No, these games are not the same, but their similarities should mean they both have a place in the extraction shooter genre today. Unfortunately, The Cycle: Frontier failed to generate enough interest and revenue at launch.

The game was shut down for good, though it has been recreated in Fortnite if you want to give it a try. I played loads of Yager’s title, and desperately wanted it to do better, but I’m just one person. Ultimately, I don’t think the world was ready for it like it was for Arc Raiders.

Looking at this latest extraction shooter and how it has taken the industry by storm, I can’t help but see every way in which Yager etched out a path that could be followed.

Arc Radiers and The Cycle: Frontier buck the trend of copying Tarkov by doing something interesting and new. I can’t wait to see where this new wave of extraction shooters takes us, and I will be following it all the way through.

Thank you so much for checking out my feature about this latest extraction shooter and how it’s linked to another one I dearly loved. If you’d like to read more independent journalism, please check out and follow our socials. We’ve even got a free Patreon membership if you fancy joining.

About the Author

Jamie Moorcroft Sharp

Editor

Jamie adores the indie games that you don’t hear about until you’re on a video essay binge at 3AM and suddenly the sound of them changes your life. He’s played games all his life and loves looking at the intricate details that make them magical and different. If there’s a wierd list, embarrassing feature, or something else far too out there on Bonus Action, there’s a good chance he wrote it. But that’s not all! He’s also an absolute fiend who never knows when to stop when he puts on his dirty robes and takes on his D&D persona as a Mud Warlock who acts on that tiny voice in your head when it wonders what would happen if you did something really dumb right now. He’s easy to beat in a TGC, though, just keep an eye out for his crazy card combos.

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