ArcRunner review: A well-rounded synthesis of stunning visuals and addictive gameplay

ArcRunner is a sci-fi third-person shooter title from the talented developers at Trickjump Games. At its core, it's a rogue-like shooter where players must defeat waves of enemies to progress to the next area. However, if they die, they will have to start all over again. While that's the gist of the game, it can be way more complicated than that. Players can either go on this journey alone or with friends in a unique co-op experience.

In this review of ArcRunner, we will be taking a closer look at all the elements that make up the game. This includes the gameplay, story, graphics, audio, and more. As we progress, I will be analyzing each of these elements and sharing my thoughts along the way to help you, the reader, decide whether ArcRunner is worth its price and your valuable time.

ArcRunner - My first impressions

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I am not a fan of rogue-like games but what made me pick up ArcRunner was its art style. The game surely looks brilliant and we will delve deeper into this subject later on in the graphics section. So I launched the game and it treated me with a beautiful cutscene, preparing me for what's to come next.

Although it was brief, I got the entire context of the title. I went ahead and started my journey. There were no spoken dialogues, and your AI buddy simply tells you what your mission is and sends you on your way.

At this point, you pick one of the three characters, two of which are instantly available and the third one has to be unlocked. You select the difficulty level you want to start with and its go time.

You spawn in this majestic cyberpunk city that was once brimming with life (from the cutscene) and is now left barren. It wouldn't be appropriate to call augmented human beings and machines "life," but you get the point. With this, the actual gameplay begins. There is also a tutorial section that familiarizes you with the mechanics, which can be skipped.

So far so good. The game held my hand up to this point and I was pretty confident about my shooting skills. But things took a U-turn pretty quickly. It was by no means easy. I pride myself on my shooting skills, but it was overwhelming for me since I was on a solo run, and thus began my actual journey in ArcRunner.

To keep things simple, the game started off pretty quickly and it was clear that the developers don't want you to worry about the story and that it was merely there to tie up the events. The primary focus of ArcRunner is its gameplay and the developers surely did a pretty good job at it.

Overall, my first hands-on experience with ArcRunner was fantastic. Except for the Soulslike games, a few titles have managed to shatter my confidence within the first hour of their gameplay, and ArcRunner was one of them. But I wasn't going to give up.

Gameplay and story: A wild dance of excitement with a faint whisper on the stage

Gameplay

First Boss Battle in ArcRunner (Image via PQube)

As I have already established, the gameplay of ArcRunner can be overwhelming for players at first. However, as you progress through the game and unlock augmentations, things become a little easier. These augmentations will provide extra powers.

For instance, one of them will allow you to jump around and hover in the air, while others will shoot rockets at nearby enemies after a fixed interval of time. However, they are randomized on each run, so select them carefully.

All of these certainly help you get comfortable in the game and define your own playstyle. Similarly, for the three characters, you can pick two among them first - Soldier and Ninja, with the Hacker being unlockable late into the game.

So what does the gameplay entail? Well, there are four different areas within the Arc. You start off in the city and make your way to Eden. Each area has multiple mini-sectors within it. Once a sector is cleared of enemies, you move on to the next, and so on. These enemies are of different types and each one of them has its own unique way to fight you. While some will stun you at closer ranges, others will deal you devastating damage from a distance.

They usually start appearing slowly and suddenly you find yourself constantly smashing buttons and moving around the map trying to evade them and hit them at the same time. The pace at which combat intensifies is just perfect.

Mini-challenges in ArcRunner (Image via PQube)

As mentioned earlier, since it's a rogue-like game, once you die, you start all over again. Fortunately, there are certain areas within the sector that trap you for a limited time with a challenge. Once successfully completed, you can earn rewards in the form of weapons and health packs, which certainly help progress without dying.

In the main areas, you will be presented with boss battles before you can progress to the next main area. I found them quite easy to fight compared to the hordes of enemies that suffocate you.

I found myself dying multiple times in the game and starting all over. It was frustrating at first. However, each time you die, you can enhance the attributes of your character and you can carry this forward for that particular save. While deaths can be enraging, I was coming back to the game each time with a more familiar world than the last, which I found quite satisfying.

Combat, being the major highlight, can be challenging at times. But you will get used to it with time. Thanks to the random augmentations you get on each run, things remain fresh and don't get boring. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game and it was truly satisfying to clear out the levels that I was struggling with previously, giving me a sense of accomplishment.

Story

When it comes to the story, there is barely any. Basically, an Arc is infected by a virus, and all the "beings" on the Arc have turned evil. Your mission is to clear it of these evil robots and get to the core to reset the entire system. That's the entire story.

It isn't anything great, but it does provide you with a purpose to carry forward with your machine-killing mission. Although the game could have had a better story or even better, none, I felt like the narrative was just perfect to keep me going and solely focus on my fights.

Graphics, audio, and performance on PC: An immersive and seamless experience

Graphics

First up is graphics. It's a cyberpunk world and that means neon lights. The world is beautifully designed, especially the first main area of the City. It takes place in a sight setting with a beautiful implementation of the lights. Moreover, the floor is wet and light bounces off of them, creating a glossy surface.

Similarly, Port's second main area utilizes more dark themes to describe the Arc's industrial setting. Visually, the game doesn't disappoint, and it was one of the first aspects that drew me towards it.

As for the textures, they sway more towards a Risk of Rain 2-inspired art style where they are 3D blocks, but are made up of lighter textures. It is something that can only be experienced while viewing the world.

Similarly, the levels and the world are randomly designed. Hence, no two runs will be exactly alike. While the basic level design might be the same in some instances, the way objects are placed in and around are randomly generated each time. So if you plan on hiding behind a particular car on a run, don't expect it to be there on your next playthrough.

The graphics at the end of the day are beautiful. While it is true that the glossy neon lights with a cyberpunk theme may not be for all, I quite enjoyed it myself. It helped portray the dire situation on the Arc a thousand years into the future.

Audio

The audio isn't game-changing, but it does add to the environment. It reminds me of the 80s music where retro and synth music were the thing. They are not situational, in the sense that they don't suddenly change when there are tons of enemies coming at you at once.

However, they do add to the "rogue-like" feeling with a piece of constant music playing in the background. Moreover, there's no voice in the title, so it's all text and music.

Weapons and movement audio are good, but not revolutionary in any sense. Don't get me wrong, they are not bad to listen to but they aren't that great either. All weapons sound different. Speaking of them, I quite liked the sound of the Viper SMG, which truly felt like I was shooting laser guns straight from Star Wars.

Performance on PC

Solid performance of ArcRunner (Image via PQube)

I played the game on an RTX 3060 Ti, Ryzen 5 5600x, and 16 GB RAM. I played it at 1080p with maxed-out graphics settings. Apart from minor frame drops here and there, there wasn't anything game-breaking. Even for bugs and glitches, I didn't encounter any in my multiple playthroughs.

However, since I was aiming for 144FPS, the framerate tanked every now and then in some intense situations with a lot of explosions. But that is to be expected with everything going on.

In Conclusion

To put it simply, yes, ArcRunner is worth it. With its fun and randomized worlds, you can keep coming back for fresh content. Each run presents itself with unique augmentations and the opportunity to experiment with different playstyles.

Combating drones and machines, although challenging, can become quite easy once you get familiarized with them. The bosses, on the other hand, I felt weren't challenging enough.

While the game lacks a well-written narrative, I believe it to be the right choice for ArcRunner. It has just the perfect amount of the story element that sets you on the path.

The graphics are definitely a plus. With beautiful neon lights and great usage of lighting in the game's world, the visuals are truly worth appreciating. It isn't anywhere near realistic, but it combines a few elements from the real world and delivers them in a lighter theme. While the audio isn't particularly the best, it gets the job done.

Overall, ArcRunner is definitely worth checking out. Once you have completed the game, you can replay it again using the Hacker character and its abilities. And don't forget, almost everything in the game is randomized. Thus, giving it a lot of replay value. A title in 2023 with replayability is definitely a plus for me.

Having said that, I hope to see you on the Arc, General.