Arc Raiders devs had ambitions for "boss fights in that same arena of Dark Souls, Monster Hunter" but quickly realized the Arc are too unpredictable

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Arc Raiders devs had ambitions for "boss fights in that same arena of Dark Souls, Monster Hunter" but quickly realized the Arc are too unpredictable News By Kaan Serin published 6 December 2025

Embark Studios wanted "all of that compelling pattern recognition."

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(Image credit: Embark Studios)

At one point during the development of hit shooter Arc Raiders, Embark Studios wanted to have big boss fights centred around pattern recognition in the same vein as Dark Souls or Monster Hunter, but the imposing robots that stalk the game's maps were far too unpredictable for that to work.

Arc Raiders' technical designer Nora Silow said as much in a docuseries about the making of the extraction shooter, which you can watch below. "A lot of design philosophies, especially with enemy design, are really difficult to pull off when you have these types of systems because it's so much about pattern recognition," she said.

The Evolution of ARC Raiders EP3 - Building ARC Machines - YouTube Watch On

For those out of the loop, pattern recognition in games is pretty much what the name implies. When you see a Dark Souls boss stretch their weapon in a specific way, let's say, you'll eventually realize they're charging up for a very particular spinning attack, and hopefully, you'll also in time realize how to counter it.

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"That's what games like Dark Souls, like Monster Hunter kind of rely upon," Silow continued. "And we had this ambition to have boss fights in that same arena of Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, having all of that compelling pattern recognition."

But Embark soon realized the Arcs had far too many variables for those more scripted boss encounters to be viable. Pattern recognition works in games because the player knows that certain animations will lead to certain outcomes almost every single time, which doesn't really work if a scarab-y Arc is on a slope at an angle the developers didn't plan for or if there's another player firing from an unexpected angle.

Silow puts it succinctly: "You're not gonna have the pattern that you thought."

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. CATEGORIES Xbox Series X PS5 PC Gaming Platforms Xbox PlayStation Kaan SerinFreelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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