ARC Raiders previews pretty well, perhaps because its design conservatism makes it so instantly familiar. There’s absolutely nothing here to challenge what came before, but sometimes, that’s okay. Overall, the ARC Raiders loop seems pretty well tuned to satisfy: make it to the surface to loot and kill, bring your goods and experience back underground to improve your abilities, head back up stronger to find stronger gear, and repeat.
No surprise, the new normal.
The new normal for what?
For AAA games. Make a barely serviceable game with the least possible effort so that it can serve as a wrapper for micro transactions.
Live service, sure, since that’s the entire point of live service, but we’re spoiled for choice of fantastic games across different scopes and scales that don’t have any microtransactions at all.