Arc Raiders First Person Mode: A Cool Idea With Big Problems
Arc Raiders is designed as a third person co op shooter, but over the weekend one player managed to crack the game wide open and experience it in first person. For a brief moment the community got a glimpse of what Arc Raiders could feel like from up close. Then the developers shut it down fast.
The whole situation started when a player known as Short Satisfaction 9 discovered that they could access the game’s internal console commands. By using those commands they forced Arc Raiders into a first person perspective that is normally not available to anyone.
They shared their experience on Reddit, where the clip quickly spread and was later picked up by gaming sites. According to the player, the first person view felt intense and immersive. The Arc enemies looked more terrifying and the atmosphere of the world hit harder when you were seeing it through the eyes of your Raider instead of over their shoulder.
Interestingly, Short Satisfaction 9 was not arguing that Arc Raiders needs a first person mode. In fact they said they love the game as a third person experience and would happily keep playing that way. They just enjoyed how surreal it felt to walk around this familiar world from a completely new angle.
They even admitted that first person would probably be a disadvantage in competitive situations because third person players can peek around corners and maintain better awareness without exposing themselves. So on its own the perspective shift did not really give a clear combat advantage.
Why The Exploit Was A Big Problem For Fair Play
The issue is that the same console access that enabled first person did a lot more than just move the camera. Once players could access hidden developer commands they could also remove fog and darkness and potentially tweak other visual elements that are supposed to be part of the challenge.
When you clear away fog and heavy shadows in a game like Arc Raiders you are not just making it look cleaner. You are stripping away important gameplay limitations and turning tense, atmospheric areas into bright, easy shooting galleries. That is a real advantage in both PvE and PvP scenarios.
Embark Studios quickly responded with a hotfix. In an official Discord message, community manager Ossen announced that they had removed access to the NewConsole command entirely. This was the entry point the player had used to force first person and to change those environmental settings.
The studio explained that this console feature was never meant to be visible to players. It existed for internal testing and development, not for public use. Once they realised people were using it live they had to lock it down to protect fair play and the integrity of the game.
Embark also mentioned that they are still investigating related reports. That means they are looking into who used the exploit, how it was used, and whether further action like suspensions or bans is necessary.
From a competitive perspective this is important. Even if many players were just messing around with first person for fun, there will always be some who use any exploit to gain an advantage. Removing fog and darkness can turn tough encounters into trivial ones and make it far easier to spot other players or enemies before they can see you.
Cracking Down On Cheaters In Arc Raiders
This hotfix lines up with a broader shift in how Embark is handling cheating in Arc Raiders. Recently the game has seen what looks like a wave of suspensions targeting cheaters. The developers are clearly taking a stronger stance on anyone who uses external tools or in game exploits to ruin the experience for others.
Some players think the current punishments are too soft. Reports suggest that in certain cases cheaters are punished in a more creative way inside the game itself. For example there have been stories about cheaters getting nonstop Arc enemies spawning on them, turning their sessions into constant punishment instead of normal matches.
Whether you agree with that approach or not, the message is clear. Embark wants Arc Raiders to feel fair and competitive. The first person exploit may have started as a cool experiment by a fan who genuinely loves the game, but once it crossed into the territory of disabling fog and darkness it became a threat to that fairness.
For now the dream of an official first person mode in Arc Raiders is off the table. The experiment proved that the game’s world and atmosphere can look amazing through a first person lens, but it also highlighted how tricky it is to balance a shooter that was built from the ground up around third person combat.
Third person gives you much better situational awareness, especially in PvP, and lets you use cover more effectively. Swapping to first person without redesigning maps, encounters and balance would almost certainly lead to unfair matchups and awkward gameplay.
If Embark ever decides to explore a proper first person option it would need to be implemented carefully and probably separated from standard modes. For now their priority is keeping the playing field level, shutting down hidden commands that were never meant to leave the dev toolbox, and continuing to hunt down cheats and exploits before they spread.
For Arc Raiders players this means one thing. If you see clips of first person gameplay or wide open fog free landscapes, remember that this is no longer possible in the live game. The developers have moved fast to close the loophole and are watching closely for anything else that might tip the scales away from fair play.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-removes-a-hidden-first-person-exploit-just-1-day-after-it-was-uncovered-this-feature-was-never-meant-to-be-player-facing/
