Arc Raiders’ biggest ever update, Frozen Trail, is right around the corner, and last week, I went hands-on with it for a few hours. There’s a lot to be excited about, from the raid-inspired Emperor slumped into the mountainside and the airborne Frigate, to new enemies, weapons, gadgets, and a whole new snowy map to explore. But one thing stood out: the grappling hook.
The snaphook has been in Arc Raiders since launch and has led to plenty of sneaky plays, especially in PvP, as it allows players to zip up to any ledge within reach. However, it’s a legendary-tier item, and as such, players don’t use it as often as they should for fear of losing it. Not to mention that makes it harder to obtain in the first place. The new grappling hook, on the other hand, is of a much lower rarity, and at first glance, looks less powerful.
What the grappling hook does have, however, is a much higher skill ceiling. In the right hands, a player can practically turn into a post-apocalyptic Spider-Man, swinging from one ledge to another. Climbing up the rope takes a while, which means it’s less suitable for simply ascending, but when you can jump off one building and swing across to another rooftop mid-fight, you’ll look cool as hell. You can even attach it to the new ballistic gondola extraction method and fly out of the map with it for ultimate style points.
Of course, it’s not as smooth or simple as Insomniac Games’ webbed hero swinging through the streets of New York City. You’ll need to manually aim at a ledge and throw the hook. If you want to adjust your height, you can climb up or down. But when the hook is latched onto a surface, not much is going to break it, so you can throw it, then leap off a building to quickly descend, or even jump first, then throw it behind you (if you have the reflexes). Combined with one of the new skills which allows players to scramble up walls and reach for ledges, the mobility options in Arc Raiders are flourishing.
It isn’t the only rope-themed item that will make for some epic plays once everyone gets their hands on the new update, though. The tether launcher can stop players or enemies in their tracks; I used it when the new Bully enemy was on my tail (which is absolutely terrifying, by the way) to buy myself a few seconds to dash into a building for cover. Then there’s the yank grenade, which I used to pull a Hornet crashing to the ground, right as it geared up to spray bullets at me.
Frozen Trail has a number of impressive additions that are aimed at improving the game’s longevity, such as the places of interest on the new Pendola Pass map featuring different loot zones in each round. This means there won’t always be one or two contested hot spots that recur on each map, and should provide more variety in strategies. Then there’s the weapon amplification system, which modifies how certain weapons work and buffs them; I was bestowed with the worst gun in the game, the Hairpin, but amplified? Well, it was still the worst gun in the game, but it wasn’t completely useless.
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The Emperor and the Frigate — two endgame encounters that are supposed to resemble raid mechanics from other games — are undoubtedly the headline-grabbing additions in Frozen Trail, but unfortunately, neither was accessible during the preview session. Their execution will likely determine whether this update helps return Arc Raiders to its top spot in the extraction shooter genre, but the jury’s out on if that’ll happen. We’ll find out when the update goes live on Thursday, Oct. 8… but it won’t be long before Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ mode is hot on its heels.