As a third-person shooter with just a single gun in its arsenal that lets you scope in, one almost never sees much of Arc Raiders’ gorgeous environments and explosive gameplay through first-person view.
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But there’s a way to get a look at post-apocalyptic Italy through the eyes of a Raider: Binoculars. They come with a heavy vignette and some HUD elements to make it feel like you’re using a zoomed scope, but on PC, if you hit F10, not only do you hide the HUD, but the vignetting on the binoculars goes away, leaving you with a suitably grainy image that’s perfect for taking some pretty shots of the game.
That’s exactly what one IRL photographer, who shares his process on YouTube as Topside Flicks, has done, leaving behind weapons to brave the wilds of Arc Raiders’ violent environments to catch some of the most gorgeous screenshots of the extraction shooter yet. Check out some of the gameplay here:
The grainy-ness of these shots is quite fitting for Arc Raiders’ kitbashed world where Raiders have to make due with what objects they can find to get the job done. I could imagine a photographer in this world hacking together found objects to be able to snap some stills. It really looks the part. Have a gander:
I’m something of an amateur photographer myself, having studied the craft briefly in college; I also grew up with a family member who made a living picking up the camera. I love a good shot, IRL or otherwise, so I had to learn more about the experience of capturing the beautiful vistas of Arc Raiders’ world and freezing in place the sudden and intense bursts of violence the game is known for.
Topside Flicks, who’s real name is Levi, and I chatted a bit over email. He said that the beauty of the game itself simply demanded he find a way to take shots “I was playing with a friend and I couldn’t stop marvelling at how great this game looked,” he told me. “I’m a photographer by trade so I’m always seeing photo opportunities.”
Arc Raiders clearly makes for wonderful capture opportunities. Much of this, I suspect, has to do with the lack of color-grading and filters the game uses, as Embark Studios talked about in episode two of their behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Aside from the practice range, every map in Arc Raiders is an active digital warzone. I asked Levi how dangerous the photo trips are. “I die plenty of times,” he said, “but the beauty of these runs is that I’m not doing any looting, so if I die, all I lose are binoculars and some defibrillators.”
But as you can see from his videos, Levi isn’t afraid to get up close to some intense firefights to grab a perfect shot. Naturally, he’s had many close calls. “I get set on fire quite a lot in my videos,” he said, “the Fireballs are my arch-nemesis when I don’t have a weapon,” he added, referring to the rolling Arc balls that love to cook players with their flamethrowing ability.
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Once on the field, binoculars in hand, he doesn’t have much of an urge to participate in the gunfire. “My mindset is strictly focused on the light and composition of whatever I’m looking at,” he said.
It shows. While some images clearly have some post-processing edits, as any good piece of photography does, these are some strong captures, and impressive considering he’s jumping headfirst into violent warzones purely for the sake of the craft, not the loot.