LogInAn unjust score driven by a political opinion, or a gaming journalist who finally had the guts not to slap a 10/10 on a new title?
From Clair Obscur and Balatro to Undertale and Stardew Valley – the history of gaming knows countless examples of titles that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and went on to become massive successes and certified hood classics.
The latest example one could put into this category is undeniably Embark Studios' ARC Raiders, an extraction shooter that could.
In less than two weeks, ARC has seemingly captured the attention of the entire gaming community, earning solid 8-9/10 review scores, attracting over 462,000 players on Steam alone at its peak, and even helping improve Unreal Engine 5's reputation by proving that most of the performance issues many have come to associate with it come from developers' implementation of UE5 rather than the engine itself.
That's why many were surprised to see one gaming outlet, Eurogamer, sticking out from the cheering crowd with the peculiar 2/5 score it awarded ARC Raiders with, citing "one inexcusable decision" as the reason for the low rating – the developer's "continued use of AI voice generation."
Authored by one Rick Lane, the review starts off as typical as any other – a foreword, a few paragraphs about the game as a whole, several more on its gameplay loop, mechanics, atmosphere, and interactions with other players, nothing out of the ordinary.
Midway through, however, Lane shifts to his main criticism of ARC Raiders, arguing that the game's use of AI voices has compromised the entire experience.
Unconvinced by Embark's earlier explanation that the studio doesn't use generative AI and instead hires and contracts real voice actors to produce its text-to-speech algorithms, the reviewer explained why, in his opinion, the game's TTS usage is "abhorrent" both "ethically and artistically," ending the piece with a "cannot recommend" verdict and a rating of just two stars out of five – the score that dragged ARC Raiders' overall Metacritic gaming journalists rating from the 90s down into the 80s.
"Rich PvE combat and an unusually friendly community make Arc Raiders a more approachable extraction shooter than most, but Embark Studios' continued use of AI voice generation is a black mark against its reputation," Lane wrote, stressing that his low rating is driven by the issue of AI first and foremost.
As soon as the review got published, it quickly drew widespread attention all across the internet, dividing the community into two camps.
The first camp heavily criticized Eurogamer and the review's author for being unfair and unjust, pointing out the contradiction in Lane's argument, as he simultaneously claimed that NPC voices are not central to the experience, and yet deducted 3 out of 5 stars from the game because of them.
Commenters also noted that Lane had previously rated Concord – a title many consider to be the absolute worst AAA game of all time – higher than ARC Raiders, 3 out of 5, calling his competency into question. Even Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney weighed in, saying that "political opinions" have no place in video game reviews, likening Lane's clear anti-AI stance to a political viewpoint.
At the same time, others defended the outlet, either agreeing with Lane that deducting 60 out of 100 points due to TTS voices was justified, or praising him for being one of the few gaming journalists willing to give an honest opinion – as unpopular as it may be – instead of automatically handing a 7/10 to a new title just to maintain Eurogamer's reputation as "access media."
And what are your thoughts on Eurogamer's 2/5 ARC Raiders review? Was the score justified? Is it unethical to use TTS voices if you pay actual voice actors and warn them beforehand? Let us know in the comments!
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