Arc Raiders' First-Person Mode Exposed Balance And Security Gaps Before Being Shut Down

Arc Raiders' First-Person Mode appeared in the wild through an exploit that briefly let players experience the game from a completely different perspective. I saw footage and reactions spread quickly once the command-based trick surfaced. Arc Raiders is built as a third-person-only experience, and that design choice shapes combat, awareness, and pacing. Switching to first-person did not just change the view. It altered how the game felt moment to moment, and not always in fair ways.

The exploit was first reported by Insider Gaming and relied on command inputs that were never meant to be accessible. Once enabled, the view snapped into the Raider’s eyes. The effect was immediate. Encounters felt tighter, darker, and more stressful. Environments that already lean on tension became harder to read. Players described the world as more frightening, with less peripheral awareness and more reliance on sound and timing. It was a dramatic shift for a game tuned around third-person visibility.

One Reddit user summed up that reaction clearly.

"I would legit have about 3 times more playtime if there was a first-person mode. Literally, the only thing I dislike about the game is third-person PvP."

— Reddit user

That enthusiasm came with a cost. The exploit did more than change the camera. It broke field-of-view handling in ways that stripped out key environmental elements. Fog, shadows, and even trees stopped rendering correctly. Players using the exploit could see more clearly across spaces meant to be obscured. That created a direct advantage in PvP and PvE encounters. Anyone playing normally was suddenly easier to track and ambush.

Because Arc Raiders is an always-online live-service game, those advantages did not stay isolated. Matches became uneven. Reports increased. Embark Studios responded with a hotfix that disabled the command pathway entirely. The studio addressed the issue publicly through its official Discord.

"This feature was never meant to be player-facing," the statement read. "We’re continuing to investigate related reports and may take action where appropriate to protect fair play and the integrity of the game. As always, thank you for your reports and see you Topside!"— Embark Studios

Several players focused less on the camera trick itself and more on how easily it worked. One comment captured that unease.

"It's very worrying that the client can orchestrate these kinds of things and the server just swallowing all as is. This leads me to believe that they have done very little security-related stuff to prevent exploits/cheating."

— Reddit user

That concern did not appear in isolation. Arc Raiders has faced repeated exploit issues over the past few months. In December, Embark disabled an in-game event entirely after a surge of cheating. In November, players discovered that forcing extremely low graphical settings could effectively remove environmental cover, making it easier to spot opponents before they could react. Even when those exploits did not allow direct wallhacks, they still shifted engagements in subtle but decisive ways.

Seen together, the Arc Raiders First-Person Mode incident fits into a broader pattern. Each exploit highlights pressure points where client-side control affects fairness. While Embark has acted quickly in several cases, the frequency of these discoveries keeps attention fixed on security rather than features.

At the same time, the reaction to the exploit revealed genuine interest in alternative perspectives. Some players did not see the first-person view as a cheat, but as a glimpse of a different Arc Raiders that felt more intense and personal. Whether Embark ever explores that direction officially remains unanswered, but the response shows how strongly camera perspective shapes player attachment.

The updated Roadmap shows Arc Raiders is headed in the near term. Embark Studios has mapped development through mid-January, with the Cold Snap update closing out the current phase. There is no full outline for 2026 yet, but the structure shows a steady cadence rather than a pause after launch, reinforcing that post-release support is planned rather than reactive.

Attention around Arc Raiders has also been shaped by streamer coverage, especially after comments from Shroud. Since launching in October, the game has maintained a stable player base while several larger releases faded faster. That consistency, combined with high-profile visibility, has pushed discussion beyond short-term success and into whether the extraction shooter has room to grow into something much larger.

For now, Arc Raiders First-Person Mode exists only as a patched-out experiment that players were never meant to touch. What remains is a reminder of how fragile balance can be in live-service shooters, and how quickly unintended features can reshape the conversation around a game.

Read also, Hollywood interest continues to build around Arc Raiders, with Embark Studios founder Patrick Söderlund confirming frequent approaches from film and television companies during a recent GamesBeat appearance.