ARC Raiders developer Embark Studios is working harder to showcase the talented performances of the actors who play various roles in the PvPvE extraction shooter. In a blog post, the studio has discussed how it plans to start doing this by refreshing the appearance of Speranza’s unofficial leader, Celeste, by basing her appearance on voice actor Diana Gardner.
The studio has said that this decision was made due to the fact that “Celeste has never fully represented the depth of Diana’s performance.” The character’s “limited expressive capabilities” were noted as being a big reason behind “facial animations that fall short in communicating the stakes and stories we want to tell.” With the design refresh, Celeste is slated to offer more varied expression to better sell the stakes of the story to players.
The first appearance of this refreshed look for Celeste will be in the trailer for the upcoming Frozen Trail update, which marks the first time that Embark Studios uses full motion capture for its characters. This allows the studio to “map expressions and emotion in more detail. This means that more of Diana’s performance and identity comes across through the screen.”
“Naturally, Celeste has come to more closely resemble Diana, and that means she’ll look a little different to what you’ve seen before. Celeste and Diana are no longer hiding behind an imaginary face; they are now one and the same – what you’re watching is the authentic performance of an incredibly talented actor, the real Celeste on screen for the first time.”
Speaking about the future, Embark Studios has plans to bring Celeste’s new visual design and expressiveness to the game itself. Players will be able to see the newly-designed character once Frozen Trail is released later this week. More updates are planned for the coming months that will give other NPCs similar treatment. “The Rust Belt is immersive, grounded, and wondrous – but we want you to feel invested in it, and that means finding more ways to integrate human performances into every interaction.”
The Frozen Trail update will also bring a host of other new things to ARC Raiders, like Reward Passes, which will replace Raider Decks as the main method of progression to unlock new cosmetic items by playing the game. The studio has referred to Reward Passes as a “natural evolution” of Raider Decks, and has said that players will be able to progress through it to get their hands on outfits, cosmetics, gadgets, weapons, items, and Raider Tokens.
With Frozen Trail, Embark Studios has confirmed that it is going to test out dynamic loot zones with the addition of Pendola Pass. According to design director Virgil Watkins, the new dynamic loot zones will offer players more variety in the POIs they can visit. Every time they enter the zone, the POIs will be switched around with regard to what kind of loot they will feature. Dynamic loot zones have been described as a feature that has been “requested on and off over time” by the ARC Raiders player base.
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more, check out Embark’s new hardline stance against cheaters.
