Stella Montis condenses everything I love about Arc Raiders by cramming it all into a cramped facility of pure chaos

I love shouting "Don't shoot" in Stella Montis in solo—it's like Raider radar. You'll hear one person reply from the balcony above you, another from the next room over, one in a nearby vent, and a final one you didn't even realise was standing behind a pillar nearby. Arc Raiders' new Stella Montis map is cramped, especially after the big sprawling open areas of Dam Battlegrounds, Spaceport, and Blue Gate that we've grown accustomed to since launch.

That's partly what makes it so distinct, though. Stella Montis's confined corridors and snaking tunnels, packed to the gills with Arc enemies and other Raiders, make for a unique brand of chaos. It's a space for players who love the excitement of interaction and conflict. Loading into the map as soon as it opened at the end of last week was everything I'd hoped for raiding a mysterious old world facility.

I remember running through a maze of dimly lit, barely navigable corridors as Raiders around me got chased by packs of Pops, or gunned down by Wasps and Hornets. And then I ran straight into a Shredder and it was curtains for me. Shredders, in-particular, fit Stella Montis so well. I love how they look almost innocent, like robot janitors, but will suddenly scream and fill an entire room with projectiles. There are few things scarier than a couple of enraged Shredders ominously gliding down a corridor after you.

One run I spotted two players, seemingly out of ammo, taking cover behind pipes as a Shredder tried to get an angle on them. When I asked if they wanted help, one of them immediately screamed "YES, KILL IT". Stella Montis is a bit safer now that everyone's worked out how to deal with Shredders (avoid them tbh) and actually navigate its maze-like map, but its sheer player proximity still leads to some fun interactions.

Another run I teamed up with a large group of Raiders killing the Bastion in the Loading Bay, firing from cargo containers and girders on different levels, working together to take down this large Arc, before parkour-ing down to the ground to loot. Of course, for every positive interaction with Raiders, the map's close quarters create a much tenser PvP environment than you'll see on Dam or other maps. Stella Montis really condenses and amplifies your usual journey through a run, but that's what I love about it versus the maps we already have.

Where, on Dam Battlegrounds, you might interact with just a couple of teams in the course of a 20 minute run, with long spaces of looting and wandering between, in Stella Montis everything is accelerated. It's the kind of map where you'll either have an incredible run where you make off with the best loot and down multiple Raiders, or you'll immediately get gunned down two minutes after you spawn.

Sure, that can be quite frustrating at times and it varies wildly from run to run, but I think it can be equally rewarding as well. I'm just glad Embark had the guts to make a map like this distinctive from the others, rather than just giving us another open world space. It's not like you even have to play Stella Montis to complete the current event and get its rewards, either, meaning you can steer clear if you don't enjoy the close quarters.

For those willing to risk it, though, it can be such a fun, chaotic experience, trying to find your way around while also dealing with the density of Arc enemies and other Raiders. I've always been a big fan of smaller indoor maps with more enemies and greater risk/loot potential, like what Koschei Complex or Bunker 21 were in CoD: DMZ.

I also like the way that Stella Montis expresses Arc Raiders' story. People occupied this elaborate base once, but even something this fortified fell to the Arc (or perhaps through in-fighting?). The shipping containers left undelivered, the laboratories sans scientists. The Seed Vault in particular is a sad space to see abandoned and derelict, connecting one of the game's most common items to a physical location.

Hopefully we'll get more small scale maps like this in future, too, alongside the bigger more open ones.