I had 3 hours with Arc Raiders Frozen Trails update and spent most of it playing with the new grapple hook

Yeah yeah, sure, Arc Raiders is getting some new guns, but the real star of my session was the grapple hook. Embark made an honest-to-god grapple hook: Not the kind that zips you straight to where you aim it (that already exists), but a simulated rope that's quite rare in videogames.

The grapple hook is only a green tier gadget, but very versatile. A single hook lets you:

Climb straight up to the top of most buildings

Swing from rooftop to rooftop like Spider-Man

What makes the grapple hook so useful is that it sticks to just about anything. Wherever the hook lands becomes a pivot point that you can either climb toward, descend, or swing against. You can also redeploy the hook midair, without a cooldown or use limit, meaning you can chain swings together.

Above: Scaling a building with the grapple hook is about as fast as climbing a ladder, which is surprising.

It's a level of pendulum-based …