Escape From Tarkov has been in active development and beta for around ten years now, with the Beta being in a playable state for the good portion of that featuring events, quests and a lot of chaos as you try to Escape the region safely one raid at a time.
Escape From Tarkov is set in the Norvinsk Special Economic Zone — with the capital being the city of Tarkov — you awaken as a PMC from either the USEC or BEAR faction and attempt to make your way out of Tarkov through working with many of the local factions and big names.
One of the key differences with the 1.0 release is the tutorial that has been added, from the eyes of a first time player some of the people I played with mentioned that the tutorial did kind of flash up a bit quick for them to comprehend what was happening all while working out the different keys and such to play — but overall had a good feel to it and was better than just jumping into raids without knowing what was happening.
The tutorial has actually changed a few times since its release. With the original you could pick up and keep the items you found in the tutorial raid which did include some of the game’s rarer loot items including a LEDX and a graphics card. Now you get a set amount of items including the rare loot upon completion of said tutorial, meaning those that missed it initially have missed it for good.
Exploration of the various Tarkov areas has changed, with you needing to complete the new “Tour” quest to be able to explore the different maps and unlock them with traders. Lighthouse seems to be the one that a lot of newer players are stumped with, requiring a hefty $20’000 to unlock — which costs around 3m rubles — so you’ll need to save up to get that area unlocked.
Gunplay in Tarkov has always been a great experience, with lots of different weapons, a crazy amount of combinations for attachments and customisation as well as varied ammo types and interactions with weapons. It makes any interaction with the firearms feel incredibly real. Guns and weapons can be changed on the fly to adapt to situations making you really feel as if you are getting stuck into the role of a PMC in Tarkov.
The maps and locations around Escape From Tarkov are absolutely massive (Minus factory which is still incredibly detailed and multi-levelled for such a small area) with plenty of variation between maps but with enough similarity to make it clear you’re still very much in Tarkov. Some of the maps have had some changes, most notably Interchange which has had a massive expansion on most of its borders adding a number of camps and new looting opportunities.
I have played Escape From Tarkov for many years, I’m more than familiar with the way of the world but it was nice to have the addition of the main story quests wrapping up a lot of the content I’m already familiar with, as well as having the interactions between the traders and yourself instead of just the old messages they would purely communicate through.
One thing I have noticed — and many others probably have too — is the glaring lack of Black Division and RUAF forces in the game. I have made it quite far and still not encountered either of these factions, and the Terminal map seems to be a distant dream. I was expecting a lot of this content to be available or at the very least ‘out’ with the 1.0 release but perhaps it is focused towards more endgame content that I’m not quite at yet.
I do like a lot of the changes that have come with the Tarkov 1.0 release, even the minor changes like the few new guns and locked doors that can be found as well as the various quest related material that fleshes the world together but somehow I was expecting a bit more. With all the hype leading up to the 1.0 release and with the levels that featured at games events beforehand I was looking forward to trying out these missions as opposed to the normal raids but they just don’t seem to be here, at least not yet.
The Steam release of Escape From Tarkov features full integration with the Steam UI as well as achievements and such all being carried over. You can log in with your current account if you already own one, however you will have to buy the game again if you are a returning player.
Escape From Tarkov offers an unmatched experience in the Extraction Shooter category pioneering what the genre truly is in its rawest form. Tarkov can come across as unfair and difficult at times and for some newer players incredibly daunting but for the time you put in, it can become an all encompassing experience taking a lot of time to truly progress in but it outperforms similar games by a very wide margin.
If you would like to Try and Escape From Tarkov yourself, you can find it on both the Battlestate website or on Steam.
