Escape from Tarkov

About

Escape from Tarkov is a first-person looter shooter and massively multiplayer online video game developed by Russian studio Battlestate Games for Windows platforms. The game is set in the fictional Norvinsk region of Northwestern Russia where an armed conflict has erupted between Russian Internal Troops, UN peacekeepers and two private military companies. The objective of the game is to escape Tarkov by working for one of the private militaries or being a Scav, whose goal is to acquire loot from the sealed area.

History

Initially, development for Escape from Tarkov began in 2012 with plans for the game to receive a traditional full purchase release with no free-to-play or microtransaction elements. The plot of this title revolves around a fictional conflict in Northwestern Russia, surrounding a “special economic zone” that served as a gateway between Russia and Europe. The creation of this zone then attracted malicious corporations looking to take advantage of potential wealth and the city of Tarkov became the center for the conflict. In Tarkov, a political scandal involving these corporations erupted into an armed conflict between Russian Internal Troops, United Nations peacekeepers and the two private military companies: United Security (USEC) and BEAR. With conflict in the zone escalating, the region’s borders were sealed off, trapping those inside within the war zone. This forms the basis of the game, as players choose between these factions vying for power or selecting the option to be a “Scav” who is unaligned and seeks potential treasure and loot as a freelance faction.

The gameplay is built around similar “looter shooter” style FPS games such as PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds), but also includes many MMORPG elements found in games like World of Warcraft. There are currently four different modes to choose from, and four more are in the works (Story Mode, Open World Mode, Arena Mode, Premium Mode). These are explained below via the game’s GamePedia^[1] page:

PMC: The player uses their main character, entering the raid with gear equipped by the player. Once in raid, the player can pick up any gear from dead players, dead AI, as well as loot from loot spawn locations such as filing cabinets, bags, safes and computer tower blocks. If a PMC dies, the player drops everything that is equipped or stored on the player with the exception of the items in the secure container. In order to survive and extract with any gear they picked up, players have to make it to an extraction point. Extraction points are assigned at the beginning of a raid and some require certain conditions to be met.

Scav: The player can also go into a raid as Scav, the AI faction, with a random set of gear and equipment. Scav AI will start off as neutral to a Scav player, but often other players have also entered the raid as a Scav. Scavs will face off against PMCs and potentially other Scav players. Any loot gathered by the player as a Scav can be transferred to the main character, while dying as a Scav has no penalty aside from lost gear. In order to survive and extract with any gear you picked up, Scav players must also use extraction points, which may sometimes be exclusive to scavs. If a player Scav shoots a fellow Scav, they will defend themselves and nearby Scavs will become hostile to them.

Offline Mode: Using the same maps as the PMC mode, players can enter a sandbox mode for testing; any gear, loot, experience and actions in the offline mode will be reversed at the end of the raid. Ammo expended, gear found or lost, or player injuries will be reset. Players can also modify the raid conditions, which include, but are not limited to, weather and AI skill and aggression.

Player Hideout: Includes building and upgrading of various facilities in the hideout, each with its own bonuses such as player recovery and the manufacture of items such as ammunition and loot. Hideouts also provide the ability to upgrade the player's stash size, along with the capability to produce various items.

On August 4th, 2016, a closed alpha version of the game was released for a select group of players and was then extended on December 28th, 2016, to those who preordered the game. Players who gained access to this alpha were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and gameplay coverage on streaming platforms was limited to select players until March 24th, 2017, when the NDA was lifted.

The game is currently still in a closed beta phase, which began on July 28th, 2017. This closed beta is available to any owner of a preordered version of the game, regardless of their particular edition. There are three various editions available for purchase, ranging from $45 to $140 with a wide array of in-game perks and extras depending on which tier users buy.

Though there’s still no confirmed date for an official launch, the game’s recent spike in popularity near the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 has been theorized by players and media outlets to push the developer into a full release sometime in 2020.

Online Presence

Upon initial announcement, Escape from Tarkov was somewhat of a sleeper title, mostly flying under the radar until several big streamers on Twitch began playing the game towards the end of 2019 and into early 2020. According to the website Twitch Metrics^[2], Escape from Tarkov saw a rapid rise in viewership between December 29th, 2019, to January 5th, 2020, peaking on the 4th at over 200,000 viewers. As of February 2020, the game remains popular and is the 3rd most popular title on the streaming platform. Streamers such as summit1g^[3] have helped propel this online presence, seen in a clip from the channel below.

This rapid rise in viewership has also led to several online media outlets recently covering the game, despite its age, leading to discussions about the game’s renewed interest. One such article comes from PCGamer^[4], published on January 18th, 2020. In the article, they cover the games resurgence in 2020 and discuss the basic plot and gameplay elements of Tarkov, stating, “Escape from Tarkov feels like the next leap along the evolutionary branch of online shooters.”

On Reddit, there’s an active community and subreddit surrounding the game, which was created on November 9th, 2015. Since then, the sub has grown to over 250,000 members who frequently post clips, strategies, memes and fan art relating to the title. One example of this was posted by Redditor^[5] Yoda-is-a-goblin on January 28th, 2020 (seen below). The post was upvoted nearly 7,000 times and received several Reddit awards.

Controversies

Though the game has a rapidly growing fan base, the developer has had a number of issues and controversies surrounding the development of Escape from Tarkov over the years. One of the major issues that people voice their displeasure over is that there is still no announcement for a final release date. Beta versions of the game have provided a playable experience for many years now, but regular bugs and issues continue to pop up, and server wipes are not uncommon as development continues to inch forward.

The dev team has also had issues regarding their abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in order to punish a YouTuber critical of its game. According to an article from Polygon^[6] on January 30th, 2019, YouTuber Eroktic says he "lost nearly all of his income from that platform" after Battlestate Games knowingly made 47 spurious claims against him. Polygon went on to claim that the developer similarly pursued additional YouTube content creators impacting their income and livelihoods. This controversy caused backlash against the game and Battlestate Games throughout 2018 and 2019.

On December 30th, 2019, when the game was pushing promo on Twitch as part of a marketing campaign, a Battlestate team member pointed a real gun to his head during a livestream and proceeded to pull the trigger in a feigned suicide attempt (seen here from Dexerto^[7]). Shortly after this, the company's channel was banned on Twitch and has yet to be reinstated, despite having nearly 700,000 followers.

Regarding the 3 years old article with points about women in EFT. The answers were done by one, not a key BSG employee which probably were misinterpreted and as a result didn't reflect the official position of the company, that we always respected women in wars and military women

— Battlestate Games (@bstategames) January 6, 2020

Perhaps the largest source of controversy surrounding the game revolves around the developer's views on adding female avatars to the game. In 2016, one of the devs working on the game spoke with Wccftech in an interview and said "women can’t handle that amount of stress [in warfare]. There's only place for hardened men" after being asked about their inclusion in the game. Battlestate recently backtracked on those statements in a series of tweets, saying that they respect female soldiers and their role in conflicts throughout history. However, the dev then said adding female characters would be too much work, and the issue remains unresolved.

Search Interest

External References