Will Escape from Tarkov still be popular in 2021?

WHAT IS SO REMARKABLE ABOUT THE HARDCORE SHOOTER ESCAPE FROM TARKOV?

We wrote about the survival simulator Escape from Tarkov, developed by the Russian studio Battlestate Games, back in August 2017, when the closed beta test of the game started. It has not yet been completed, but a few months ago they started talking about the new product with renewed interest, and Escape from Tarkov is still (at the time of publication of this article) confidently in the twenty most popular games on Twitch streaming platform. The largest Reddit section dedicated to the project has more than 360 thousand subscribers, and the developer blog on Twitter is followed by more than 268 thousand people. Recently, the head of the studio, Nikita Buyanov, said that the game broke its own online record: 200 thousand users were simultaneously in it.

Let's figure out what the game of the St. Petersburg studio is how and why the interest in Escape from Tarkov has grown so much lately.

SUCH FAMILIAR EDGES

Escape from Tarkov takes place in a fictional Norvinsk region. Here, in the city of Tarkov and its environs, a military conflict begins between two private military companies (the American USEC and the Russian BEAR), and the city itself goes into martial law. The player needs to take on the role of a mercenary or a local resident and get out of the conflict zone alive by finding an evacuation point.

Tarkov is a provincial Russian city with classic residential buildings from several eras at once, shops and shopping centers, a large industrial zone, hostels, elite villages, and recreation centers. In the first hours, one wants not to escape from it, but on the contrary, to explore every nook and cranny and enjoy the landscapes familiar to every inhabitant of the post-Soviet space: nondescript typical buildings from the USSR, which are adjacent to modern buildings and huge industrial facilities. And in the local shopping center "Ultra" with shops IDEYA, "Goshan" and OLI, I want to explore all the premises - the location turned out to be one of the most atmospheric.

The details of the plot can be found by studying the in-game environment and completing special quests, and since March 2019, the authors of the game began to release the Raid series on YouTube - it reveals the Escape from Tarkov the universe even better. The modern military conflict in a half-abandoned Russian city may not sound like a revelation, but the world of Escape from Tarkov turned out to be very recognizable, rich in details, and therefore attractive.

THE OPPRESSIVE SENSE OF DANGER

Technically, Escape from Tarkov is a session shooter. Matches here are called "raids" and rarely last more than 25-30 minutes. Before starting, the player chooses a faction (BEAR, USEC, or the so-called "Wild"), a location for spawning, and goes hunting. The main task is to get to one of the safe points, along the way finding valuable loot and not dying in skirmishes with other players or bots.

Sounds simple, right? Make no mistake, Escape from Tarkov is arguably one of the most ruthless and hardcore multiplayer shooters in recent years. Even the confused Arma 3 looks like innocent entertainment for casual players against its background.

There is no training and no explanation of the main goals of the game. On loading screens before raids, you can read only laconic management tips and an honest warning from the developers that you will have to die very often.

What does the key to room 204 that you found in the trunk of an abandoned car mean? Why do you need Vaseline? What is the difference between an unsterilized bandage, AI-92 first aid kit, analingus, ibuprofen, and SG1 TBLabs injector? Throw the processor away from the computer or keep it for yourself? And how many unloadings to take with you? Should I wear tactical headphones? Where should I go? There are a lot of questions and almost everything you need to look for answers on special sites for the game or forums.

Equipment micromanagement is a separate headache: you need to wisely layout items in your inventory, make sure that you always have medicines, spare magazines, and grenades at hand. And do this not only before going into the raid but also during it. For example, looting a killed enemy and risking a savory headshot from a camper.

All the loot that was on the player at the time of death disappears forever unless initially spent on his insurance. But it also returns only those items that the player who killed you decided not to take with him as a trophy.

The game is as unfriendly to beginners as possible. No wonder the developers even provided for a separate system of "Sherpas" - volunteers who are ready to personally train green youths in the harsh world of Tarkov. You need to get used to shooting, sit for hours in the weapon editor (Escape from Tarkov is not without reason called real "gun porn" - here you can collect any weapon of your dreams), study the exits from the locations, know the location of secret rooms with the richest loot, understand the basics of local medicine and take into account dozens of more nuances.

But the main thing in Escape from Tarkov is the constant feeling that you are about to lose everything that you have acquired through back-breaking labor. A bullet can come from anywhere, anytime: a couple of times I did not live after the spawn on the map and thirty seconds. Something similar could only be experienced in the golden days of DayZ, when Bohemia Interactive, which grew from a small mod for Arma 2, became a real discovery for players. Only today DayZ has lost the remnants of its former popularity due to the “early access” that lasted for six years and the lack of serious updates, and Escape from Tarkov seems to be experiencing a real renaissance.

TAKE OFF ON TWITCH

In early 2020, Escape from Tarkov unexpectedly took top positions on Twitch. Popular Western streamers drew attention to her. And so it began - until now, the game is watched by an average of more than 30 thousand users daily, and after major patches, the peak performance soars to several hundred thousand.

It is difficult to say exactly what was the catalyst for this explosive growth. Someone believes that the authors simply paid streamers to help promote the game (as EA did in the case of Apex Legends), but the head of the studio Nikita Buyanov denies this. According to another theory, content makers are simply tired of the broadcasts of the hype Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and accidentally drew attention to the original hardcore project from Russia, in which you can be killed every second. And the New Year Sale and Twitch Drops (a feature in Twitch that allows you to randomly distribute broadcasts to viewers, for example, valuable in-game items) only increased the effect.

Plus, Escape from Tarkov is a fun game to watch. The broadcasts of already experienced streamers who make gorgeous frags, seeing only three pixels of the enemy in the gap, simultaneously boost themselves with medicines and open rooms with the most valuable loot, look like a real show from the category of "nothing is clear but very interesting." Battlestate, by the way also encourages newcomers to first follow the game of hard-core players in order to understand the basics and learn the locations.

Hardcore, an almost apocalyptic atmosphere in the Russian hinterland, and an overwhelming sense of danger have put Escape from Tarkov is the spotlight in 2020. But the game already has a huge fan base that continues to grow rapidly. So in 2021, do you think this game will continue to be popular? You are welcome to leave a comment at the bottom of this article.