Escape From Tarkov is an extraction shooter developed by Russian studio BattleState Games (BSG). It's somehow been in "beta" for 8 years. Players enter a game, find loot or kill players/AI and take their loot, then if they can exit the map they keep the loot.
The game has a weird monetisation model. The developers promised no microtransactions, no pay 2 win, the usual stuff that makes gaymers smile. Instead the base edition is $50, going all the way up to the Edge of Darkness edition at something like $150. What do you get for that? Basically extra space to store items between games and a season pass for all future DLC.
A few months ago BSG stopped selling Edge of Darkness and suggested they'd offer the features to other players as microtransactions instead. G*mers were less than pleased, but it all blew over in a few weeks.
Arena
Meanwhile, BSG released a seperate standalone game called Arena, which is basically a Team Deathmatch mode for Tarkov aimed at being an esport. Like most "esports ready" slop it flopped, probably because Tarkov doesn't do balance. There are good guns and shit guns, it's ultra realistic. Guy with the better gun and better bullets always wins.
So, 8 years after initial release BSG dump their money into a new, failed game. It's given out for free to Edge of Darkness owners as a "DLC" but still fails. People suspect that this might mean that BSG is running out of money.
PvE
Perhaps the biggest thing the players want is a non-PVP mode. A big part of this is because the game is hard and most players suck, but to be fair Tarkov also has a massive cheater problem.
I mean massive btw, cheaters can see every item in each game. If you enter a raid carrying good gear, the 3-5 cheaters in each map will immediately charge you down for it without fail. BSG supposedly bans these players but does little to stop it, probably because most cheaters sell rare items for real world cash and use the profits to buy a new copy every week. That said, it's been worse in the past. There were times when cheaters could just teleport all the loot in the game straight to them. Fun.
So naturally, players really want to get away from the cheating and play offline. BSG insists it's not possible, although somehow modders were able to reverse-engineer things and create their own Single Player Tarkov (SPT) mod. Someone is lying there, I can't tell who.
Unheard Edition
This week BSG announced a new edition of Escape from Tarkov - Unheard Edition. In this you get all the Edge of Darkness features plus a special knife, woo.
Just kidding, alongside the knife you also get a character with bigger pockets to carry more stuff in game, extra gear and a bunch of other utilities. Naturally gaymers are mad about these more blatant Pay 2 Win features. It's not too bad though, right?
To sweeten the deal these paypigs also get access to a new coop pve mode. Yay! The devs insist that this isn't DLC, but a unique game mode. Edge of Darkness players don't get it.
Oh, and they get a special item which makes the AI not shoot at them.
The best part? The new edition costs
$250
Cue rage.
Drama
The Reddit jannies open the flood gates and promise to be less neurodivergent than usual. Just don't use naughty words.
The devs have been caught repeatedly editing the website to remove promises they just broke. At this point you can just look at /r/escapefromtarkov and see a dozen threads full of seethe.
Highlights:
The devs give in and offer Edge of Darkness owners a 6 month trial of PvE mode. Redditors even madder.
The lead developer gives an interview where he shits on all the complainers, apparently "True Believers" will buy the new version.
Oh, and you know how Edge of Darkness players got a "season pass" for DLC?
"No dlc planned"
This is ongoing. Will BSG give in or let it all blow over? Only time will tell.
Update
BSG studio head doubles down again. PvE for Edge of Darkness will come later, for now you're paying for a preview before full release. They're also going to offer a 50% discount on upgrades for top tier paypigs. Oh, and if you already paid full price you can have a second game key for the shit-tier edition, but you're not allowed to sell that.
Redditors are still mad
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Funny thing is that, if you were to weigh time played against the cost of the game, EFT is actually pretty efficient, at least compared to other MMOs. The old $150 paypig edition is generally considered to be the baseline for serious players as you'd pay more than that for a single year of any major MMO subscription. Of course, it became a limited commodity once the paypig edition was discontinued, though still very widespread, and now that we have this abomination only time will tell whether the community eventually gets over it and keeps paying up or not. Because, honestly, there's nothing else you can play that does what Tarkov does.
Luckily nothing will change for the legacy 'pigs, things continue as usual and the only difference is that now shitters will have more loot to steal, lmao. Script kiddies and streamers have been doing their best to make the game unplayable for years, and nothing given by the new paypig edition is worse than what cheaters already do, so realistically nothing will change except redditor/chinlet scav mains throwing a tantrum.
pipe down Junior and hold still for me.
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what exactly is that because it sure as heck doesn't look all that unique compared to the millions of shooters out there
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It has a unique vibe idk, very ambient but with more horror than most horror games.
It's neat
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The gun autism metagame is unparalleled. BSG is meticulous about getting licenses for their guns, so you're not using an EK-47 or some other token knock-off, you're playing with actual fully modeled AKs, using actual realworld AK gun mods, etc. It shines best with the Western guns, being able to fully trick out an M4 or one of the many mankiller 308 platform guns in the game is really not something you will find in any other game.
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Let's be real though, half of the gun mods aren't significantly different from the others. Sure, you have a few dozen foregrips licensed, but why? There's no tangible benefit to half of the item bloat.
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It's only a little more fun than going in naked with just a knife
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For whatever reason people aren't really answering your question.
The number one thing that sets it apart is that it was the first shooter to take the "one life no respawns" idea to the extreme by adding a meta inventory. So any gear you take in will be lost forever if you die. Imagine grinding hours to buy a cool weapon and then you're in constant danger of losing it (and all of that grind went to waste). Or scoring a lucky kill on some no-lifer and taking all of his sweet shit that he grinded for.
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Tbh I don't think they're going to just get over it this time. Larger pockets was a hard sell, but immunity to scavs plus PvE mode has really pissed the paypigs off.
To some extent I get BSG's position, they've had no income for 8 years beyond cheaters buying new accounts, but no game should be in early access for that long to begin with.
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Larger pockets is beyond broken. You can run magazine based rifles without a vest which is a huge buff for budget runs. The "scav runs on main" item is just beyond broken though. I wouldn't be surprised if they added it as ragebait so that they can later remove it and have people ignore the fact that this new addition is like a 20 hour head start on every wipe.
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