Escape from Tarkov: More than just a bad game

• Posted by Numbs Syun March 24, 2021 - Filed in Games & Gaming - #Escape from Tarkov  - 1,386 views

  I won't be honest if I write that Escape from Tarkov fascinated me from the very beginning. Yes, the marketers of Battlestate Games did not eat their bread in vain and put pressure on the most erogenous zones of the average player from the CIS, but the experience of the past "out of nowhere masterpieces" made me wary.

  

  The premonition did not disappoint me. The experience of personal acquaintance with Escape from Tarkov turned out to be even bleaker than it was supposed in the most pessimistic views. The articles about the game, which I got acquainted with before direct contact, somehow very carefully avoided sharp corners and did not create the impression of something out of the ordinary. For me, this is not typical, but this material is 99% water the game you know what. Sorry, but I still haven't been able to find a decent spoonful of honey. Dear fans can immediately slap a dislike and throw out a reciprocal bucket in the comments.

  
  Visual and optimization
  After a personal acquaintance with the game on not the weakest machine, I can say with confidence that Escape from Tarkov looks absolutely disgusting. In such cases, they usually say something like: "graphics at the level of the games of the last decade" or "technologies are hopelessly outdated", but this is not our case. Obviously, the developers have all the tools for creating virtual beauties, namely the Unity engine, albeit not the latest version.

  The current young woman is no longer the derogatory word on the verge of insult, which it was not so long ago. Now it is a really powerful instrument, almost completely devoid of any restrictions, and you can do what Tarkov is like on it only if you are a very crooked and lazy amateur. Okay, it's ok for the amateur level, but amateurs don't take as much money for their development as the respected Tarkov developers do.

  Local visuals suffer the most from the extremely low drawing range and slow loading of objects, and this despite the fact that the locations have very poor content with a fair amount of copy-paste. The landscape and the curves of the meshes of a few objects are covered with muddy textures and supplied with crooked shaders. In short, everything is as lazy and mediocre as possible. Everything good that is in the graphical part of Escape from Tarkov ends in good weapon models (they, in fact, sell the game) and a normal UI.

  

  No, I will not forget about optimization (and will not forgive). Few people know that the task of optimization in modern game development is a truly titanic amount of work separate from everything. So, the developers of Tarkov simply decided not to waste energy on this nonsense. The prospect of drawing more beautiful models of machines looks much more attractive, and the fact that the unfortunate PCs of Tarkov owners will work at the limit to draw the next set of soap textures does not bother anyone. The game is already sold.

  
  Imply
  The guys from Battlestate Games and their most ardent fans are ready to justify literally everything that happens (or rather not what is happening) in Escape from Tarkov with such sweet words for the CIS gamer's ear as REALISM and HARDCORE. And all this, it seems, is really present in the game, but it performs only one function - to close gaping holes in game design. I am not particularly close to the Dark Souls series, but the hardcore there is the result of careful calculations and competent game design when every detail of the game works for the main super task - to give the player pleasure from overcoming the challenge. Escape from Tarkov puts a huge bolt on the player and his desires, and the ultimate task of Battlestate Games is to cut down the dough.

  The game does not have a properly prescribed background, as well as there is no motivation to overcome the challenge. What is the point of hunting for cool trunks and modifying them, if in the next skating rink they will definitely remove it from your chilling corpse? Oh yes, there are also special caches for saving weapons, which can be purchased in addition to a paid (even what a paid!) Game. Yes, the developers remember their supertask.

  

  Ok, the feeling of progression can be safely crossed out from the shortlist of "reasons to play Tarkov" since the maximum benefit from the equipment earned in battles is the opportunity to look at the weapon models in the menu. Well, to hell with him, we have a complex tactical shooter here after all, and pumping is for girls. From the gameplay of Escape from Tarkov, you can really make an interesting cut with drama and conquest, only for 10 seconds of this cut, you will have to do NOTHING.

  Most of the time, nothing happens in the game, but unlike the same ARMA, where a short fire contact with opponents was preceded by long-term studies of the terrain, tactical planning, the occupation of important points, etc., in Tarkov you either rush like an idiot around the map waiting for a stray bullet or lying down in the bushes for the whole round. That's it, there can be no other working tactics other than camping here, in principle, because game designers did nothing to make them possible. The game literally prohibits you from fully playing it, severely punishing any attempt to be creative and inventive. If this is hardcore and realism, then fuck this hardcore and realism, gentlemen developers and their fans.

  

  
  Is there anything else here?
  And in Tarkov, there is completely fierce chaos in the work with the community. Apparently, the developers profess Hinduism and prefer to be guided exclusively by the caste system of society in their relations with clients. Players for them - it is a weak-willed and disenfranchised mass of mob. Permanent bans are handed out for every sneeze, and no one will understand the fairness of the decision (no one will return the money either). The Internet is full of wild stories, when bans were given for a question on the forum, for a comment on the gameplay, for the use of a weapon (!) Picked up from the corpse of a cheater in the game. And yes, there are a huge number of cheaters in the game, if only because there is simply no protection of the game from hacking. But there is carpet bombing with permanents. Learn Blizzard and Ubisoft.

  
  One of the many wild stories
  In all other respects, Escape from Tarkov is an endlessly empty game, there is nothing in it except a semi-fraudulent business model and impudent exploitation of the warm feelings of CIS residents for the long-dead Stalker. After the massive bending of thousands of similar imperfections in recent years, howling in the spirit of "this is beta" and "game in development" is completely impossible to listen to. If they take money for a game, then there can be no excuses - it must be evaluated according to the same criteria as completed projects. If you do not want to listen to criticism, do not release the game for a paid release.

  The worst thing in this whole situation is that from the moment of the announcement Tarkov was firmly associated with the hopes for a bright future for the domestic game dev. Like, well, finally, our guys, who know what the Russian-speaking audience wants, will finally do something really cool and show these soulless Kal-of-Dutyam Kuzkin's mother. The miracle did not happen, and again we saw not a game, but a relatively honest means of taking money away from the population. Guys with exactly the same motivation as Battlestate Games killed the domestic gaming industry ten years ago (it never happened, and here it is again). Again the exploitation of the players' weaknesses, again the terrible management, again the loot.

  
  Escape from Tarkov is more than just a bad game. This is the ugliest Frankenstein of all the ugliest that can be in the modern gaming industry.