I
am not a brave man.
Where Escape From
Tarkov’s battle-
hardened veterans
will actively look for a
fight, I flinch at even the most
distant sounding gunshots,
scurrying from bush to bush and
outright avoiding the most
well-trafficked areas unless I
absolutely have no choice. In the
grand food chain of Escape From
Tarkov, a hardcore mil-sim survival
shooter about looting gear in a
post-apocalyptic Russian city, I am
not a bear or a tiger. I am a rat,
feasting on the remains left behind
by more skilled players. And I kind
of like it that way.
Though Escape From Tarkov has
much in common with both survival
games like DayZ and battle royales
such as PlayerUnknown’s
Battlegrounds, it manages to feel like
some kind of mutant hybrid between
the two. I still slink through bushes,
intently listening for the sound of
nearby players who will certainly try
to kill me and take all my gear, but
instead of taking place in a persistent
open world, Tarkov drops you into
smaller maps and gives you a time
limit to reach the opposite side. If you
make it out alive, you get to keep
everything you found to use in the
next round. It reminds me a bit of
EVE Online, where I’m constantly
gambling my best equipment and
hoping I live to fight another day.
Often I don’t.RAT’S OFF
But when I do it’s almost always
because I channelled my inner rat. I
stick to the shadows, letting players
kill one another off and take the best
loot, and then I make my move.
It’s a playstyle that would never
work in DayZ or PUBG, where the
map is either too large to reliably find
other players or the main objective is“I am a rat, feasting on the remains
left behind by more skilled players”
to be the last man standing, so I
might as well be aggressive about it.
But in Tarkov, one of my favourite
things to do is camp in the
exfiltration zones and ambush
players just as they think they’re so
close to safety. I’m a bit of a diabolical
asshole, but the sheer joy of letting
someone else do all the looting only
for me just to take it from them at the
last possible moment is too sublime
not to indulge in.
Just behind the three-story dorms
on Customs is my favourite spot.
Here, players can pay 7,000 rubles to
exfiltrate to safety, which is a hell of a
deal considering the dorms are one of
the best loot spots on the map.
Players get in, clean it out, and then
only have a 30-foot jog to the exit.
But that’s exactly where I wait.
Tucked behind a tree, sights pointed
on the doors that open towards the
exfiltration zone.
Just as the timer begins to run low
is when players drop all semblance of
caution and sprint for the exit, and
just as they’re so close – 30 minutes
of effort well rewarded – I pop them
in the skull and take everything.
It’s certainly not the most
honourable way to make a living in
Tarkov, but I’m so flush with rubles I
don’t even care.STEVEN MESSNER
THIS MONTH
Laid ambushes on players
he couldn’t kill.
ALSO PLAYED
World of Warcraft,
League of LegendsIn ESCAPE FROM TARKOV, there’s little room for honourable combat
JUST AS THEY’RE SO CLOSE, I
POP THEM IN THE SKULL AND
TAKE E VERY THIN GTHEGAMESWELOVERIGHT NOW
NOW PLAYING
I love ambushing careless
players right here.Looting is life in Ta r kov, but
you gotta make it out.