The game’s un-matched level of realism is achieved mainly through its employment of a health system in which every aspect of survival is tested. You play as one of the mercenaries that survived the initial stage of conflict and after choosing a side (USEC or BEAR), you have to try and make your way out of the city by crossing into these gang-inhabited areas and completing raids, doing everything in your power to stay alive and ultimately reach the extraction point. They now live as well-armed gangs of ‘scavs’, each fighting to control a different area of the newly divided city by any means necessary. Once a centre of international business, the city now lies mostly dormant, save for the few locals that didn’t flee amongst the panic. The game is set in the fictional war-torn city of Tarkov, located in the Norvinsk region which lies on the border between Europe and Russia. It is a game where risk is high, but the payoff of coming out the other side victorious gives a level of satisfaction like no other.
It combines all the favourite gameplay elements of previous loot and shoot battle royale-style games, but with an added level of realism and detail that means one bad decision could result in losing all the gear you had been working so hard for. Escape from Tarkov is an intensely hardcore and unforgiving multiplayer first-person shooter from Russian developers Battlestate Games.