1. A Different Type of Hardcore Experience

Escape from Tarkov has an even grittier approach to the hardcore genre of gaming, with a "make money or die trying" attitude. Players' characters spawn at a random designated location on one of the game's many maps, and from there, they raid.

The profits made on the raid depend on three things: luck, risk and total awareness. It is up to you and your choices to determine whether or not you will survive the raid you have embarked on and make enough profits to go on more, and so forth.

Being weary of your surroundings and taking your time can make the difference. Every piece of equipment you bring along on the raid is worth something, and let's just say, there is a lot of equipment in this game. Said equipment could be the difference between survival and your character's demise, so much so that the ammunition and specific weapon and armour components will make the difference.

The game blends battle royale, military simulation, and survival into one giant PvPvE experience. That's the beauty of Escape from Tarkov.

2. Escape From Tarkov Has a Booming Community

I have had my fair share of wholesome experiences within raids with other players that I had initially deemed hostile. However, the truth is, not everybody wants to cause trouble in Escape from Tarkov.

Since the developers introduced VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), it has been considerably easier to communicate with other players to avoid unnecessary firefights and deaths due to the simple fact that nobody wants to die.

The community is surprisingly awesome for such a (at times) strenuous game, with plenty of gifted content creators like Pestily, LVNDMARK, WillerZ, and so on. These content creators give the gift of educating new, intermediate, or even experienced Tarkov players about the game and its updates. Considering the fact that the game has no official tutorial, these creators become a great help to the Tarkov players and the community by providing tutorials.

Said community is constantly expanding all over the world, and I can honestly say there is never a dull moment when you're a part of it.

3. A Good Group Game... Most of the time

I experienced my most enjoyable and hilarious moments in Escape from Tarkov whilst playing with my friends, so never be afraid to play and enjoy the game with your friends. However, my personal preference is to play alone, ensuring I don’t have to babysit or worry about another person in my squad.

That's not to say I dislike playing this game with my friends, but I do take this game very seriously. “The more the merrier” in this instance is good and bad in its own sense. What I mean by this is that you have more firepower and are more likely to win your firefights.

However, loot tends to be distributed amongst your squad to avoid any unrest, which results in lower profits than if you were to play solo. This takes us back to the "higher risk, higher reward" statement from earlier.

Another thing to note when playing with friends is communication. I've died from my friends' fragmentation grenades a worrying number of times due to miscommunication, so please talk to your friends when you play together! 

4. The Graphics

When playing this game on high to very high graphics settings, it is easy to get lost in the game's attractive graphics. It’s nice to take a moment and just look around at your surrounding environment every now and again. Unless it's nighttime, then good luck seeing anything without your flashlight.

Some of the prettiest maps in the game would have to be Woods, Shoreline, and possibly Streets, but I personally have yet to play that map as it is a recent release. Every object on your screen has such great detail, and the game in general has very good attention to detail, especially when it comes to lighting, particles, gear, and weapons.

Foliage is so detailed that some of the more experienced Tarkov players avoid high quality foliage in order to see through bushes more easily in the case of a hiding enemy PMC. What else can I say? Everything looks so damn good! Don't even get me started on some of the sounds in the game. Notice how I say some. My fellow Tarkov players will understand what meaning that particular message contains.                                                                                                   

5. Weapon Modding

For all you weapon geeks out there, Tarkov has it all in terms of weapon modification. This game has a ton of guns and even more attachments. Want a different barrel for better recoil control and stabilization? Change it. Want a bigger magazine? Buy one and load it up, it really is that simple.

The image above is a good example of the kind of modding you can look for. Some weapons are more customizable than others, for example, the M4A1 and Kalashnikov AKs are more customizable than those of a Mosin Nagant or pp-19 due to the available components on the weapons.

Never take modding for granted, it can turn a barely usable weapon into a monstrosity of a firearm that can save your life in the majority of situations.

6. The Maps

As previously mentioned, I have yet to play Streets, but I desperately want to gear up a PMC and raid to see what the map has to offer players.

Considering the fact that every map offers a different raiding experience, everyone should be excited each time a new map releases, and I urge the current Tarkov players reading this who have yet to experience Streets to go and scav-run the map.

Each map is unique in its own way, and each has its own unique factors that make it special. Woods, for example, is a sniper's dream simply due to the number of long-range encounters you will endure in on that map. It is open and has lots of lines of sight, making it a long-range combat based map.

Streets, on the other hand, will be a mix of open areas with lots of closed off close quarter areas, leading to long and close range combat. Each map is fun and interesting in different ways, with each map forcing Tarkov players to adapt their playstyles to survive.

7. The Bosses

Having said that each map is unique and special in its own way, the same goes for the Escape from Tarkov Bosses. Each boss provides players with a different challenge to overcome, with each having different play styles themselves.

While Interchange's boss, "Killa,” will charge directly at you with brutal aggression, Shoreline's boss, "Sanitar,” will aim to stay away from you and heal any damage you initially give him. Every boss has different weapons, different armour and different loot-drops.

The difference between "Killa" and a boss like "Sanitar" or "Reshala" is that you fight either a single, controllable, and extremely well-equipped boss or a swarm of decently strenuous enemies, including their "Boss." Again, uniqueness leads to more decisions to be made by you, the player.

8. Independence with play styles

This game will never force you to play a certain way; it is your raid, your way. Sure, there will be instances where certain play styles favour you against others, but that's your choice to incorporate.

You can approach this game however you please, whether you prefer to play it safe and tactically, which is the smarter and more methodical choice, or you prefer to run and gun like a Call of Duty player, which leads to more adrenaline pumping firefights.

The choice will always be yours, and with that comes another great aspect of this game. When tasks are involved, you may be advised to temporarily change how you play the game to make completing the task less of a challenge, but again, that's up to you.

9. Adrenaline inducing combat

Without a doubt in my mind, I can say that this game is absolutely terrifying when you're in combat with another player. Everything is so loud and sudden that it makes your heart race and your blood turn cold.

Gunfights can end in seconds or last a few minutes; the best result is when you get into an encounter and neither party dies. You feel uneasy until you extract, as you feel like you're being hunted by a predator, unless you are the hunter, not the hunted. The video below compiles a couple of encounters streamed by a content creator.

Intense Gunfights | Escape From Tarkov by TheDevildogGamer: https://youtu.be/mVdrlOSAepk 

10. Replayability and the bi-annual wipe

Tarkov wipes approximately every 6 months, meaning everyone starts from scratch. Tasks reset, skills reset, and your character level also resets.  This ensures the game's replayability by allowing you to restart the game and play alongside other people from the start.

During the early wipe is the fairest time to play Escape from Tarkov, since everyone has early-wipe gear and ammo. At this level, it all comes down to the skill of the individual to overcome the challenges of the early-wipe.

This feature is supposedly going to be abolished upon the initial release of the game in v.1.0. However, bear in mind that Tarkov has been in beta testing for quite some time and still has much to achieve before its full release.

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