‘Escape From Tarkov’ Handed Me a Slice of Humble Pie on a Silver Platter

I’ve seen one of my closest friends spend an awful lot of time playing Escape From Tarkov, and I finally got convinced to try it out for myself. After spending countless years enveloped in fast-paced shooters, I figured I would do just fine. Or so I thought, as I found myself returning to the main menu after just 59 seconds.

Realism Meets Frustration in ‘Escape From Tarkov’

Jumping straight into the PVE environment of Escape From Tarkov was a rude awakening. There are no kill markers. No headshot rewards. Nothing, it’s just you and up to four of your friends against the world. I made the mistake of picking, apparently, one of the most difficult maps to spawn in for my first venture into the world. If you need a tutorial to learn the game, you won’t find that here, either.

But you know what? I loved every second of it, even if there weren’t many seconds in my first run. After loading back in for a SCAV run, I found myself on the receiving end of a few bullets once again. But, I survived for around 3 minutes this time. Finally, I had to do the unthinkable. I had to plan a game night with my buddy so he could teach me how to survive.

After assembling the squad and getting some hand-me-down knowledge from Brandon, the crew leader, we embarked on our journey into a dilapidated shopping mall. He’s got about 200 hours in the game, so he taught me as much as he could in the short time we played together. I stuck behind him, crouched low to the ground as we pushed forward into the infested area. This didn’t last long for me, as I found myself on the receiving end of a few too many shots.

After a total of four runs on both PMC and SCAV, my longest time alive was 11 minutes. Brandon told me: “Don’t worry, the game gets a lot more fun once you get better at it.” But here’s the thing — I was already having a blast.

Try and Try Again Until You Succeed

Escape From Tarkov is going to be in my rotation for quite some time, especially now that I’ve gotten my feet wet. It’s great to walk into a game that isn’t afraid to kick my ass and make me feel bad until I’ve learned what I need to do to survive.

There is so much more I need to learn about Escape From Tarkov to even be considered mildly adequate at the game. It’s also one of the most thrilling and engrossing shooters I’ve played in quite some time. Call of Duty prepped me with its DMZ game mode, but nothing would have truly prepared me for how difficult this was going to be. Every match is tense, not knowing if death is waiting around the corner.

I know I need to practice a lot more before I weigh down the crew again. I have some of the basics down, enough that I might be able to finally extract on my own. After all, I can’t be the only one to die on these expeditions every time, can I? It’s going to require a lot of patience and a lot of practice, but I’m already ready for another round.