I Miss Old Tarkov

I miss old Tarkov. I miss how small the game was back in the day. How finding this game was a true gem; with how wacky and unorthodox it was. As someone who grew up on consoles, and played more arcade games like COD and all different kinds of other shooters and racing games. It was so bizarre to watch and look at the first time I saw it. Barely any HUD, going really slow, being incredibly methodical and tactical with your choices within the game. It was almost an out of body experience. But in all the right ways. I just had so many questions about the game; who made it, what their intentions were with it. I was so captivated by everything I was seeing and reading. So, the game was bought in September of 2017. And my first reaction to actually playing the game was.... interesting.

I have such a vivid memory of this and I don’t know why. But I remember for some reason, thinking that the only way to exit from Factory back in 2017, was you needed the factory to key to use on the door in order to extract. Like, that was the ONLY way to get out. Now, that’s dumb, obviously. They would never make it so that the only way to leave a map in a game this difficult and challenging would be to have a rare key on you (back in the day it was rare). So, my thought process was like, okay, how do I get this key. Looking up so many different guides on where it can spawn and how to get there safely. So, I ended up spending a solid week doing nothing but hatchet running Customs, going to the three-story dorms office to see if it was on the desk. Of course, when I finally found one, a day later the game wiped. And I honestly can’t even remember if I noticed or not. I just kept doing it. Back then as well, wipes were way more common. So, it wasn’t until the game wiped a second time that I actually figured out how the hell to even begin playing Tarkov. And then, each time I played the game, for some reason I ended up having an infatuation with certain guns. The first one was the suppressed TT. No idea why, but I thought it was the coolest gun ever when I first saw it with a suppressor. So, I did what I needed to in order to unlock the right loyalty levels with Skier to be able to make the gun. After that, the MPX, and then later on, the good ol’ M4. It was magical; how the level of depth for building guns was, and honestly still is. I'm convinced at this point no other game will ever come close to the level Tarkov is at. It's just crazy to me that this game has been out for so long, and it's got so many different ways to customize guns and even back in the day, it's still was incredible compared to all of the other games out there on the market. But anyways I went through my phases of different guns and how they were built it was you know the TT and the M4 and the MPX these guns were really alien to me I'd never really seen them before. But it wasn't just the guns, it was the game, how it played and the world and what you have to do. What your objectives where it was also different. Never in any game I've ever played have I cared so much about not dying. I mean Dark Souls does that to a certain degree. But with Tarkov it's so different. You know, dying means something in this game. You don't just start over you; you lose your things. Those items that you either bought or fought for from other players you know no other game has that experience right now. And I think that's why it's so magical and why Tarkov has blown up. So much. But it makes me sad that the game has gotten SO big. Don’t get me wrong, I want the game to be successful and for Nikita and the team at BSG to be able to profit from this and make the game they truly want. But there was something special about the game being smaller. A certain level of charm to it.

I also feel as though the game being smaller and simpler in some areas was nicer. And what I mean is there were less options in the game, straight up. Less guns, ammo, armor, everything. Nowadays, you can make so much money so easily by just running a map with a lot of secret stashes and you’ll find plenty of loot and things you can either sell or use. Whereas, back in the day, shit was scarce. It was hard to get your hands on even just a full ak-74 variant that wasn’t one of the smaller ones. And if you wanted an M4, good luck finding one of those unless it was off a juiced player. Which back in the day was just a fort armor and kiver; that was the meta. Granted it was because for a while there wasn’t even a face hitbox and no other helmets that actually made sense, but still that was how you Chad out in Tarkov. And the fact that options were so limited was nice. It made it feel like what there are going for in terms of atmosphere and mood; how it’s supposed to feel bleak and hopeless. How you should be scrounging to make a kit because money is tight and you don’t have a ton in your stash. That, to me at least, is what the true essence of Tarkov and what they want the game to invoke. Because right now I have over 20 million rubles and more options for trick out any gun I want. And while that certainly allows for freedom and creativity, helping to curve the potential boredom one can get with this game late wipe, the added layer of having to scrounge for parts to make a gun even remotely tricked out was entertaining. It made those guns feel all the more special when you did manage to get a modded out gun back then. And while I love them for adding new guns, armors, maps, mechanics; with each addition that gets added to the loot pools, we go one step further away from that true essence.

Now, I want to stress that I don’t hate this game. I will never hate this game; it’s arguably one of the best games ever made, and I’ve put too much time into it to ever say I hate it (like over 4k hours across two accounts). I will certainly have my moments where the game goes into a lull for me (like it is right now hence the writing of this script), but I won’t hate it. Changes that are made to make the game harder, I welcome at this point. Now, that doesn’t mean changes that hinder everyone’s ability to function in the game (I’m looking at you RMT changes), but making guns harder to find, less options at the vendors, I’m fine with that. Because over the years, the game has only gotten easier. Items are easier to find, making money is easier. There isn’t a real sense of fearing for my life other than having to rebuild a kit and spend 150k on insurance. Or having to get another goddamn flash drive for the umpteenth time because they have less than a one percent spawn rate (that’s anecdotical I have no idea what the actual drop rate is). Death is more annoying now than anything. Especially if it happens in the first 2 min of a raid three times in a row (yes that happened recently).

At the end of the day, what I would like out of Tarkov is for the game to be grueling. It’s gotten easier, and I hope that in the future, we have to really scrounge to find what we want to use. Now, it’s going to be impossible for everyone to have this experience, with people playing this game as their literal job, and that’s fine. I just wish the essence of old Tarkov can come back somewhat. We’ve seen some adjustments that have helped, but only ever so slightly. But do I ever think we will truly get back to a level that once existed? Well... maybe. But that’s a huge if. Open world I think is truly what will define this game if that is still on the table. Streets will be the first major step towards that actually becoming a reality. Patch 0.13 will be the biggest and most important patch for Tarkov. If that is still the designated patch where we get Streets. Whenever the first iteration of that map comes out, players will know exactly where the game is going. But until then, we are still waiting for the Lighthouse expansion, which I’m convinced at this point doesn’t exist. It feels like there has been so much buildup for this patch. Even over something like Reserve which was huge as well.