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Tarkov has Infinite Replayability

Even in its current state.

By JirasuPublished 11 months ago 7 min read
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Tarkov has a lot of ebbs and flows when it comes to who’s playing it, when they are, and why they are. Everyone has their reasons for booting up the game, especially after a couple months, when the hype of a new patch and wipe has effectively worn off. Some still enjoy the loop of completing tasks to level up and earn rewards, others enjoy the combat and trying to engage in as much PvP as possible. And the rest might just enjoy building cool weapons and kits, taking them into raids and seeing what happens. I would personally fit in the latter box. I really enjoy Tarkov when I have the freedom to build weapons that I think look cool and while might not be best in slot, can still be effective regardless. It’s no surprise that since we are over the 120-day mark for this most recent wipe, grumblings across the community have begun to take shape. And everyone is entitled to their opinion and personal grievances with what is either good or bad with the game at any point, and while most sentiments I honestly agree with and uphold, I still find ways to enjoy the game, even if it means playing it much differently than I normally would. My own pessimistic sentiments about the future of the game aside, I really do strive to find fun ways to reengage with Tarkov, that isn’t just trying to use the guns I am accustomed to and fight other players and bosses alike. And I have had some luck with that over the last couple weeks. Recently, I have made some videos going through my experiences with using weapons in strange ways, and it made me realize that Tarkov, honestly, through all its BS that we have put up with for years, it still has infinite replayability, even in the state it currently is in.

There aren’t many games that have this level of replayability; where you’re doing the same 30-second gameplay loop, but each experience, depending on how you engage with it, can be completely different. Some examples for me that have been able to achieve this are PUBG, DayZ, and of course, Tarkov. PUBG because when it was at its absolute peak experience, even though we only had one map, it was perfectly balanced and quite the experience to have repeatedly. No other map in PUBG has been able to capture that feeling even after all these years. Now to be fair, we have been playing it for years, so the newness of the game has wavered, but I still look back very fondly at the game and still enjoy it every now and again (but only if I get to play on Erangel). DayZ is an even better example of this; you have a handful of maps you can play on and every single time you load into the game as a fresh character, your experience will be dramatically different each time. Loot is in different places, you will encounter zombies in different areas, and your interactions with other players will always be different, unless you manage to find the same people more than once. And even if you only play one map like Chernarus, that map is so huge that you can visit different towns each time depending on your spawn. I don’t play it as much because it feels like it takes a little while to get going, but man when you get going, I can absolutely see getting the bug and just wanting to play more.

Tarkov is not different. In all honesty, DayZ is the best example out of these three, but since Tarkov is the game, I put the most time into it, it makes sense why my feelings are this way. There are nine maps in the game currently, and apart from maybe Factory and Labs, any of the outdoors maps, your experience will differ greatly each time. As a Customs main, even though I have played that map a thousand times, early, mid, and late game, it still feels like the best map to have an authentic Tarkov experience. I want to branch out to other maps like Woods and especially Steets, but I feel the most comfortable on Customs; the pacing of the map if you aren’t rushing through it feels balanced, you will experience AI scavs, bosses, and players across the entire map, there are plenty of good loot spawns throughout, and the map’s extractions make sense. You spawn on one side, and most of the time need to get to the other side. Pretty straight forward. There are spots for long range shooting, close quarters encounters, and everything in between. It has everything you need for that perfect Tarkov raid. One where you tell your friends what happened and get to show off all the awesome loot you got your hands on.

If your experience with Tarkov recently has been bleak, there is nothing wrong with taking five on the game and going to play something else. Or at the very least, just play it a little less often or for as long. Personally, I can’t do long sessions of Tarkov anymore, especially if I am having bad raids. It just feels so painful to watch your money go down as you build kit after kit, to lose it in the first five minutes of a raid. No game has the highs and lows that Tarkov does. It happens to everyone at some point; an unfortunate string of events that leaves us feeling completely deflated and demoralized to even do so much as a single scav run. The game has its moments where it does not feel good to play. Wheather that’s UI issues, network issues, or problems outside of our own control, everything compounded together creates this ugly experience, that we all know should be better by now. But unfortunately, it isn’t. So, one of the ways that I have been able to kind of work through all the bad that Tarkov can bring, is playing the game in ways I normally don’t. I have done this with purpose three times now, and honestly, as painful as those experiences might be to watch, they are genuinely fun and help reinvigorate myself with that desire to boot up the game. You don’t have to try these out verbatim yourself, but even just adding one simple restriction or wrinkle in your normal gameplay loop can make Tarkov kind of go back to when it was fresh and interesting. It also doesn’t have to be something as elaborate or complicated like hardcore Tarkov, but that is most certainly an option if you’re really trying to break the mold. These kinds of situations force you to play differently and really think outside of the box about how you engage with its systems and the world around you. After all, variety is the spice of life. Whether it’s a unique weapon build, single fire only, smaller mags, whatever you come up with; anything that takes the monotony of just playing Tarkov can breathe life into it once more.

Tarkov can sometimes feel like a living organism; there are so many moving parts that make this game work, then when one piece isn’t up to snuff, the rest of the game suffers greatly. And even though the horizon has some promising changes coming, my mentality with those has been for a long time now “I’ll believe it when I see it”. In the meantime, I have been able to re-enjoy a lot of aspects of Tarkov by playing differently than I normally would. This game really does have infinite replayability, even in this state. You just got to think outside the box a little and be comfortable not being comfortable for some time. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Leave a comment down below if you experience the Tarkov blues yourself, how you combat those feelings, and be sure to subscribe for more videos about these feelings creeping once more later down the line. I hope to see you in future ones.

rpgpcfirst person shooter
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About the Creator

Jirasu

Scripts about the things I find interesting. Most are for videos on my YouTube channel.

Check it out, if you're interested:

hhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiqQGl1HGmVKGMYD8DRaHZQ

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