The New Player Experience in Tarkov is Brutal in 2023

It’ll be six years since I have been playing Escape From Tarkov this coming September. That’s a long time to be playing one game. A few others that come to mind in terms of this amount of time playing one game are League of Legends, and For Honor. Although, for the latter, not so much anymore. I still have fond memories of my time with old Tarkov; what the UI looked like, how alien everything was for me, and what I was really getting myself into. It was a whole different beast back then. Nowadays, the knowledge and experience I have accumulated throughout the years has led to many more positive experiences with the game, despite all the things that have been and currently still are wrong with the game. I remember being new to Tarkov; what that felt like. Not knowing what is going on at all. What it really meant to die and lose your stuff, how the medical systems worked, the layouts of the maps; I was completely overwhelmed with the game. But I was entranced by the guns, how modifiable they were. Especially with what I was seeing online from other players, I wanted to be a part of that as well. Hell, I’ve mentioned this before, but I thought the suppressed TT was the coolest gun in the entire game for a while. Then it was the MPX, and then finally the M4. Crazy how far things have come. But... that was 2017. The game was drastically different back then. Now in 2023, I can’t imagine what it’s like being a new player to Escape From Tarkov. But I can only guess that it is very brutal.

With everything that has been added to the game, in some regards, Tarkov has gotten easier. But only if you have the knowledge to back up those additions. For example, the secret Jeager stashes are a fantastic way to get loot and potentially farm money if you are low on funds. But as a new player, I can’t see that being a top priority at all. When it comes to learning Tarkov, there isn’t a one size fits all formula for getting the hang of it. Everyone will want to grasp its different mechanics in a way that makes sense to them. Some might want to learn the maps first and foremost; others want to know how to maintain their characters' health and status throughout an entire raid. There’s a lot of ways to tackle the beast that is learning Tarkov. And I can very easily see people becoming overwhelmed with all the little intricacies of the game. How, if you don’t have room in a rig for your magazine when you reload, it gets dropped on the ground. Or how After you heal a light or heavy bleed, if you sprint around the map too much, those fresh wounds can reopen into more light bleeds. Tarkov wasn’t lying in its description that it had light RPG elements in it, and I’m not just referring to the skills. And we haven’t even talked about being in raid and having to engage in gunfights with AI, and especially other players.

Fighting in Tarkov is difficult. Plain and simple. Even with the amount of experience I have, I still make tons and tons of mistakes when engaging others. I am not and never will be consistently good at this game. I have my moments where I make all the right decisions and my aim is on point, but that’s the exception, not the rule. I remember throwing myself into Factory repeatedly way back in the day to try and get better at fighting other PMC’s. And I saw mixed results. There are just so many visceral elements that go into a Tarkov firefight. That is of course, assuming it doesn’t end in one shot. The audio you hear, where you are in relation to whatever map you’re currently playing, what weapon you have versus what they have. It’s a lot to take in. Things can go from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye. And I wouldn’t expect a new player not to panic at the sound of gunfire. Especially if it’s aimed at them. And while it’s totally doable to coach someone through a fight, I remember the nerves getting the better of me on multiple occasions. Hell, they still do. When I know someone is taking shots, and I begin creeping up on them trying to catch them by surprise, my heart always begins to race. Even when I try to go all gun-ho and push aggressively, I always get nervous that I’ll whiff that vital shot and end up just head-eyes'd by the guy I’m trying to take out. The most important thing about Tarkov fights is being able to keep your cool and not panic, because once you begin to panic, any semblance of game knowledge, knowing the controls, and everything else goes right out the window for a new player. Now, you might get the occasional jump scare and that’s okay, Tarkov functions as part horror game as well (it’s so versed, I know). But when you’re in dorms trying to get your pocket watch and you hear someone else enter the building, for the longest time that scared me because like a lot of us when we were new, we’re just trying to get our quest done. However, now with the addition of VOIP, those kinds of situations are a lot less scary. Because most of the time, you can talk your way through a rough situation. It’s hard to look back at times when the game didn’t allow you to communicate properly with one another and having to use the broken ass in game voice lines. Which, while sometimes immersive and tactical, was a complete mess because of how it’s set up and how many lines you can bind to have come out quickly. Either way, gunfights in Tarkov are scary when you start and are usually avoided as much as possible. But when you do need to face another player, it’s best to just take a deep breath and try your best. Who knows? You might surprise yourself.

Besides shooting, Tarkov has so many other systems at play whilst you’re in raid. The medical system is probably the one that gets people killed the most. I know that was the case for me back in the day. Not knowing what each piece of medical equipment did, how to stop bleeds and heal limbs, and losing body parts and having to limp all the way to extract, wherever that was, because I didn’t know how to get out of the maps. To emphasize this, I remember thinking that the only way to leave the factory was to have the factory key on you, so I farmed its locations for weeks with no avail. But healing was always problematic because running nothing but a hatchet and trying to make things happen was difficult. Slowly bleeding out, and then having to walk slowly across a map was definitely not a pleasant exeprience, but back then it almost felt like everyone had to experience it once, before they buckled down and learned the mechanics. Nowadays, there are tons of healing items, stimulants, and even CMS kits to fix zeroed out body parts so you can stay in the raid for longer. Honestly, the CMS was easily one of the best medical items BSG ever added. Because when you lost a stomach, your raid was pretty much over, as your hydration ticked down right in front of you. But now, you just use a kit and you’re good to go.

Ammunition is another problem area for new players, because when you see eighteen different ammos for the same gun, you will quickly scratch your head and ask what the difference is. Plenty of new players have fallen prey to 5.45 PRS ammo, and it hurts to see in the gun of a level 3 PMC. Granted, options are limited at the vendors for ammo (but in general they have more than they ever have previously). Even with all these options, the number of items is daunting, and you don’t know what attachments go on what guns, and how to just get a simple red dot on your busted up AK. It’s not just drag and drop, but sights need rails, and some suppressors need muzzle attachments. It gets messy fast.

One of the greatest upsides to becoming a new player in 2023 is the existence of the wiki and all the guides that exist online. The game is so much larger now than it was years ago; where information was scarce and people weren’t always sure 100% of where items spawned, what their rates were. At least now, new players can look at the wiki for almost any questions they may have regarding the game, its quests, bullet charts, armors, etc. It’s a fantastic resource for learning the game, but that begs the questions: shouldn’t a lot of this information just be in the game? And of course, there is a very strong argument for the answer to that question to be yes. I see why BSG wouldn’t want it in the game, but honestly at this point, just add it. The game is large enough that people just want to know; you know?

Learning the maps can also be a terrifying experience, even with one pulled up on a second monitor or tab. You may see the layout, see where the extracts are across it, but if you don’t know your own relative location to all these places, it doesn’t mean that much. Finding a landmark on the map and then trying to triangulate your own location and orientation is something, again, I feel as though every ends up doing at least once. Looking back, it is kind of a funny experience that a lot of us might’ve shared at one point. So, I take solace in the idea that we all were frantically switching off the game to look at the map, figure out some kind of marking, and then switch back into the game to try and find it. And sometimes, that alt tab out gets us killed. At least me, on multiple occasions.

Tarkov is a complex beast, and for new players it has only gotten harder. The game is punishing, ambiguous with its information at best, and outright doesn’t tell you at worse. Tarkov may be one of the hardest FPS games to try and take seriously, if you are a first timer. Granted, there are tons of resources out there nowadays to assist all those who want to experience what Tarkov can bring to the table when everything is working as intended. So, if you are new to the game, I would say to really give it your all. Don’t get discouraged if you die, or some weird bugs and glitches happen. You can do this. This game with fresh eyes is incredible and worth the time investment. And with what potentially looms on the horizon for new content, I’d say stick around. You’ll be a veteran of the game before you know it. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to watch this video, please leave your own newbie experiences down in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe for more videos about trips down memory lane. I hope to see you in future ones.