What Offline Tarkov Does Right and What It Does Wrong

After many years of asking, we finally have an official version of offline Tarkov. I guess offline isn’t the right word, but a player versus environment take on Tarkov. Where either by yourself or with your friends, you can fully engage with Tarkov, the mechanics, maps, against nothing but AI. It has been one of the most sought-after features in the game. We got something a couple of years ago that was supposed to emulate PvE gameplay, where you can run a 5-man with your friends and fight bosses or each other, but deep down that’s probably not what people wanted. They wanted Tarkov, but without having to fight the level 65 sweat lord who hasn’t opened or purchased another game since they got Tarkov. And now they have that chance. After sinking a solid 25-30 hours into Offline and being around level 28, it’s well.... It’s Tarkov. I’m not sure what kind of revelation you were expecting. But in all seriousness, this mode is fun. Genuine fun. As someone who enjoys the gameplay loop, fighting other players and the highs/lows that come along with that, this experience is way more laid back and relaxing. We'll get into whether that’s a good thing later, right off the bad for people who are new to Tarkov, intimidated by fighting other players, or have always wanted a somewhat single-player experience in the Tarkov universe this mode scratches that itch and checks all the boxes. It’s almost “perfect” ... almost. Again, we’ll get into that later.

For starters, the game is almost 1:1 with online Tarkov. Progression is the same, quests are the same, events even are currently going alongside offline as well. Granted, I wasn’t expecting any huge shakeups in the formula, but the fact we have a separate flea market specifically for PvE is probably the largest difference between the two modes of play. You get to make a new character for PvE which is why you see me as a BEAR instead of a USEC right now. Wanted to mix it up. The rollout of this mode was again, like Arena, less than desirable. Especially considering everything that was going on at the time, it felt like access was given at random instead of who has had EOD for the longest. But now, everyone has access to the mode, and apparently 70% of players who are enjoying it are playing solo which is a shock to me. Which explains why the queue times can be so long. A recently talked-about feature that might be coming soon would allow solo players to queue into a raid locally run on their PC, instead of connecting to an official BSG server. Which if they can figure it out and nail that down, queue times in the PvE mode should drastically go down which is awesome. I figured most people playing were groups of friends where one of them might’ve convinced the rest to try Tarkov, but they didn’t like how hard it was. But now, those people can enjoy the game at a much leisurely pace. Which don’t get me wrong; the mode isn’t a complete walk in the park. There are more scavs that any match of online Tarkov I’ve ever played, and the PMCs can give you a run for your money. But from personal experience, speaking only for myself, the mode is much easier than online. Which I know for others won’t be the case and that’s fine. The difficulty from Tarkov doesn’t just come from having to fight other players. It’s the whole package; learning the maps, ammo, weapon recoil, extractions, quest locations. Once you have that information, the bosses and other players are really the only places where you will feel the struggle of Tarkov. But if you are new, or just not very experienced with the game, PvE will absolutely be a challenge, and that’s a good thing.

The challenge was one of my concerns with a PvE mode. My initial expectation was that the game was not going to provide any real sense of challenge due to the lack of other hostile players. But the scavs and AI PMCs make up for that. Regardless of your experience with the game, you still need to be careful around the AI. As they can either overwhelm you with their newfound strength in numbers or get lucky and one-tap in you in head. Some things never change. In some situations, PvE gets the challenge right, and other times, the maps can feel devoid of any activity. Which is something I hope either BSG can resolve as they keep iterating on it, or with the use of mods should those become official after the 1.0 release of the full game.

Which speaking of mod support is something everyone is hoping gets integrated into the mode. Because SPTarkov is all about mods, and how you can truly customize and tailor your experience to be exactly how you want it. The mod reminds me of how modular something like Stalker Anomaly can be; there has been so much love and care poured into that project by so many people with mod packs. From EFP, to GAMMA, there are tons of ways to play and experience Stalker, and I hope BSG can inject that modularity into PvE Tarkov at some point and allow players more flexibility with how they experience the mode.

There isn’t a ton that PvE Tarkov did “wrong”. Besides the queue times and the initial rollout of who got access, the mode itself is so close to the normal game that there isn’t a ton to compare from one another. I guess seeing the AI improve in general would be nice. Not so brain dead, more spawns and interesting pathing choices. That to me is probably the weakest part of the mode; the lack of organic AI PMC encounters. If you want to fight them, depending on the map you just run to a high traffic location and see if they spawned or not. How cool would it be if you were somewhere like the resort doing a quest, and as you’re checking locked rooms on the second or third floor you hear a duo of AI PMCs roll up and start clearing the building? That feels like such a more engaging experience than just running to the weather station, power station, estates, and then extracting. Wash rinse and repeat. Or another example I like to imagine is walking around on Woods in the new area by sunken village on a random road, you see a patrol of a few PMCs clearing the area. AI is something that even online Tarkov struggles with so I understand this is a big ask and will most likely never happen. But if mods do get added, hey, maybe someone can figure it out and make them more compelling. Who knows?

PvE Tarkov has finally been created and released to anyone who has EOD or Unheard of. And soon, BSG will be adding a raw purchase of that mode on their website. Depending on the price, if you are someone who has standard edition of Tarkov, and are curious about the PvE mode, what I will say is if you are not confident playing the game online, or if you have friends who would enjoy the experience but in a more controlled offline setting, this is absolutely a good purchase. Again, it should be reasonably priced, barring that, I would recommend this mode for anyone who knows about Tarkov but has been intimidated by what everyone says about the game. This is a very effective springboard into the ecosystem and allows you to build your knowledge in a stress-free (relatively speaking) environment where you can play with your friends, help each other out and have a good time. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know your thoughts on PvE in general, what mods you would love to see get official support and be sure to subscribe for more videos about a mode people finally got after years of asking and will not get abandoned in the not-so-distant future. I hope to see you in future ones.