Escape From Tarkov Video Review

Escape From Tarkov’s 1.0 version reviewed by Travis Northup on PC.Escape From Tarkov is the extraction shooter that started it all, and many of its dense, mercurial systems are fascinating to learn and master at your own pace as it viciously refuses to hold your hand. I genuinely love that unapologetic challenge, but an equal number of things about it are obnoxious, janky, or just plain scuffed to an unacceptable degree – that includes its subpar performance and bugginess, its absolutely atrocious UI, and its unmitigated plague of cheaters. There is still a stellar, tense, and realistic FPS with one of the best progression treadmills ever made buried underneath all that, feeding you interesting things to do for hundreds of hours. But if the jankiness doesn’t entirely smother its promise, the absurd pay-to-win options that completely undermine much of Tarkov’s difficulty come very close. There are still plenty of good times to be found for those with the gumption to push past a whole heck of a lot of glaring issues, but with more polished extractions shooters entering the fold since its initial arrival in 2018, Escape From Tarkov’s 1.0 version becomes difficult to recommend in 2025.