I’ve had the game for a bit, but never put much time into it.
From what I’ve read recently, the game is actually balanced around group play. I want to give it another go, so if anyone else wants to give the game a go with a battle buddy lmk.
No, thank you. Of the available extraction shooters it has a lot of problems.
I'd suggest trying out Hunt:Showdown. It's 12 players in teams of 1-3, competing to find and defeat a boss and extract with the bounty tokens for cash. You get xp for killing players and cash for extracting the token, and it's a very elegant gameplay loop that focuses people organically towards fun cowboy gunfights. Hunt is receiving active development and just achieved it's highest concurrent player count years after release. They're going to do an engine upgrade to Crytek's newest engine at some point this year and they just added a new boss.
Among Hunt's many advantages - All the weapons are more or less balanced, and there's near-zero gear fear. Every weapon works well within it's role and effective range. Aside from shotguns and the Nitro Express every gun it 2-hits to the chest within it's ideal range, except for a small semi-automatic pistol that requires 3 shots. Guns are broken down by ammo type - Compact ammo deals less damage, has less penetration, and has quicker fall off, but you generally get more ammo. Medium is in the middle. And long ammo has high damage, high pen, long fall off, but you have very limited ammo. Some guns do get really expensive, like the barely controllable full auto Nagant and the Nitro Express elephant rifle, but can also go in with inexpensive lever guns or cheap shotguns and excel. Arguably the best shotgun in the game is the single-shot break action romero that is available from the start - It has a few meters of extra OHK distance that gives you an advantage over other shotties, it has a quick reload despite only carrying one shell, and it has a lot of options in terms of specialist ammo or variants.
The game also has faily effective MMR match making so you're rarely dominating or getting dominated, and instead are getting put in to matches with players who are about your skill.
The game also has the best sound design in gaming full stop. Every map is 1km x 1km. And aside from the derringer you can hear every shot fired anywhere on the map. If someone is in a gunfight you know where they are, roughly what weapons they're using, whether they're in the open, in a building, or underground, and with experience you can even make a guess at whether they're fighting AI, the boss, or other players. The game is as much a stealth game as anything, as making judicious choices about when to stay quiet and when to go loud is a key part of the game. One of the first things new players need to learn is how to move as fast as possible while making as little noise as possible. AI are attracted to noise, and while they're easy to deal with on their own having a pack of hell hounds or a burning immolator charge you during a gun fight with other players can really change the odds fast. You can even pull dirty tricks - Thrown fireworks or explosive bullets can be used to attract AI to a certain position, either to get them out of your way, or to lure them on to an enemy!
I had one fight I am especially proud of out of hundreds of matches - My team had a guy cornered in cover, but he had a shotgun so pushing was very high risk. So I used explosive bullets in my rifle to create a very loud noise right next to him, drawing in an AI monster that sends swarms of poisonous wasps out to attack you. He was forced to choose whether to stay in cover and die or make a run for it and take his chances. He ran, right in to one of my teammate's sights. It's a great example of how creative you can get in the game by making use of all it's different tools and mechanics.
Another option is Marauders. There's also a 🏴☠️ custom self-hosted 🏴☠️ set of software to run your own Tarkov server, which can help with some of the problems. You host your own server, it's got all of the quests and features and AI, but it's just you and any other players you choose to invite. No dealing with hackers and it apparently cuts down on the bugs.
Also; I've heard rumors that something about Tarkov's sound design can cause permanent hearing damage even at low volumes. I haven't looked in to it as I haven't played in years, but might be worth checking out to see if it's real or just rumors.
There's also CoDs DMZ which... uh... It wants to be a good game so hard, but it's still gross Activision bullshit.
The Cycle: Frontier exists, but apparently they're giving up and shutting down servers soon. It had a lot of serious problems that were never overcome.
I’ve played hunt. The Milsim aspects are why I like Tarkov. That strips them away. I want every bullet to matter. I want to have to decide if I frontload the armor piercing rounds in my mags or if I want to load them all into a single mag and then have to decide where on my vest it goes.
I don’t want this to come off as a “my likes are right, your dislikes are wrong” kinda nonsense.
But everything you said about how the simulation was less granular was a negative to me.
I’m glad it exists. I’m glad you enjoy it. Different strokes.
No, you're cool. I just like trying to sell people on my fav game. I would suggest checking out that self hosted quasi-pirate version if you're not going in for the PvP.
I'm really excited to see what happens with extraction shooters in the next few years. A lot of games seem to be iterating on what Tarkov started and coming up with some cool ideas!
I play the single player version almost daily.
I just dream about having a comrade to play the “real” version with sometimes.
It’s kinda like, damn this chocolate ice cream rules…. If only I had <preferred accompaniment>
I agree, the extraction hack and slash that got owned by the court’s recently was a huge inspiration, people are getting creative with it.
Ignoring the above, I have enjoyed hunt in the past, so if you ever want a teammate and don’t have one…I’m down for helping a bayou comrade kill a giant spider or something.
I totally agree. It's a lot of fun having teammates you can work with. Just little things like having someone who can watch your six while you loot, or execute a flank attack, adds so much.
Fr, hell, even in battlebit: “rpg on my corpse, aiming 160 degrees” feels so badass to say. When they actually listen and respond or interact?
Like , I used VoIP to let a support where his grenades were landing through a second story window and felt like Odin after.
There is really something to say and consider about the social aspect of shared fantasy in games. I think it might even be key to solving “gamer mindset”
Battlebit has been great for that when you can find people that will work with you. I've been squad leading and levelling recon, using a medium scope and staying like 100m from the objective laying down spawn points, spotting enemies, and laying down support fire. When a squad starts working together you can be a real menace to everyone else in the area.
It occurs to me that I'm probably preaching to the choir, but;
Have you ever played ARMAIII or ARMA Reforger? They're the milsimmiest infantry milsims ever and there are a ton of communities for all kinds of players that run elaborate custom missions. Most of them put a real premium of teamwork, coordination, and communication. You can have a couple of players acting in a Dungeon Master/Game Master role, controlling hundreds of AI while the rest of the players fight them, or Team v team fights, or both, with AI and humans on each time. It's good stuff.
Lol, at one point I had my radios set up as a platoon leader so my squad leaders were piped in to my left ear, the command channel was in my right ear, and I had another player with a long-range radio pack coordinating with our HQ and air support. It can be such a cool game with the right people.
Arma is basically my white whale. I got a computer that can run 3 after not being able to for the longest time (on paper it should have, it’s weird), but haven't put any time in yet.
I have seen some interesting single player mods that look tempting though. One of them describes itself as being like a Greek merc in Cyprus.
Mid scopes are bae. Next question, nobody disagrees.
On a similar note, it’s just magical isn’t it? 2-12 randoms, depending on the game, coming together to play a super intense game of pretend?
It just makes me grin, dudes rock sometimes
Sounds about right. The default maps are a couple of islands somewhere around Greece (One of the Devs was famously arrested for espionage!) Single player is rough bc the game is so lethal, but there are some cool coop modes, like one where you're insurgents fighting against nato and/or the designated badguys coalition and have to raid checkpoints, steal weapons, liberate towns, spread propaganda, all sorts of stuf. Called Anti-Stasi.
(One of the Devs was famously arrested for espionage!) S
The polygon article looks wild! I look forwards to reading that later.
Anti-Stasi sounds lit. I was planning on aiming for bars that give that “Battlefield One introduction” feel. Like, if you die you’re automatically switched to the nearest comrade.
Unrelated topic I wish to pick(, I said pick, ignore the edit) your brain on: 6Days In Fallujah.
I get the feeling we were both around when it was first announced.
It’s kind of wild how it has gone from: game seeking to showcase civilian perspectives on equal footing => oorah, uranium the game
6Days In Fallujah.
Oh man I have thoughts. Like go read the wiki on what really happened in the "Battle" of Fallujah. The Iraq defenders were wildly outnumbered, most of them were home town boys literally defending their homes. The US surrounded the city with heavy weapons and just started leveling things. Making a game out of it seems like real sicko shit. Like idk, it's possible they try to portray the Iraqi experience and what it was like being trapped in a besieged city being leveled by the Americans, but I don't think so.
Arma has had some anti-communist brainworms in it's day (The original Operation: Flashpoint had an anti-communist insurgent xPac), and bad politics, but it at least tries to have campaigns with local resistance fighters as the protagonists, and makes the relationship between NATO and CSAT somewhat complicated. CSAT is portrayed as explicitly more advanced than NATO, with high tech equipment while NATO is still using early 21st century gear. It starts off as an uncomplicated "The badguys have a secret weapon" plot but gets more complicated when NATO has some bad fuckups and it turns out that not everyone in the coalition has the same agenda. And they do have their ("Stop doing warcrimes" DLC)[https://arma3.com/dlc/lawsofwar] where they paired up with the Red Cross. It has a mini-campaign that focuses on what happens to civilians in war. Iirc correctly you play as a civilian trapped in a warzone, then come back years later as a member of an de-mining and UXO removal NGO. It actually explicitly talks about cluster munitions and why they're such a hazard in ways conventional bombs are not, and then simulates it - If you or the enemy use cluster munitions some percentage of the bomblets will fail to detonate, but remain armed and dangerous if you pass over them. It's... idk, it's not nothing, and I think it's handled better than like Spec Ops did. It's one of the few FPS games I can think of that directly addresses the laws of armed conflict.
Also, while "You can't make an anti-war movie" is very true, ARMA at least doesn't fuck around depicting how insanely lethal modern warfare is. My crew would straight up panic whenever an MRAP vehicle with a grenade machine gun rolled over the hill. Unless you have anti-materiel rifles, anti tank weapons, or a really good grenadier all you can really do is run for cover and pray.
When it comes to 6 days, the original attempt was progressed as trying ti show the things you mentioned.
Of course…it died as a result.
I’m replying on mobile, so I apologize if my response seems disjointed. Because it is.
You mentioned dlc that covers warcrimes. On one hand, the “Geneva checklist/suggestions” are a meme in the community.
On the other there is the possibility people learn from it. As opposed to the jokes.
I suppose that part I found interesting is that it used to have nuisance. There were going to be levels where you heard an interview from a guy a set up an AA gun in a stairwell, and then do it in the game and murk some marines.
I suppose my point is, I had game itself can be viewed as an example of the consent manufacturing complex making itself known?
Tarkov is just absolute agony with toxic devs and toxic playerbase its just not fun.
Tarkov just reminded me how much more fun stalker anomaly is.
My brother plays a lot and its straight up an on and off addiction.
Its funny hearing about it though, like how recently the devs have been putting off a server wipe which is making players go crazy and self-wiping just for the thrill.
I've exclusively only played a pirated offline server. Multiplayer games feel too much like an obligation. You gotta do the dailies and the quests, you have to be good, otherwise you're letting everyone down and you're a slurred slur for not being better! Also that game is full of cheaters. Check out this video
It's a really cool game and I love the gun customization but I'm just a little guy
SPT-AKI is also the only way to play Tarkov as intended (slow and methodical) as opposed to how it's played live (Call of Duty sweatlord fest)
Plus you can mod it. I can have a purple laser, cat ears, and pinky hello kitty Glocks. Or I can install gore and dismemberment mods. Or both.
