FOREVER WAR

From inventing the extraction shooter to finally reaching 1.0, the creator of Escape From Tarkov has refused to compromise on its original game-changing vision

- ED SMITH

Escape From Tarkov's soul is contained within its extraction zones. Eight years since the game was first released to the public, those small, secluded areas of the map that represent both your objective and your only chance of survival have become monuments to the game's impact on wider gaming culture. This was the first real extraction shooter – while developer Battlestate Games has drawn some general inspiration from zombie sandbox DayZ and military simulators such as Arma, Escape From Tarkov formalised what is now one of the most dominant subgenres in multiplayer shooters. When you finally reach the extraction zone, unsling your assault rifle and start reciting your prayer to the indifferent, all-deciding countdown clock, you are lying prone in a piece of videogame history.

You are also, for those agonising, seemingly endless ten seconds, experiencing all of EFT's drama, tension and raw emotional power in a rush. Even now, when it's flanked by dozens of imitators and rivals, there is no FPS that impresses upon you more harshly the consequences of every single one of your decisions. Death is swift. Opponents are lethal. If you achieve one kill, collect a couple of fresh cans of food and make it to the exit with only a broken arm, two haemorrhages and a limp, then you've had a pretty good game. Tarkov is sometimes referred to as a looter shooter, but the only thing it provides in abundance is hardship: you do not understand the true value, the significance, of a first-aid kit, a flashlight and a handful of loose 7.62 bullets until you've crawled all the way to the old gas station on Customs only to get shot in the head by a waiting Scav. When Battlestate Games created the extraction shooter, it also created a brutal metaphor for the capriciousness of reality.