Is Escape from Tarkov Open World?

Escape from Tarkov is a top-tier extraction shooter with years in the business. It has millions of fans around the world and boasts one of the most addictive gameplay loops ever made, keeping players coming back for more with each new update. It has several large maps that players can explore to their heart’s content, but there’s one key question that players ask: ‘Is Escape from Tarkov open world?’

It seems like the perfect basis for an open-world formula. It has survival elements, mechanics focused on freedom and unlimited opportunities for exploration, and it’s a looter-shooter-style game. At the time of writing, Escape from Tarkov has eleven maps, some of which are enormous, but can Tarkov be classed as an open-world game? If not, are there plans to make Tarkov open-world?

Let’s explore that concept.


Will Tarkov Ever Be Open World?

is escape from tarkov open world

The concept of an open-world Tarkov is a tantalising one for fans, and there’s a solid platform to enable it. However, in an interview, the studio head at Battlestate Games, Tarkov’s developer, said that it won’t ever be open world because it’s ‘too much’ for the platform to handle. There is a plan to stitch the maps together, though – even if that might not arrive until the Tarkov 1.0 update.

Let’s explain what that means.

Presently, players will load into a raid on the Tarkov map that they choose, they’ll play through that map, and (hopefully) they’ll extract again with their life and some loot. If they want to play a different map, the cycle begins anew and they must load into an entirely new raid. Battlestate Games has a plan in the pipeline to stitch maps together – which is easy, considering they’re all linked by roads and pathways that are just inaccessible at present.

That means that the Tarkov open world concept comes one step closer to being a reality. Instead of leaving one map to start a new raid on another environment, players will be able to transition between maps and keep their raid running. There are a lot of things to figure out before Battlestate Games reaches that step, but it’s as close to an open-world Tarkov as we’ll ever get.

So, is Escape from Tarkov open world? It’s not at the moment, but it might end up getting pretty close to that operating model in the future.


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