Escape From Tarkov is a first-person extraction shooter developed and published by Battlestate games and released in Closed Beta in July 2017. Escape From Tarkov offers a unique experience to all of its players as it’s a highly realistic game where players get punished for bad decisions. That sense of fairness boosts player engagement.
Survival First-Person shooter was an already familiar genre in the gaming world, but Escape From Tarkov is the game that placed it on a pedestal. With in-depth mechanics such as weapon jamming, specific healing items for certain injuries, armor types, and calibers, Escape From Tarkov set the genre’s standards on another level.
Escape From Tarkov can be an extremely challenging game requiring players to put in hundreds of hours to be in a comfortable zone. This game’s grinding and learning curve might not be for everyone, so we decided to make this list of the best five games similar to Escape From Tarkov.
Overview of Escape From Tarkov Gameplay
Escape From Tarkov revolves around looting, surviving, and extracting. A player will spawn at a random location on the map with barely any HUD elements to guide them–not even a minimap! From here, players must kill their potential enemies, complete tasks, and loot valuable objects. Once their goals are met, players must find their extraction point and get out of the match alive.
If a player happens to die in a match, all their loot and equipped gear are lost. (To qualify this point, losses can be mitigated by insurance or the unlikely mercy of other players.)
In this game, victory depends on what grade armor, caliber ammo, and type of healing items they have. If a player gets hit in the head while wearing heavy armor, they might survive. They can get through a tight spot if they carry aspirin to stop blurry vision and headaches. The game can be meticulous when it comes to item types and purposes.
Escape From Tarkov allows players to loot materials and resources that will enable them to craft their arsenal. The crafted items and equipment can be used in matches. There is also a market where the players can buy and sell certain things, depending on their level with specific traders. These traders also provide tasks to the players that will provide XP and unlocks on completion.
In a game like this, players must be ready for any situation, as tides can change suddenly, and they must do anything possible to survive. Escape from Tarkov might be overly complicated for some players–maybe they don’t have the time for a detailed game like this. Therefore, we will list our best recommendations for games similar to Escape from Tarkov but with less grinding.
Because Escape from Tarkov is not free to play, we’ve also limited this set of games to paid, fully-featured games. Similarly, there is no pay-to-win model here. All players are on an equal footing in them.
Five Games Similar to Escape From Tarkov in 2023
For this list, we decided to pick tactical survival shooters with mechanics that will give Tarkov fans a familiar, welcoming glow. The game style and gunfighting are similar between them.
Marauders
Marauders is a recently released game by Small Impact Games. It was heavily inspired by Escape From Tarkov. In fact, many call Marauders, Escape from Tarkov in Space.
In Marauders, players take control of a Space Pirate whose objective is to complete contracts, main missions (Zero to Hero), loot, and survive. Marauders shines in its style–what a unique aesthetic! The game is set in a Dieselpunk universe in the 1990s. In this alternate history, WWII almost destroyed the world, forcing humanity into space. The result is a beautiful mix of space-age transport with WWII-era weaponry.
The Gunplay in this game feels very familiar to Escape From Tarkov as players can wear different types of armor and helmets that will protect them for certain calibers depending on their level. You will often find that the best guns in Marauders make use of the highest caliber rounds in order to break through higher-tier armor.
Regarding the healing mechanics, Marauders is not as punishing as Escape From Tarkov; taking damage doesn’t affect any limbs in particular and works as most health systems in other games where players must use items to replenish their HP bar.
Crafting in Marauders is just as in Tarkov. Players must look for resources and materials to craft items. Additionally, players must manage their inventory slots and space. Moreover, in both games, investigating objects will reward the players with experience points. Mini-quests in Marauders take the form of daily contract missions that the player can choose to complete.
In Marauders, players load into the match in Space Ships with other enemy players. Once the game starts, the objective is to dock into the Space Station (the level). While in space, players can engage enemies in gunfights, breach ships, and get into AI ships with valuable loot inside.
Why Marauders is a Game like Escape From Tarkov
- Tactical gunplay
- Similar movement
- Gathering Resources
- Stash System
- Crafting System
- Players will lose their gear after dying
- Looting Mechanics
- Players must extract to win
- Calibers and armor types
- Similar XP system
- Trader system
Hunt Showdown
Hunt: Showdown is a fantastic extraction first-person shooter game set in the late 1800s where Hunters must explore the gruesome and infected swamps of Louisiana while having to deal with monsters of all kinds and other enemy players. Hunters must use old weapons such as lever action rifles, pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and bolt action rifles to deal with whatever steps are in their way. Hunt Showdown’s player count has remained very high over the years and even continues to grow, showing how popular and interesting the game is.
The objective is to look for one of the bosses in Hunt Showdown to kill, vanquish it, and then extract with the bounty. The exciting part is that every player on the map has the same objective, and whoever tries to carry out the bounty will be in every alive player’s sight. In this game, there are also NPC monsters and sound traps. The game is very dynamic, and players have different options for dealing with the various monsters in Hunt Showdown.
Hunt Showdown is a game similar to Escape From Tarkov as players not only have to extract alive, or otherwise, they will lose their equipment, but also, the gunplay is highly tactical, and player skill plays a massive role. Hunt: Showdown, like EFT, will punish players for making bad decisions, and they will have to use their visual, audio, and detective senses to outplay other hunters.
If you end up really liking this dark game that is an interesting twist on the extraction shooter genre, you should really check out our list of the best games like Hunt Showdown. You’ll find many more good options to choose from.
Similarities between Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov
- Tactical gunplay
- Extraction Shooter
- Limited HUD elements
- Big map with extraction points
- Looting mechanics
- Players will lose their gear after dying
The Cycle: Frontier
Like Marauders, The Cycle: Frontier shares many characteristics with Escape From Tarkov in a more Sci-Fi universe.
In The Cycle: Frontier, players explore Fortuna III, a human colony in deep space. Humans had high hopes of populating the colony, but a massive storm foiled their plans, forcing everyone to retreat to space stations. These storms still occur during matches between players, and it’s the game’s facade to replenish loot pools on the map. During these storms, players must find shelter to prevent being hit by thunder.
In The Cycle, a great game like Escape From Tarkov, players must complete tasks for specific factions that unlock equipment at their stores.
The Cycle: Frontier offers players tense gameplay mixed with very satisfying gunplay and astonishing visuals. Gunplay is slightly more arcade-like than Tarkov, as there are no calibers. Yet, the best weapons in The Cycle Frontier are found coming from the usual types: SMGs, Snipers, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, and more. The types of weapons dictate the damage and power of the weapon at hand more than the caliber.
In this game, a crafting system makes players scavenge and mine for valuable materials. What The Cycle: Frontier does differently from other games of its ilk is the literal mining. The Cycle Frontier implements a mining system whereby players can look for distinctive geological formations and mine them to get resources. Prospectors can then use the resources for crafting or selling. In addition to minerals, some crafting recipes will require the player to find and make use of plants.
Combat in The Cycle: Frontier can be compared more to games such as Apex: Legends. Both games tend to be bullet-spongy (meaning characters can take many hits before death, in contrast to real life, where one such hit might be fatal.) In both games, healing items are panaceas; items are not differentiated to treat different types of damage.
Similarities with Escape From Tarkov
- Tactical gunplay
- Gathering Resources
- Stash System
- Crafting System
- Players will lose their gear after dying
- Looting Mechanics
- Players must extract to win
- Trader System
DayZ
DayZ can be considered the game that started it all. This game has its roots as an ARMA 2 mod that had so much success, developers turned it into a stand-alone game.
While DayZ is not an extraction looter, Escape From Tarkov Fans will find many similarities, as this game can be as punishing and complex as EFT.
DayZ spawns players in a random location somewhere within a massive map. The players begin a match with barely any resources. Players must search for equipment to protect themselves from zombies and enemy players. They must find specific medicines to stop infections, pain, blood loss, and more.
The Health System in DayZ, like Tarkov, is challenging and punishes players for making bad decisions like jumping from a tall spot which can brake players’ legs.
In both games, gunplay is complex, as armor grade and bullet calibers matter. Complicate this further with weapon quality. Gun performance is affected by lack of maintenance.
The objective of this game is as simple as looting and surviving, which is no easy feat. In a game like this, a player can’t just go back to the main menu, buy gear and try again. No, if a player dies, they have to start from scratch!
DayZ could be considered an even more intricate game than Escape From Tarkov due to its massive number of systems: crafting, healing, building, repairing, and more.
We highly recommend that players who want to try this game out download the DayZ DZSA Launcher, allowing them to join RP and modded community servers for a complete experience. And, if you end up loving it, feel free to explore other great open-world games like DayZ.
Why DayZ is a Great Game like Escape From Tarkov
- Tactical gunplay
- Caliber and armor system
- Weapon Quality System
- Complex Healing Mechanics
- Body Recover System
- Gathering Resources
- Stash System
- Crafting System
- Players will lose their gear after dying
- Looting Mechanics
- Barebones HUD elements
- Similar Visuals
Rust
Rust is a survival game. In this incarnation of the genre, players do not have the option to extract.
Rust can be considered a gentler version of DayZ. It is similar in many respects, but its mechanics are less punishing. Rust is more straightforward, with a simpler healing system, gunplay, a crafting system, and equipment mechanics. The real difficulty in Rust is not the struggle of keeping a diversified inventory, but rather surviving against other players. Players must fight tooth and nail to wrest loot from each other.
The Gunplay in Rust is fast but still requires tactical planning. The combat is often compared to dynamic games like Call of Duty, wherein players are frantically rushing about. If there were a panic button, Rush would be sitting on it.
This game also has building mechanics which allow players to build barricades and cover. Fortification is vital to protecting a player’s stash and life from enemies.
If you like Escape From Tarkov and are looking for a fast-paced challenge, then Rust will fulfill your needs.
Related Article: Is Rust Cross Platform?
Similarities with Escape From Tarkov
- Tactical gunplay
- Weapon Quality System
- Stash System
- Crafting System
- Players will lose their gear after dying
- Looting Mechanics
- Intense and constant combat
Last Thoughts
Hopefully, you will find some joy in the games listed in this article. Each has elements familiar to fans of Tarkov, and each puts its own spin on a “fight for your life” experience.
We had tons of fun playing these games like Escape from Tarkov; hopefully, you will too.
If you have any other great suggestions for our other readers, feel free to sound off in the comments below with your ideas and favorite extraction games. And, if these games don’t seem like they’d hit the spot, feel free to check out our related guide to the best games like Deep Rock Galactic!
Good Luck, and Have Fun!
