Escape from Tarkov

Steam Reviews

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• Not recommended Posted November 15, 2025 on Steam I can really feel how sad they are that Steam game purchases can't be made through Xsolla... The addition of the "Streets of Tarkov" map evoked far more emotion than this release and its "over 1000 fixes and improvements"... [i]Feels like it is not a release, this is a send-off into oblivion …[/i]
• Not recommended Posted March 11, 2026 on Steam Thousands of hours spent on this game. I've been playing since pre-alpha test state--I remember when Kivers (the first helmet in the game) were introduced--and I've 100% multiple wipes over the last decade. Here's what Escape From Tarkov has taught me about gaming: Streamers absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ruin video games when devs listen to them and devs should ignore them entirely. RIP Tarkov. Turn off Twitch.
• Not recommended Posted February 17, 2026 on Steam ---PLEASE READ WHEN BUYING TO SAVE YOURSELF THE DOOM AND DESPAIR--- This game along with its launcher, website, and profile system was cobbled together by a pack of cavemen, and published to Steam with catastrophic issues. After 365 hours and hundreds of painstaking raids, all of my progress was irreversably erased by Battlestate Games critical oversights. Here's the rundown: When buying this game on Steam, it creates a 'ghost' BSG account which you MUST "sign in with Steam" with. Without any disclaimer, fine print, or instruction telling me otherwise, I went ahead with the "create account" option instead (like any reasonable person would), which creates a new separate BSG account. The 'ghost' account made through the Steam purchase is meant to be the only BSG account you have. By selecting "create account", you make two separate BSG accounts, one of which you dont even know exists. After a few months of grinding, I decided to purchase the Arena gamemode yesterday through their website (not available on steam). However, this gamemode did not appear as "purchased" or "owned" in the BSG launcher. To mitigate this issue, I signed in using the "sign in with Steam" option, unlinked my steam account from the 'ghost' account (previously unknown about), and relinked it to the BSG account which I had been using the entire time. Both games now finally showed up as owned in launcher and on the same account. Upon launching the game, my character vanished without a trace. All those hours of progress had disappeared. Why? Because not only does purchasing this game on Steam create a 'ghost' BSG account, it also creates a 'ghost' launcher. When launching the game through steam, it takes you to a BSG launcher that isnt even the real launcher, its like a clone meant for steam. Linking/unlinking between the exact same account apparently erases all your progress. Making me traverse two launchers and two accounts to try and fix a massive bug is an outrageous technical fault that should not exist, and ultimately cost me all my progress without me even knowing. My final verdict? Do not give these incompetent devs your money. They do not deserve your hard earned money for prematurely launching a game that has been in development for 8 years. Game-breaking and spirit-shattering problems like this should not exist. BSG support is non-existent and will never help. If you really want to play this game, make an account through the EFT website and buy it there. It's infinitely more streamlined and probably cheaper. If you absolutely need to buy it through steam, PLEASE, for the love of all that is good, use the "SIGN IN WITH STEAM" option. This will make you only one account, and will eliminate the chance of losing all of your progress when linking accounts, changing names, or anything like that. Save yourself the heartbreak, trust me. Not a single game with an independent launcher has successfully launched on steam, and EFT is a golden example of this buffoonery.
• Not recommended Posted December 27, 2025 on Steam TLDR Don't buy this game on Steam - or if you do, make a BSG account first and link your steam account immediately. Or just stick to buying from BSG directly. Or just don't buy it at all! Hundreds if not thousands of Steam players cannot play the game anymore or have had their character erased completely. EDIT: 2026-01-10 First of all, i was gifted this game to play with friends and wouldn't waste my money on it. Second: I write this negative review hoping it will save other players from doing what I did bc BSG DID NOT make it clear to Steam players that they NEED to link their BSG account before playing. Then if later you wish to link there is no warning (splash screen, directions, email, any fine print) that it wipes everything from your Steam Account... that is the crux of the problem. Yes it is my fault for linking the account so late in the game, but BSG doesn't tell you to link it at launch even though the game forces you to make an account on first launch but that doesn't automatically link it??? The game has been in development for a decade but such a rudimentary feature isn't there. Third: to those users who said CoNtAcT sUpPoRt - no sh*t sherlock its been 2 weeks with no response and I don't expect to get one so I went and got my character back to where it was to game with my friends. Happy fricken holidays!! Here is why i say don't buy it. 1. I own tarkov only through Steam. 2. Apparently, the Steam launcher makes a temp user (tarkovcitizen). When you launch the game you need to have a BSG account. The BSG website even says you need a BSG account to play through Steam (See FAQ page: Do I need a Battlestate Games account if I’m buying the game on Steam for the first time? Answer: Yes. To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you will need to link a Battlestate Games account to your Steam account. All progress will be stored on the Battlestate Games profile which is linked to Steam.) Notice how the question asks if you need an account while the answer says you need to link an account?? Already suss. 3. So once I launched the game for the first time I created and logged into my BSG account since the game forces you to log into a BSG account. I have been playing as ManiacMoose for a month in the game itself. Presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG! 4. When I would play the game through Steam launcher, the launcher would show the TarkovCitizen temp user in the top right corner, however my user would appear in game as ManiacMoose. Again, presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG! 5. If i went through the steam launcher that said TarkovCitizen to my website profile it would bring me to ManiacMoose. Again, presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG! 6. I got to the BSG website to claim my gift and twitch rewards but the site said ManiacMoose did not own the game even though for a month I was playing as ManiacMoose. 7. So that it would register I did own the game (and so I could get the twitch drops and new years gift), I went to link my Steam account to ManiacMoose and it told me i couldn't bc there was already an account associated with my Steam account and to log in with Steam. 8. I logged out of ManiacMoose and into the BSG website with Steam which brought me to creating a new account. I couldn't add my steam account to ManiacMoose, the account the game forced me to make on initial launch. 9. So I did as the site directed and I made a new account with Steam on the BSG website and the TarkovCitizen account showed up. claimed my gifts and drops. great fantastic. 10. I tried to launch the game and made it to the black and white image screen before it crashed with "it appears the game terminated with an error." 11. I tried all the fixed and eventually resulted to uninstalling the game. I had to do this five times before it would launch. Each time i pulled up the launcher after reinstalled, it said TarkovCitizen, as it has since i started playing a month ago - nothing new. Then it would crash during launch 12. I finally got the game to launch on the fifth install and it loads me in as a brand new account. 83.6 hours of play GONE. Not only this but I joined the discord community to see what happened to my account and if others have experienced this and I was met with RUDE AS HECK moderators who wanted me to shut up because they couldn't fix account problems. Made it clear from the start of my convo I wasn't asking them to fix it I was looking for a what happened to my ♥♥♥♥ and they answered that it is INTENDED to be deleted. Like if you log in with your steam account to the BSG site the devs made it to INTENTIONALLY DELETE ALL PROGRESS on your steam account to sync to the BSG site. How does that make any sense when I own the game through steam!? Not only that but the moderators were advising people to link their steam to BSG without telling them HEY FYI MAY DELETE ALL YOUR PROGRESS. Then I was blamed for not linking my account before playing when it doesn't tell you to do that anywhere!! Maybe it did as a banner three months ago. I'm sorry but I can't time travel. So hey devs maybe at that as a big splash screen for Steam players??? Maybe don't force players to create a BSG account before they play and then not actually link their Steam account to it?? Maybe make it so linking the accounts DOESN'T ERASE EVERYTHING ON EITHER ACCOUNT.
• Not recommended Posted November 25, 2025 on Steam Let me preface by saying: If you are good with ignoring issues in the games you play, then this will easily be one of the best tactical shooters you could every play, but my god, the issues in this game are very difficult to ignore. I want to love this game, I really do, but given this game's development history, I would never recommend ANYONE play it To be clear: this is not my first time playing the game. I have around 2500-3000 hours across both of my Tarkov accounts. To that, you may ask: Dave, why do you have 2 accounts? Back in 2020, I built my first PC, and the first game I purchased on it was Tarkov. After putting hours into the game, and loving it, I heard about the "Edge of Darkness" edition. On top of the in-game perks that you get with purchasing it, you were promised to receive all further DLC they add in upcoming updates. The thing about the EoD edition was that it cost 150 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dollars. Even to this date, I have never spent more money on a video game, ever. I loved this game, but there were so many issues, and everyone who bought the EoD edition of the game was so excited to see that extra cash for the company be spent on fixing those issues. $150 is a lot of money, and we all thought it a worthwhile investment, because we were naive enough to think that Tarkov was a passion project with a lot of potential. We were wrong Let me talk about some of the problems that the money DIDNT go toward fixing: 1) Server Performance This was by far the most annoying problem for new Steam players. On the 1.0 launch, there were players who couldnt get past the launcher for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DAYS. Not minutes, not hours... DAYS. That is inexcusable for a game like this. If you played the beta, you'll know this happened nearly every wipe day. The beginning of the wipe is usually the most played time for the game, and given that BSG has seen this issue of flooded servers happen about every 6 months on wipe day, youd think that theyd know what kind of hardware they need in order to make servers run properly... Nope. Embarrassing 2) Hardware requirements/game optimization This is the most pressing problem for casual players. I have a decent PC. It's nothing fancy, but it's good enough to run any AAA game on full graphics at 60 frames at the least. I have never once been able to play on Streets of Tarkov at anything over 40 frames. Ever. On other maps, my frames usually sit around 50-70, dropping and raising for the most random reasons... On top of the horrendous stuttering issues, that are CONSTANT... The average income in the United States is somewhere between $40-60k. A majority of Americans, Gen-Z and below, are living paycheck to paycheck... In what world do you think the average gamers have the money necessary to build a setup good enough to play this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game? It is borderline impossible to run Tarkov on a gaming laptop, unless you have a really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good one. What chance do you think a blue-collar worker with a $1000 gaming setup has, fighting sweats at dorms, when he's also having to fight with 30 frames per second? 3) Cheaters Cheating is a problem in nearly every game, but I have never seen one as rampant as in Tarkov. A couple years ago, a content creator by the name of "Goat" dropped a video called "The Wiggle that Killed Tarkov" in which he downloaded cheats himself just to try and investigate the cheating problem. The information he gathered in his investigation showed that there was a closeted cheater in 60 PERCENT OF ALL RAIDS that he joined... The video blew up, and what did BSG do to respond? Nothing. Since that video, theyll release updates showing the community "look guys, we've banned this many cheaters in the month of ___" This gives me ZERO hope. Banning cheaters does absolutely nothing to prevent them from coming back. Only anti-cheat software does. Speaking of: Recently, pre 1.0, they seemingly released some anti-cheat software, and Nikita boasted before-hand on Twitter saying "preparing somethin special for cheater scum" What did this software do exactly? It false banned THOUSANDS of accounts. We know this, because Nikita admitted to them being false bans in his pre 1.0 interview with Pestily! The cheating situation in Tarkov has never been properly addressed, and because it's so normal and has been for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years, so few content creators actually talk about it... 4) Queue times Tarkov, like any game, has it's exciting moments, and it has it's boring moments. One of the most boring things in video games as a whole, is waiting for a match. Tarkov has by far THE WORST queue times of any multiplayer game I've ever played in my life. The fastest I've ever got into a Tarkov match is maybe 3 minutes, and the average time for me is maybe 5-7 minutes. The longest? Ive waited close to an hour for a match before. That is unacceptable given how many concurrent players this game has had over the last several years. One of my worst Tarkov memories: Years ago, I was teaching a friend how to play the game. He had maybe 50 hours at the time, so he was very new. We loaded into Interchange, and we waited 38 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ minutes for a match. When we FINALLY got into the match, we got ambushed off our spawn on the highway, and he got grenaded within the first minute. He didnt touch the game for another week, and I almost felt like I was personally responsible for wasting his time. 5) Game-breaking bugs When you play a game like Call-of-Duty, and you encounter a bug that gets you killed, most people will just say to themselves "that was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" and simply move on with their lives. In Tarkov however, it is a very different story, because often times youve spent literal HOURS of your life working toward using a specific kit, working on a quest, or trying to find a specific item... and when a bug gets you killed, it can be a genuinely brutal feeling. Tarkov, is absolutely LOADED with game-breaking bugs. Bugs that occur in Tarkov include: Your magazines being loaded with "ghost bullets" that dont do anything when shot Being stuck in a healing or reloading animation that is impossible to get out of Inventories being bugged causing you to not be able to loot them A random system error causing you to disconnect from the match Items bugging when shift-clicking them too quickly into your inventory, causing them to turn into ghost items which arent actually there Jumping over certain rocks seems to glide your character over that terrain, leaving you stuck in a "falling" animation, and can sometimes throw you off of cliff edges Grenades seem to clip on the most RANDOM hitboxes, and will sometimes lag mid-air, causing them to drop at your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ feet and kill you... ALL of the ones I just listed have got me killed before, and some of them I know for a fact are still in 1.0. Some of them are more common than others, but damn, theyre all so annoying. BSG has FAR worse problems to address, but bug fixes should be something that costs very little money, so the fact that theyve been present for so long infuriates me. In conclusion: I feel betrayed for supporting this company for so long. The game is still unfinished, nothing about it is new. The interesting things theyve added to 1.0 dont at all compensate for years and years of abuse and broken promises we've endured for the sake of this game. None of the most pressing issues have been addressed, and I feel genuinely horrible for everyone who gave so much money to see this game develop into a playable and finished state, only to be scammed... If you still play Tarkov past the 1.0 release, youre either a masochist, a streamer who relies on the game for money, or you have stockholm syndrome. Do not support Battlestate Games or any of their future projects. There are hundreds of better games out there that deserve your praise and support, and frankly, you deserve better treatment as a consumer.
• Recommended Posted April 13, 2026 on Steam it sucks but its very addicting. don't play if happy with your life.