I'd always assumed that Escape From Tarkov was just a catchy name and not something anyone could actually do—unless you're speaking metaphorically, I suppose: The bullet that frees you from the weight and horror of this cold, rotting world, and all that. But no, you can escape from Tarkov, and just over two weeks after the game finally went into full release, someone did it.
That "someone" is Tigz, a longtime Tarkov streamer who accomplished the feat on December 1. Developer Battlestate Games confirmed on social media that Tigz was in fact the first to get the job done.
When I first heard that someone had escaped from Tarkov, I immediately assumed someone was making a silly joke. The game's been out for eight years, after all, and if nobody's escaped yet, well, nobody's ever going to. But, as Tarkov aficionados are no doubt lining up to tell me, all of that time was spent in beta and early access: The full 1.0 release didn't happen until November 15 of this year, a major update that added—among other things—the "non-linear story campaign and end-game content."
So that's why it took so long for someone to actually make the fabled escape: It just wasn't possible until now. Well, that and the fact that Escape From Tarkov is notoriously brutal and unforgiving, to the extent that it can be "an exercise in masochism," as reviewer Rich Stanton put it. But, he continued, "Tarkov also offers a kind of high-stakes precision to PvP that doesn't exist elsewhere outside of the most hardcore milsims, and does it within an RPG-lite wrapping of incomplete information and outright obfuscation." All told, it comes together in a 90% review score, and we don't hand those out lightly around here.
In that light, the fact that it took Tigz just two weeks to find his way to freedom is honestly pretty impressive—although, as Rich pointed out to me when this came up, he's had eight years to practice.
As for what comes next, he's obviously enjoying the moment for now—and deservedly so, I'd say—but my guess is that his escape from Tarkov will be a temporary thing. His big success ends on something of a downbeat note, at least in terms of the game's narrative, and it's also only one of multiple possible endings.
I won't share the image to avoid spoilers (this is all still pretty fresh, after all) but you can see it at the conclusion of his escape video. The game-ending action begins around the 42:00 mark, but if you're a Tarkov fan (and don't mind spoilers) you might not want to skip ahead: PC Gamer's own Tarkov-escapee-in-the-making Jake Tucker tells me that just about everything in the video is brand new and, in his words, "huge and exciting."
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