Tarkov’s First Official Cross-Over is Minimal but Cool

(Intro)

The last thing I ever expected from Tarkov and especially BSG of all games and companies was a cross-over with not only another game, but one that took heavy inspiration from this property. And while it’s only some new event quests, just the fact that BSG was willing to work with another studio at an official capacity is really cool. And what I am talking about specifically is the cross over between Tarkov and Escape From Duckov, a fun smaller single player extraction shooter from a development team called Team Soda. As someone who watched a bunch of videos of people playing Duckov, it looks like a really solid entry for a single-player extraction game, which we need more of. So today, I kind of wanted to just quickly talk about the cross-over in Tarkov, how this maybe came to be, and what this could potentially mean for future crossovers with other titles and what this might mean for EFT going forward. Because BSG being cool with other studios and leaning on them for some new ideas and items being put into their own game will only benefit them in the long run if executed correctly.

(The crossover itself in EFT)

The event itself is fairly straight forward. Across eight of the playable maps, there’s about ten total ducks on average that have static spawns you need to find and destroy. We don’t know how long this is going to run, but it gives players something to look out for as they continue with whatever else is still enticing in Tarkov at this point. Whether that’s the main story, hunting for players, or starting over after a prestige, looking for the little ducks can prove to be quite the challenge if you don’t check out the wiki for their locations. You will, however, hear the ducks as you get closer; they make little quack noises, and when you destroy them, they yell out in pain. And that’s kind of it; again, it’s a very straight forward and simple event. Just a collaboration between two teams under the same genre, and where one seized an opportunity for release when the other wasn’t doing so hot. For a game that released at the tail end of last year, Duckov has been praised by many for taking a step in this genre that not many other games are doing. Others in the genre tried to take advantage of when Tarkov was struggling with trying to convince people that the unheard edition was something they should buy. Multiple games kind of dunked on Tarkov (rightfully so) and used that PR nightmare as an opportunity to promote their own product. I recall Arena Breakout Infinite taking some pokes at BSG during the whole ordeal, and it was kind of funny to see some other extraction games kind of shoot their shot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the EFT community rally against something so uniformly. And as someone who played the other extraction offering, Delta Force, it was interesting to see another company take a stab at this genre but from the perspective of it being strictly single player, and isometric of all camera angles. But Duckov released, and tons of people both played and really enjoyed the gameplay loop and progression. And it was also nice to see Nikita just congratulate them on a successful game. He wasn’t bitter; there was no outright animosity, just a developer being cool with another developer. That’s something we need more of across the industry as a whole.

(What is Escape From Duckov?)

Escape From Duckov is almost exactly what it sounds like. According to the Steam page, it’s a PvE indie survival RPG. But you play as cute little ducks that wear tactical gear and run around with weapons taking out other dangerous ducks to collect resources, upgrade your gear and level up your home base to be able to craft new and interesting items. Again, I’ve watched a bunch of different people play it and honestly feels like a cozy version of Tarkov, with still a surprising amount of depth in the mechanics. The weapons aren’t just spraying sporadically; no, you can actually aim down the weapons to focus your cone of fire and be more accurate. Which if that was their goal, then kudos to the team for realizing that idea. It’s so interesting to me to take the extraction genre and make it completely single player. That alone is going to entice a huge audience of people who may be interested in trying one of these games but is so intimidated by not only the games and all their mechanics but the idea of having to compete with other players. Whereas with Duckov, now all of that is out the window and you can just take the game at your own pace and enjoy it however you want. If you die a couple of times, it’s no big deal; you just go back in, and there’s no sense of urgency or pressure to perform. And I think truly there is something special in this genre having some single player options available. Technically, Tarkov has this with PvE and you get the added bonus of being able to play with some friends, but even then, the asking price to just play that mode is way too high.

Duckov is less than twenty dollars when it’s not on sale and it discounts rather frequently. So, if you’re someone who is curious about what an extraction game is like but don’t want to compete with other players or just don’t have the time to dedicate half of your life to one of the available online options, it might be worth to give Duckov a try. The only thing I’ve read about recently that has some contention with this game is there was a modder uploading malicious mods onto the Steam workshop, and the developers don’t seem interested in doing anything to remove them and make downloading mods for the game safe. Which if you only plan on playing it without any mods (or vanilla as it’s called) this shouldn’t be a problem. But if you were maybe perhaps curious about adding some spice to your version of the game, I would say air on the side of caution and just make sure what you are downloading is safe. You can never be too careful these days.

(What other crossovers could/would we like to see?)

So, since this is the first official cross over with another game that Tarkov has collaborated with, I suppose the next question would be if they do any more of these in the future, what games or franchises would be interesting to go alongside Tarkov? And this is the part of the conversation that could easily go off the rails with all sorts of wild ideas. But to keep it simple, it should be games that are shooters by nature, have a similar aesthetic or atmosphere to Tarkov and ideally, they would be games in the same genre, but of course the best cross overs could be outside the extraction shooter ecosystem. One idea that immediately popped into my head is something like Counter Strike. Even just for their outfits; taking inspiration from the counter-terrorists and leaning into a little more special ops and wet-work style for clothes would be really cool. On top of that, Arena has a bomb plant and defuse mode so adding some kind of event in Tarkov where there are bombs scattered throughout the map and players need to work together and find the materials necessary to defuse them could be an interesting idea. Again, it just popped into my head, but I am incredibly interested to hear your ideas down in the comment section below.

(Outro)

Tarkov’s first cross-over may not have a substantial impact on the core gameplay loop or things that can be earned by players, but it marks a definite shift in how BSG may approach other games and companies to maybe work together and create events and moments that are one-of-a-kind and wholly original for Tarkov. My hope is that this isn’t just a one off and that we will see BSG approach other games and franchises to try and incorporate some of their content into the ecosystem of EFT. It’s certainly a way to turn heads and maybe bring some people back by having wild cross overs. I’d imagine if they continue doing these they will stay small for a while and then slowly ramp up how intertwined into the game they get. Either way, it’s nice to see BSG be cool with other developers and games. Hopefully we see more of this in the future. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on cross overs in Tarkov, what games you would like to see BSG collaborate with and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the infinite possibilities that are now on the table for Tarkov to traverse different universes it otherwise might’ve not ever reached. I hope to see you in future ones.