TOP 5 Alternative Games for Escape from Tarkov Fans

by Mike Alexander / Top Lists, Articles / 02 Apr 2023

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore online FPS that has built up a hearty fanbase in the years since it was released. The game’s developer/publisher, Battlestate Games, has been steadily working on the game and adding content since 2012 and is currently available in a closed beta form for players who have pre-ordered the full game.

Escape from Tarkov’s gritty, realistic world and gunplay creates intense gunfights between both other players and AI combatants. The stakes are high for everyone because all of that awesome loot and equipment you obtain during a raid can be lost in an instant if someone gets the upper hand on you. If this sounds like the type of game you would enjoy, or if you’re burned out on Tarkov and are looking for a similar, complete experience you can have today, then you’ll find a few suggestions on this list of the Top 5 Alternative Games for Escape from Tarkov Fans. When you’re ready to jump into the fray, dodge bullets, and collect awesome loot, then pick up your weapons, and let’s get started!

Deadside

Bad Pixel’s competitive survival shooter Deadside is already making a name for itself. Released in 2020, this game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, across a huge open map full of NPCs and events that players can either choose to participate in or ignore. Most post-apocalypse games default to a world full of zombies or radioactive monsters, but not Deadside. This game is set in our world after a cataclysmic event, and the only enemies you will face are other humans. While that might seem better than dealing with hordes of zombies, your enemies in Deadside will have the capacity to strategize and outmaneuver you. Use the crafting and base building systems to overcome them and be the last team standing.

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

The next game on this list takes things back to an old-school game. Stalker: Call of Pripyat is the sequel to Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, and was released in 2010. The Stalker series is considered by many to be the introduction of survival shooter mechanics to modern audiences, and its dour, radioactive setting continues to influence games being released to this day. In Call of Pripyat, you will explore the “Zone” and interact with the people who live in the radioactive hellscape. Along the way, you will fight mutants and other humans with all kinds of weapons. If you really want to experience a game that undoubtedly inspired Escape from Tarkov, then Stalker: Call of Pripyat should be on your shortlist.

Vigor

Vigor is a free-to-play game in the Escape from Tarkov genre of hardcore online shooters. Developed and published by Bohemia Interactive, this game takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Norway, which juxtaposes the violence being committed with gorgeous views and scenery. Vigor’s gameplay consists of Encounters, which drop players into a large map full of points of interest and task them with collecting equipment and surviving until they are able to escape, avoiding a cloud of radiation that sweeps over the map after a certain amount of time. Vigor is an incredibly fun game, especially if you’re playing with friends.

Hunt: Showdown

If you want your competitive online shooter to have a dash of supernatural horror, then Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown should be right up your alley. In Hunt: Showdown, players enter a high-stakes race to collect bounties in a haunted, infested Bayou full of creatures large and small, as well as opposing bounty hunters. You’ll have to fight everyone to claim your bounties and loot at the end of each match, and that’s no easy task. Hunt: Showdown also doesn’t have any kind of mini-map, instead making players rely on audio and environmental cues to locate and track their bounties as well as avoid other players.

The Cycle: Frontier

The recently released game The Cycle: Frontier from development studio YAGER puts a sci-fi twist on the hardcore competitive shooter genre. Like Hunt: Showdown, it is PvPvE, meaning you will engage in combat with other players as well as the threats on the planet you will repeatedly raid. This alien planet named Fortuna III is beautiful, but also extremely dangerous. Death lurks around every corner, whether it be a monster, another player, or an environmental hazard. Fortuna III holds all kinds of loot and rewards, but it won’t let you take them easily. Arm yourself with powerful weapons, grab as much loot as you can, and extract before something or someone kills you to take the spoils away from you.

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Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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