Escape From Tarkov dev teases new urban map and a deadly armored vehicle

Battlestate Games, the developer behind the hardcore survival shooter Escape From Tarkov, is teasing a new map called Streets of Tarkov. A new residential section was shown Thursday during the Summer Game Fest hosted by Geoff Keighley. The trailer also introduced a fully functional armored personnel carrier.

Tarkov is a session-based game first announced in 2016. In it, players take on the role of private military contractors trapped in an isolated Eastern European war zone. Caught in between are the scavs, a lightly armed group of civilians fighting for survival. Tarkov is unique for a number of reasons, including its sophisticated ballistics model and its high-stakes, winner-takes-all looting mechanics. The game remains in an extended beta testing period, and is among the most popular games on Twitch.

Thursday’s trailer represents a big change for players, who have spent the last few years moving through mostly rural and industrial settings. The trialer showed another vaguely European setting with narrow streets and multiple floors to cover on approach. Interior settings included apartment buildings, abandoned daycare centers, parking garages and retail spaces.

“Compared to the previous trailer, this one for the first time showcases the fierce combat between PMCs in an urban environment in the big residential complex Concordia,” said Dmitri Ogorodnikov, head of public relations for Battlestate Games, in an email to Polygon. “[It shows a] never shown before part of huge Streets of Tarkov location. The map has been in development for almost a year and a half, and now this new trailer features the destructibility of some objects in the game as well as some objects physics. And of course — the mysterious appearance of the armored personnel carrier!”

Ogorodnikov told Polygon that fans should expect additional information on June 13, when Nikit Buyanov — head of Battlestate Games — will give additional information during the Twitch Gaming Gathering show.

Tarkov has had a fairly confrontational relationship with both its fandom and streaming platform holders in the past. An investigation by Polygon revealed that Battlestate has knowingly and repeatedly used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to censor critics on YouTube. In 2019, the company’s Twitch channel was suspended when an employee pointed a real gun to his head during a livestream and pulled the trigger, feigning a suicide attempt. The channel was eventually reinstated.