For years, players of Escape From Tarkov have speculated at each competitor’s release, asking: “Will this be the Tarkov killer?” The answer so far has been no. The industry has watched The Cycle: Frontier spark up and then die, and Hunt: Showdown creates an adjacent name for itself. Recently, a couple of new competitors, Grayzone Warfare and Arena Breakout: Infinite, have made their names known. As a Tarkov gamer, I was thrilled to drop into “The Dark Zone” of Arena Breakout: Infinite and see if we will finally crown The Tarkov Killer.
Raid #1: Finding my footing in Kamona
After gearing up with the game-guided tutorial, I immediately pressed play and got into the action. As I am used to doing with Tarkov, the first thing I did when I got into the raid was toggle the fire mode on my weapon. Pleasantly, I was surprised with the gun going into semi-auto. MoreFun Studios had already given a quality of life improvement Tarkov never did: my gun starts on full-auto.Dropping my first enemy, I was surprised by the force my weapon had. Instead of the enemy dropping like a sack of potatoes, dead in his place, his head rocked back pretty violently, and he was flung to his back. This was new and visceral for me and immersed me quickly.
Getting to looting, I was surprised to see an M3 grease gun on my enemy. It seemed a bit out of date for a modern combat zone, but it was certainly an exciting inclusion. I began moving into buildings, clearing them as usual but was surprised to see how little there was to loot as I moved throughout the map. Tarkov had accustomed me to needing to loot five things per room, but this was different in Kamona. Loot felt far more sparse, and the map felt like somebody had already been sorted through before I arrived.
Now, on my way to extract, I dropped a few more combatants, including a player sitting on a ridge right above my extract. The extract was marked with red smoke, making it visually obvious where I needed to go. After scooping some more loot, I got behind some cover near the smoke and left, largely satisfied with my experience.
A Mostly Full Magazine
What impressed me most about my raids in Arena Breakout: Infinite was the gunplay, interaction with the enemies, and the way that guns, armor, and meds allow progression to be achieved and mean something without denying new players the ability to win against fully leveled players.
The gunplay made any weapon I used have controllable recoil while not feeling like a complete laser beam. The gun recoiled back into my shoulder and up slightly while not bouncing around aimlessly as if my fully trained operative didn't know how to hold a firearm. Escape From Tarkov notoriously has struggled to find the balance between having a believable, challenging, and progressable recoil system. So for Arena Breakout: Infinite to get this right from the start. It was impressive.
My interaction with the enemies felt real in a way that many games lack. When I shot enemies I could see dirt flying off their armor and the enemy’s torso getting moved by the impact of the rounds. The blood spatter also was done well. When I fully penetrated an enemy’s armor and body, the blood spatter was not massive and unrealistic but localized to a circle matching the distance the target was from the spattered surface. When bodies dropped, the impact of the bullet that ended the operative was clear. Targets always jerk back due to the bullet's force and, while not unrealistically sent flying, are forced to the ground with the projectile's energy. These interactions were most of what made Arena Breakout: Infinite so immersive for me.
The progression of equipment in this game is also a major positive. No one feels like a bullet sponge. Armor seems to absorb the correct number of rounds appropriately, but having tier 6 armor and tier 3 armor does not heavily impact the time to kill. This, however, does not mean that armor is useless. Armor does extend gunfights, and my enemies having better armor than me does put me at risk of dying if I don't play positions and fights right. However, unlike Tarkov, I have yet to be left asking myself, “Why won’t this guy die?” While it may need slight tweaking, the balancing of armor is a strong point in Arena Breakout: Infinite.
The weaponry in this game, fortunately, shares the same excellent level of balance. Never during my play was I outmatched by weaponry or ammunition type. I have consistently eliminated players who vastly outlevel me, and take their guns and gear into the next raid. Ammunition type, while important, doesn't feel totally oppressive; bad ammo vs. good armor will still result in the enemie's armor eating bullets, but even middle-tier ammo vs. good armor led me to win gunfights. I never felt at a crippling disadvantage, even though I never ran anything better than the middle-tier ammunition through my gun. This feels wonderful.
Further, the attachments are balanced very well. Though my starting weapon felt usable and did not have uncontrollable recoil, when picking up an enemies fully customized weapon, I was impressed by the snappiness and agility. In contrast, the recoil felt essentially the same. No weapon that I tried, full build or otherwise felt like a laser beam, and similarly, none of them forced me to run out of mousepad. The balancing of the weapon attachments leaves me quite excited about the design route MoreFun is taking with Arena Breakout: Infinite.
The Rounds Missing
Sadly, not all that glitters is gold, and Arena Breakout: Infinite tends to show its lead interior via its level design and the lack of lore. The maps themselves have a mostly solid layout, leading to good game flow and not too much running from point to point. The major issue is the extraction layouts. Every extraction point I went to had a multi-story building or ridgeline overlooking it. As a Tarkov veteran, I have years of experience with extract campers. The fact that every extract I took had a position overlooking it gives me great concern regarding the extract camping situation. In fact, my first raid had an extract camper sitting in a bush on a ridge overlooking the extract. Luckily, I dropped him with a headshot before I approached the extract, but having a level design promoting extract camping is an unfun prospect.Additionally, Arena Breakout: Infinite gives players very little story. I was given no reason for going into the raid or why the city was left in this state. As this is a beta, it is expected that it will be added in the future. In its current state, I'm left wondering why I'm there, doing these missions, and what my goal is.
Not Yet The Tarkov Killer
Overall, I had a generally positive experience at Arena Breakout: Infinite. The gunplay, progression, and immersion are great in this game. The only major flaw I found in my gameplay is the level design that supports extract camping, a notorious annoyance in other extraction shooters. As the game is currently in closed beta, I hope to see more quests and trader items get added and, of course, the full release of all the teased maps in the map screen. I also want to see lore, factions, and bosses get added, as that would truly help elevate this game to be as immersive and fun as its long-standing competitor. Arena Breakout: Infinite is promising, though there is a long road of work and community support ahead.
