Tarkov’s Most Recent Arena Update is Wild

(Intro)

The most recent patch to Arena, 3.4, is wild. Some of the largest changes to the balance of the game not only across the classes, but the very core fundamental mechanics of how Tarkov works as an FPS game. I was honestly taken aback by how unusual the changes are across the board. And this seemingly came out of nowhere. Did BSG tell us these kinds of changes were coming to Arena beforehand? For anyone who watched my video going over Tekken 8 season two and how insane that patch was and honestly still is after six months, this kind of feels like the Tarkov equivalent. Just throwing the game into chaos for the sake of… fun? It’s kind of hard to tell really. Is the game better off this way? Worse? That depends on who you ask. But let’s go over the changes, how drastic they actually are, and whether or not this is potentially a sign as to what EFT 1.0 could theoretically look like in about a months' time.

(The classes)

The first major change to the game was how all the classes have been radically altered and had their available equipment changed. Assault was changed the least of the four but still had top tier ammos brought onto most weapons. The fact we can now use ammos like M995 is kind of insane considering for the longest time, we were only allowed ammos up to just over forty penetration. But other than that, the helmets and their attachments have been changed so there are less of the auxiliary parts available to them. Enforcer feels like BSG can’t seem to get this class in a place that feels both unique to play, but also somewhat balanced. This is like the third iteration of enforcer we’ve seen in Arena. They don’t know if they want it to be the tanky class with limited options, the shotgun class or something in between. Because previously, we had access to a limited amount of ARs and other weapons other than shotguns. But now, it’s back to two primary weapons: LMGS and shotguns. That’s your lot.

Because enforcer was always the tankiest class, this always came at the cost of lower tiered ammos for, especially for the LMGs. But again, the limiters are off; M80 and M62 now in one hundred round belt felt boxes. What a time to be playing Arena, am I right? Although the biggest shock was how they handled scout. They now have access to level four and five armor plates. Which considering scout was easily the strongest class previously, it feels weird to make it even better. Although, they did remove access to the MCX and the VAL, which is significant because those were arguable the two strongest weapons for scout. And marksman, well they lost level four armor, but got even more powerful armor-piercing ammo. Which is on brand for the long-range focused class. No one has ever really had an issue with how marksman has been balanced, so it’s kind of a nothing burger in the long run. I know these don’t sound like massive changes, but the redistribution of ammo combined with essentially the rollback of how enforcer works, and now everyone has both good ammo and good armor for the most part. So, it’s kind of turned into a Mario party style game.

(The core mechanics)

What is more impactful than the classes being messed with again are some of the overall mechanical changes to how Arena functions and feels. One of the original hooks to Arena was that it was going to play 1:1 with how Tarkov does. Meaning, players can get almost the exact same experience as EFT proper, but within a more deathmatch focus arena setting. But now, with patch 3.4, Arena for the first time fundamentally feels different when compared to Tarkov. The biggest reason is that inertia has been altered within Arena; having less of an impact on your movement. It’s closer to what the game felt like before inertia was ever added. Your character now feels lighter than they did previously, but to compensate, how much your character weighs because of their gear now has more of a direct impact on your movement. And this to me, is the biggest reason why this patch feels so impactful. Again, it doesn’t sound like much, but we all remember how weird the game felt when inertia was added years ago, and we all got used to it. But now, the metaphorical ankle weights have been removed, so now people feel much more nimble and able to do some tricky movement to outplay their opponents. Granted, we all have it, but if you’re someone who likes to play both EFT and Arena, going back to Tarkov after a couple of hours inside Arena and its new movement, might throw you off enough to cost you a kit or two. Luckily, they did add a mechanic to prevent people from just mashing A and D over and over so you we don’t have those weird fights back in the day where players are just sidestepping each other constantly. All these inertia changes combined with a general speed increase across most weapon animations, and we now have a game that doesn’t sync up with Tarkov anymore. But I guess the main question is: are these changes good for Arena?

(Is Arena better off this way)

For the most part, like I said earlier, this feels more like a screw it, let’s mess with the game and just see what happens, kind of patch. We’re six weeks out from release so if they want to change the game up, test new ideas, get feedback and then iterate on them for 1.0, it’s not a terrible idea. Because in general, these changes aren’t bad in a vacuum; they’re just so different from what we’re used to after so many years of EFT. Originally, they wanted Arena to be an E-Sport which obviously that never really panned out the way I imagine they hoped it would. There is a scene for it, but it’s generally small in the ecosystem of Tarkov. But one thing they made very clear from the get-go with Arena, was that it would play mechanically 1:1 with Tarkov. Speed, animations, balance, it was all going to be the same so there isn’t this huge leap from one game to the other. And for years they stuck to that. But this is the first major step away from that philosophy. The new ammunition for bolt-actions to guarantee one hit kills from the chest up was technically the beginning of this, but that felt so small and almost essential to make those weapons even worth considering, that it pales in comparison to all these changes happening at once. And even weapon skills being maxed for all players means that guns generally are going to have less recoil, switch faster, and reload faster. This all feels like BSG added a turbo mode to Arena that is generally just increasing the speed across the entire game, while also making players generally more lethal than they ever have been with most of the classes. Again, it’s not all a bad change; there are some good components to it. The general animation speed increase is something that people will notice and most likely appreciate, instead of being stuck in a reload animation and losing a fight because of it. I just wonder how impactful they will feel when someone goes to Tarkov after hours of Arena, and more importantly, are any of these changes planned to come to EFT before or at the official launch.

(Is Tarkov going to do this)

There is now a legitimate concern that some of these changes get added to EFT. And when I say concern, I mean let’s face it; Tarkov has been the same way for quite some time regarding the pace of animations and the like. In Arena, these changes kind of make sense because the game is generally faster paced and there is way more action happening in any thirty second gap of time. But in EFT, pauses for reloading, switching weapons and anything else are moments where you are vulnerable and someone creeping on you can take advantage of your down time. So, while it might make sense from a gameplay perspective, it would once again be sacrificing some of that risk and grittiness that comes with being in the trenches on a map trying to figure out what your next plan of attack is going to be. Whether or not they would work within the context of that game’s systems versus Arena is up in the air. Could the game benefit from faster animations? I mean, technically yeah it probably could; it takes an inordinate amount of time to level the soft skills related to those animations. So, increasing the base speed for reloading, swapping weapons and not having to visually check your malfunctions anymore might be a quality-of-life change players didn’t know we needed. But as it stands right now, Arena is different mechanically from EFT. And I’m not entirely sure whether or not that’s a good thing. For years with Arena, every update was simply a net positive. This isn’t a step backward, but more of a weird lateral move in a widely different direction the game might’ve originally been going in. It makes it more arcade-y, but that’s kind of the point, but now it isn’t mechanically synched up to EFT so that could cause problems too. I don’t know, I’m very torn on this. Even if the changes aren’t as monumental while playing the game as reading them out the patch notes, stuff like this is still important. Again, BSG could be just messing around, collecting data for 1.0, or a combination of both. I’d like an answer, but we’ll most likely never get one.

(Outro)

Arena’s newest patch is packed with some wild changes that ultimately change how players are going to engage with both Arena itself and Tarkov as a whole. The classes shave been shaken up probably the most since their introduction, core and critical mechanics have been adjusted for the first time in literal years, and overall, the direction of Arena could be changing in substantial ways. Whether or not these will carry over, and impact EFT directly remains to be seen. But otherwise, if you haven’t played Arena in a while I would suggest jumping on and playing some games to see how you like or dislike the new movement. Who knows, it could come to EFT proper before you know it. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on the Arena patch notes from just reading them, how you feel about them in the live game and be sure to subscribe for more videos about huge and substantial changes to both EFT and Arena seemingly coming out of nowhere, for potentially the hell of it. I hope to see you in future ones.