What I Hope Tarkov's Final Map Brings to the Table

(Intro)

About a week or so ago, Nikita on his Twitter released some screenshots showcasing the final map that will be added into the base game of Tarkov, Terminal. This has been a long time coming; over a decade's worth of work for the team and we are starting to see the beginning of the end. And while there isn’t a ton to chew on from just the pictures, I figured it was a good time to have a conversation about Terminal, and what personally I hope to get out of the game’s final location. The potential layout of the map, how large it might be, what we can expect for gameplay and maybe even some answers to questions we’ve had in regards to the actual lore of Tarkov that hasn’t been talked about in the game directly. I’ll be bringing up the pictures a bunch throughout this video so we can go over them, but just from the four he showed off, there some interesting stuff to unpack. So, let’s do just that.

(Comparing the available screenshots)

For the longest time, whenever Terminal was mentioned by name, my brain always went to something akin to Modern Warfare 2’s Terminal; one for flying and airspace. But in the case of Tarkov, it’s not for the air, but instead the sea. It’s a port for ships to load and unload massive amounts of those cargo sea cans. And just from the few screenshots we’ve seen, the map is going to be littered with them. It might also have some elements of Shipment also from Call of Duty, but on a much larger scale because Shipment is tiny. If we look at this image with the truck in front, on the left corner we can make out the water with the obvious massive cargo ship adjacent to it. I’d have to imagine there will be more than one of these on Terminal, and that we might be able to board at least one. It would make sense considering the way we are supposed to escape from Tarkov is by taking a boat out. So being able to get on one and look around would be really interesting; we don’t get a ton of opportunities to explore the insides of vehicles in this game besides the BTR. On the far right, we can see a fence which could indicate one of the edges of the map; meaning there is no more traversal in that direction. Or, it could just be a barrier between two sections of the map. It’s hard to distinguish because Tarkov uses so many different types of fences for different purposes. Switching photos, we can get a better idea of the actual scale of the map. The size of the cranes, and the amount of shipping containers there are, the extra train cabin; it goes pretty far backwards. There’s only one picture that’s an internal shot of either a building or potentially one of the docked ships; considering there are shelves and those gates that you pull down to lock a store, it feels like it’s leaning to a building. In terms of a general layout for Terminal, it’s hard to say, but considering this map seems to go across an entire pier, it might be a similar case to Lighthouse where it’s more of a narrowly designed map, that adheres to more real-world logic. Sadly, it’s that exact mindset that makes Lighthouse such a difficult map to play and potentially fix; it adheres to the rules of how the entire Norvinsk region is laid out in Tarkov. And it’s difficult to fix that without sacrificing some of the immersion that comes from knowing maps are connected to one another. Another slim map that is long and narrow, but having an entire side of it being water could pose some problems for spawns and how quickly people run into each other. Something I noticed too while comparing these two images is that they feel very similar, both in terms of shot placement and where they are located on Terminal. The ship looks identical, they both are sitting on the corner of a pier with the water off to the left, and they even have the same angled sea can with an A and an arrow pointing up. And yet one has a fenced off wall, and the other has a corner that looks like it can be rounded. Interesting stuff.

(Gameplay hopes)

In regards to how the map plays, my biggest concern is again, the spawns on the map and how potentially tight they might be. If we are getting another narrow map, people are going to very quickly run into one another and that will immediately create problems. Even a map like Streets has spawn issues, but that’s because of how many PMCs can be on that map at one time. I would be happy to sacrifice a couple of extra players if it means we don’t die in the first thirty-seconds of a raid on Terminal. Other than that, I don’t really have any major expectations for how Terminal should play. Maybe something we can interact with that shines some light on how our PMC properly gets out of Tarkov, but I mean it’s going to play like any other Tarkov map. It’s always so exciting to discover a new map; all the little intricacies associated with it, where the extracts are. It’s the only thing these days that still stresses me out personally while playing the game. The size of the map is another good question to ask. I can’t imagine it will be that large, considering it’s a pier next to a large body of water. Maybe something fifty percent larger than Ground Zero, but I could be completely wrong.

(Lore Questions)

Something I hope BSG does do with Terminal, is really lean into the lore of Tarkov and begin to answer some questions that we still have. There are books, and the video series where we get some hints for problems that are currently going on with Tarkov’s lore, but figuring out what the cultists are after, who Lightkeeper is, what does Fence want with everyone stuck in Tarkov. It would be cool to get some revelations with all of these interesting characters we’ve known for years now. Even if it’s through the flavor text of the inevitable new quests that come with Terminal, I would be happy with even just that. I’m sure that when we get the main story quests with the full release of the game, that’s where those questions will get answered, but it would still be interesting to see some of that shown off on the map. BSG has always done a good job when it comes to environmental storytelling, and this would be a great opportunity to flex those muscles once more.

(Outro)

Terminal is hopefully going to be a climatic finish to wrap up the main development of Tarkov. Since the map won’t be available until the official launch of Tarkov 1.0, they have time to truly flesh out the map, polish it up and go out with a bang. I hope they deliver on an experience that makes this make feel epic; something that truly shows the culmination of over a decade's worth of work, where players can feel the tension and stress of finally be able to actually escape from Tarkov, and see what happens from there. It’s been a long time coming, but seeing the end on the horizon is exciting but also somewhat bittersweet to say the least. Either way, I look forward to seeing more of this map and eventually being able to explore it for the very first time. 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 and hopes for Terminal, if there is anything specific you want out of the map and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the beginning of the end for Tarkov’s long long development. I hope to see you in future ones.