Getting My Solo Experience Frustrations Off My Chest

Let me start by saying that I love this game—I’m addicted. I can’t stop playing. The quality-of-life improvements compared to Tarkov are amazing, the maps are great, and the close-quarter gunplay feels fantastic. I also know that solo mode is coming soon, and once that drops, I’ll probably be glued to my monitor.

That being said…

Playing for the past few days has felt like playing Call of Duty, but with a five-minute respawn cooldown and a 150k Koen tax. I mostly run Farm on Lockdown, and I just needed to get this off my chest: the game feels really unfair when playing solo. Getting swatted by three- to four-man squads rocking level 4 armor, helmets, and fully decked-out suppressed MDRs—on Lockdown Farm of all places—is just brutal. They zone me out of position with four grenades and three molotovs, while my bullets can’t even penetrate their armor. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to loot my 2k worth of attachments from the weapon box upstairs in Villa because my spawn was atrocious, and I need to make my money back—preferably without spending the next four hours crawling through the map, picking up scraps.

(I know Villa is a bad example—that place is a deathtrap for solos—but I think you get my point.)

And before anyone says:

• "Just play stealthily."
• "Try another map."
• "Camp."
• "Disengage if you pick off one or two guys."

I get it. I really do.

But this is an extraction shooter—I want it to feel like a thrilling, tactical high-risk/high-reward experience. And sometimes... you know..., pressing the play button feels like choosing between playing like a complete rat or donating my kit when playing solo. If you don’t have an esports-level background, actively engaging in PvP while trying to survive as a solo feels just unproductive. Even if you manage to take down one or two guys, you bet Oleg Igorevich is camping his friends' bodies for the next 20 minutes with a Mosin, all while still being at risk of running into more enemies.

Lastly, I know some people argue that solo mode will make players rat even harder—and it probably will. But in my opinion, the audio cues and headphones in this game are really well done, giving you at least a chance to detect someone’s presence before getting blasted out of nowhere. Dealing with solo campers is a thousand times easier and more rewarding than going 1v3 or 1v4, and I think solo mode will make the game feel much fairer for players who don’t squad up.