Escape From Tarkov Players Furious After New Patch Ruins PvE Mode

Yesterday a big new patch arrived for Escape From Tarkov which promised major improvements to the recently released PvE game mode, but hours later the community discovered several issues with the changes that some say make the mode unplayable.

After months of long matchmaking delays to access a solo PvE raid, Battlestate Games has added the ability to play the new PvE mode in Tarkov locally on your PC. In theory, this removes the need to join one of their servers and should create a much better experience for solo players.

However, as soon as players started trying to run Tarkov locally on their PC, they reported experiencing technical issues. Several gamers on social media and community hubs reported that performance when running Tarkov locally it’s awful, with framerates running at even half of what they would be on a server.

These technical issues would likely explain why you can’t play the Streets of Tarkov map offline, given the size of the map and the power it requires to run. Even running the map normally in PvP mode requires a fairly powerful PC, so running everything locally would likely be impossible for all but the most modern and expensive computers.

These technical issues aren’t the only complaints some players have, as another change has had a major impact on the PvE game mode. In the patch notes, it was revealed that all AI on the map will now react to your presence if they become aware of it. This means that if you shoot a robot and its friend sees it and causes trouble, all AI within earshot will start descending on your location to eliminate you.

While this kind of idea works somewhat with scavs, with the much more powerful AI PMCs roaming the map, it can create situations where you have to clear an entire lobby before you’re free to move. Players have even found themselves running out of ammo due to the number of people heading their way.

Compared to PvP, which PvE tries to emulate with AI PMCs, this is a big difference as many real players will avoid other players if they have good loot or are trying to complete a quest. It’s very rare for all players in a lobby to be looking for a fight, and seeing the entire server fighting in one place is even rarer.

While further improvements to PvE AI have been promised, there will likely need to be some sort of fix or rollback on this change to ensure that PvE doesn’t simply become gunfights the moment you load into the map.