As someone who has yet to play Tarkov but finds its structure appealing, I was initially excited by a more accessible (and colorful) version of the idea in The Cycle. And there's a lot that I enjoy about it: I like the thought process of preparation and the risk of losing what you choose to take with you, the weight/inventory management that comes from the fact that your primary goal is to scavenge, and the tension of moving through the world, listening for threats while trying not to draw attention to yourself.
But here's the problem: a lot of the people playing The Cycle gleefully treat it like a free-for-all battle royale, and I have a high tendency to lose the nearly inevitable engagements with other players. They'll hunt and kill you even when there is little to be gained, possibly for preemption but more likely just for sport. And what I've decided is that, for me at least, the flaw at the core of the game is that there is no incentive to cooperate with strangers you come across or even to just let them live; they are either a danger better eliminated than shown your back, prey who exist to fill your own pack, or rivals who will empty out the map's important loot sites if you leave them be. Other players are never a resource, and that's a big problem (as well as kind of deeply sad).
And yeah, maybe the natural response to this complaint is that I should make more of an effort to go after other players myself, to get the drop on them or at least attack on sight without pause, never giving them the benefit of the doubt. Only... I don't want to play that game. I don't want a battle royale with loot; I want a scavenging game with uncertainty. Not just because I'm not the greatest pvp combatant but also because a predetermined and constant antagonistic relationship to other players in this context is tragically uninteresting. Maybe what I want is just a pve-only version of The Cycle. There's already a degree of fear and occasional panic that I get from exploring among the alien beasts, and that could certainly be leaned into and leveraged to achieve the notes of preparation, risk, and caution that make this kind of game exciting.
I feel that The Division's Dark Zones hit a better balance in creating this kind of experience, although I am not sure I can say exactly how—only that I've seen a much greater chance of other players there simply ignoring me or even working alongside me, and yet the possibility of betrayal or outright predation always remains to keep you alert and suspicious. Maybe it's the higher time-to-kill owing to RPG systems that make outcomes less certain for those who would draw first blood. Maybe it's the more complex nature of its randomly rolled loot and the fact that taking down NPC enemies has the potential to reward something more exciting than one of two unchanging monster parts. In The Cycle, killing another player has such a higher potential for valuable loot than hunting even a pretty dangerous alien critter, but you can find some juicy drops by taking down world bosses in The Division—and the value of what you take home is much more subjective owing to builds and desired stats.
All I know is that I've had marvelously tense but ultimately peaceful encounters in The Division, but in The Cycle there's little question of whether a confrontation will occur when I come across another player. And that's not their fault. Their behavior is the product of the game's design. Maybe the developers are content with this incessant bloodbath. Maybe this is what Tarkov is like, too. Maybe this is what other players want. But it's not what I'm looking for.
But here's the problem: a lot of the people playing The Cycle gleefully treat it like a free-for-all battle royale, and I have a high tendency to lose the nearly inevitable engagements with other players. They'll hunt and kill you even when there is little to be gained, possibly for preemption but more likely just for sport. And what I've decided is that, for me at least, the flaw at the core of the game is that there is no incentive to cooperate with strangers you come across or even to just let them live; they are either a danger better eliminated than shown your back, prey who exist to fill your own pack, or rivals who will empty out the map's important loot sites if you leave them be. Other players are never a resource, and that's a big problem (as well as kind of deeply sad).
And yeah, maybe the natural response to this complaint is that I should make more of an effort to go after other players myself, to get the drop on them or at least attack on sight without pause, never giving them the benefit of the doubt. Only... I don't want to play that game. I don't want a battle royale with loot; I want a scavenging game with uncertainty. Not just because I'm not the greatest pvp combatant but also because a predetermined and constant antagonistic relationship to other players in this context is tragically uninteresting. Maybe what I want is just a pve-only version of The Cycle. There's already a degree of fear and occasional panic that I get from exploring among the alien beasts, and that could certainly be leaned into and leveraged to achieve the notes of preparation, risk, and caution that make this kind of game exciting.
I feel that The Division's Dark Zones hit a better balance in creating this kind of experience, although I am not sure I can say exactly how—only that I've seen a much greater chance of other players there simply ignoring me or even working alongside me, and yet the possibility of betrayal or outright predation always remains to keep you alert and suspicious. Maybe it's the higher time-to-kill owing to RPG systems that make outcomes less certain for those who would draw first blood. Maybe it's the more complex nature of its randomly rolled loot and the fact that taking down NPC enemies has the potential to reward something more exciting than one of two unchanging monster parts. In The Cycle, killing another player has such a higher potential for valuable loot than hunting even a pretty dangerous alien critter, but you can find some juicy drops by taking down world bosses in The Division—and the value of what you take home is much more subjective owing to builds and desired stats.
All I know is that I've had marvelously tense but ultimately peaceful encounters in The Division, but in The Cycle there's little question of whether a confrontation will occur when I come across another player. And that's not their fault. Their behavior is the product of the game's design. Maybe the developers are content with this incessant bloodbath. Maybe this is what Tarkov is like, too. Maybe this is what other players want. But it's not what I'm looking for.