Escape From Tarkov Arena Branded A "Hot Mess" In Pestily Review

Escape From Tarkov: Arena is the first DLC for Escape From Tarkov, and some players have already gotten their fill of the long-awaited expansion. It can be played as its own standalone game, without owning the main title, and those who purchased Escape from Tarkov: Edge of Darkness received first access to this new arm for free. But some players have already spoken out on the state of the game, calling it "a bit of a mess."

Streamer Pestily was among the first to play Arena and highlighted that, right now, it's mostly streamers and a few regular players with pre-orders who have received access. On top of that, those that have bought the title on release have been receiving instant access, ahead of those with pre-orders and Edge of Darkness. Battlestate Games are reportedly working to ensure access is granted to players in waves. 

But it seems that's not the only rough patch. The streamer highlighted just some of the features that could do with a few tweaks, such as some overpowered presets for the early games or having no audio settings for the loud announcer and crowds. But perhaps the biggest hurdles are the loading and FPS performances.

Pestily, who said he was running a decent rig on fairly medium settings, was averaging around 120fps whereas others had seen it drop to 90. He made the claim that, for a competitive game, things should be running at 144fps or even 200 fps on every map, at a minimum.

Despite the criticism, Pestily dubbed Arena as "harmless fun" especially when playing with friends. The streamer covered a lot of reasonable points in his explainer video, but fortunately it seems that all of these downsides could easily be fixed in a few patches. 

For more Escape From Tarkov news, be sure to check out our dedicated section or take a look at some of our Guides & Tutorials just below: