I keep seeing people referring to this game as a "Tarkov Parody", which I personally don't agree with. Sure it has a good amount of parallels to Tarkov, but very few of those transfer to its mechanics or used for comedic effect, hell, the game isn't even particularly trying to be funny for that matter. It's just a very well put together third person, top down extraction based PvE shooter which happens to have a tarkov pun in its name.
The game loop is very simple: You will start on a bunker where you can craft and take missions. You can leave the bunker at any time, explore, loot, shoot, and come back before dark. As you do so, you will be able to craft upgrades, build more crafting stations, get more missions, and unlock further areas. The beauty of Duckov is not how well it does anything in particular, but how incredibly solid its foundations and core gameplay is, which coupled with its incredibly dense and well paced content, it means it will keep you thoroughly engaged as you discover new areas, fight new enemies, try new weapons and look for the next tchochke you need to improve your base.
In other words, and to be blunt, this is better Zero Sievert.
The game is quite colorful and pretty, almost reminiscent of the Zelda remakes for the Switch, and, for a game in a genre that hypes up being hard and unforgiving, it is actually quite easy... at first. Your character is always an absentminded wander away from a lucky enemy getting a hit too many in, and then you'll be sent back to base, having to go back to wherever you were killed to pick up your gear and *then* extract. It is an expertly designed game that knows exactly how far to push it without becoming obnoxious, and it also allows the player to change the difficulty level at any time during a campaign. You can't get locked into any fail state or run out of money, although with a game that has taken off this hard and that offers mod support from day one, I am sure difficulty fiends will get their fix sooner rather than later.
The gunplay also deserves a mention since it's probably the best example of how it takes the Zero Sievert formula and elevates it with slight wrinkles to add depth and nuance: holding your reticle exactly over enemies will cause critical damage and make your shots go over low cover, firing from right next to an obstacle will protect you from incoming fire while allowing you to shoot past it, and you (and enemies) can even shoot through thin enough materials. Stealth also plays an important role, and if you are careful and make good use of items, you can just sneak around without getting into trouble, great for those inevitable corpse runs.
There are a couple of negatives, such as being unable to track missions, the lack of a loadout system, a weirdly lopsided weapon design due to mostly ARs being *way* too good, and what looks like a seeded RNG that more likely than not will massively favor some kinds of items dropping while absolutely leaving you high and dry with others; but honestly, none of those are anything other than an occasional mild inconvenience (that I'm sure mods will address anyway).
Escape from Duckov doesn't pull any flashy features like procedural generation or terrain deformation, it doesn't have particularly good graphics, or crazy complicated controls, or even a particularly good sound design. The most defining characteristic of every single one of its parts is that "it works". But you know what? In a world where every damn launch is either an Early Access with 2 hours worth of content, an $80 AAA release that can barely reach 40 FPS, or a combination of both, playing a no-nonsense, well designed, well paced, well performing, reasonably priced, finished game is a breath of fresh air. Absolutely GOTY material that deserves the success it's finding.
9/10.
