If it's a bad understanding then why did you just describe it the same way. The loop is
>Start with nothing
>Slowly aquire stuff over wins/losses
>Fill your vault with nice things
>Take out nice things to get more nice things
After that all that's left is to kill players or quit until reset. "The outcome of a system is it's purpose." If ES endgame all ends like this then it's not a flaw of the genre but a core principle. This is even true In PvE focused ones like Arc Raiders, which I capped out several seasons the same way.
These are all things that definitely happen inside an extraction shooter, but they are not the limits of it.
I use Tarkov a lot because it seems to do the best job of it, despite all its other problems.
What makes Tarkov compelling is that the actual raid itself is only one part of the loop. People don't realize that the gameplay starts before you even start a raid.
One of the very first quests in Escape from Tarkov is the Bronze Pocket Watch task. A trader tells you something like "there’s a bronze pocket watch that belonged to a truck driver, the key is in room 214 of the dorms on Customs, go get it."
That’s all the information you’re given.
As a brand new player, you don’t know where Dorms are, where the truck is parked, what the map layout looks like, where players usually travel, or even how extraction works. So the first phase of the mission isn’t combat at all instead it’s all reconnaissance and operational planning.
You spend hours building situational awareness:
-learning the terrain
-identifying landmarks
-understanding infiltration and extraction routes
-figuring out where hostile players congregate
-memorizing chokepoints
-studying timing and map flow
Only once you’ve built that mental map can you begin planning the operation itself.
Then the logistical questions start:
-Do you run the mission at night for concealment, or during the day for visibility?
-What weapon platform fits the objective?
-What ammunition can realistically penetrate the armor you expect to encounter?
-How much food, water, medicine, and spare ammunition can you afford to carry?
-What route gives you the highest probability of survival based on your spawn point and extracts?
And even then, success is not guaranteed. Most players fail repeatedly. Every death becomes a new after action intel report. You reassess routes, alter equipment, change pacing, adapt to enemy behavior, and try again.
Sometimes you survive through careful planning, Sometimes through improvisation, Sometimes through pure luck. And sometimes the route to extraction is carved through the bodies of everyone who stood in your way.
What’s important is that this is a
day one task, this could take hours and hours to complete. Later tasks expand this idea even further. The objectives gain more moving parts, the stakes increase, and logistical requirements become major obstacles in themselves. There are missions you simply cannot attempt yet because you lack the operational capacity.
You may need:
-rare keys to access secure areas
-specialized clothing or disguises
-large amounts of currency to pay for services or equipment
-enough medical supplies and ammunition to sustain multiple failed attempts
-reputation with traders to acquire proper gear
-an entire stockpile prepared before the operation is even viable
So the “game” is not merely the firefight or scooping up loot and heading to exfil. The firefight is the execution phase, the looting is the preparation phase. The whole experience is s the preparation, reconnaissance, logistics, adaptation, and risk management that lead up to it.
The best Tarkov raids are the ones where you have the feeling that you are planning and conducting an actual operation rather than simply queuing for another match. Stacking bodies and finding loot is not the point, it's all in service of the missions you are being given.
Marathon instead centers the PvP as the entire experience closer to what you describe, rather than it be teh part of a broader operational loop. From the last video they put out this seems intentional. Their goal is for most players to reach complete progression before each reset.
There is no pre planning or logistic build ups in Marathon. The gameplay loop reduces it down to pvp at the nearest poi, repeatedly, until one team is left standing to loot the map of it's vendor trash.
It's fucked, big time.
This is the great fucking shame of it.
Every Runner has a role and a purpose within a team. Every piece of equipment can shape how that runner preforms that role.
Not once in all the hours I've been playing this has anyone ever made a plan and formed a team around any of this stuff. Every one just picks the shit they like and they hit go.
