The Dumbest Mechanic in Tarkov

(Intro)

Tarkov is home to a wide host of mechanics, gimmicks and oddities you wouldn’t know about on your first playthrough unless you were told about them beforehand. Some that make sense within the specific context of this world and game, and some others that are... well honestly, I can’t make heads or tails of them still. And probably the weirdest and out there mechanic that is in the game, revolves around a specific boss and his ability to jam most weapons in the game by just existing. Kollontay, the other boss on Streets next to Kaban, when equipped with his baton, will create this area of effect around him that will jam any and all weapons the player tries to use that can be jammed. Also known as the panic attack. And to be brutally honest, I don’t understand this mechanic; it feels so forced and out of place within the world of Tarkov. So today, we’re going to go over this one mechanic and how across the vast array of things you interact with in EFT, Kollontay and his panic attack mechanic might be the dumbest one to be added into the game. Why it’s in the game, what it adds and really doesn’t add, and how it just really doesn’t make sense in the context of the world we’re playing in. There are already enough obtuse gimmicks and friction in the game; why add something like this in the first place?

(The mechanic broken down)

Breaking down the mechanic itself is relatively simple. Essentially, whenever Kollontay equips his melee weapon, being the police baton, any player’s weapon in his vicinity will begin to jam constantly, no matter how many times you clear the malfunction. What this does, is make most weapons against the boss within close proximity around him useless. Now luckily, there are a handful of weapons that cannot jam due to the nature of their design. The most notable is the PPSH; With a seventy-one drum magazine, this gun can spew ammunition all over the place without any fear of it stopping on you when against Kollontay. But most other weapons don’t have that luxury, which makes fighting him in enclosed spaces reasonably tricky. If you don’t isolate and eliminate him quickly, he will try to pull out the baton and things can get hairy fast. But other than that, the mechanics is straight forward. But now we get to have a conversation about why it’s stupid and doesn’t make any sense within the world of Tarkov.

(Why it feels so weird in this game)

Of all the strange and obtuse things to interact with in this game, nothing is more unusual than dealing with the panic attack debuff from Kollontay. To go from combat ready to constant weapon jams makes me laugh; it really does. How does a military trained operator encounter so many malfunctions with their weapon so rapidly? If anything, Kollontay isn’t even the correct boss for a system like this. If anything, the most appropriate would be obviously Tagilla or even more specifically, his alternate appearance within the labyrinth. That to me is the only boss that is even worth a mechanic so out of place across the whole game. But again, let’s take the immersion out of the equation for a second and talk about the panic attack debuff as a mechanic in a game. Most players already hate malfunctions to begin with; having a random chance at any point past ninth three percent weapon durability for your gun to stop working can be a soul crushing experience. And while personally I see the reasons for it existing and don’t honestly mind it because where are a lot of things you can do to prevent these kinds of circumstances from really happening, the fact that players can still lose gear because of an element of random chance can be toxic. But then, let’s bring the immersion back into the equation; it’s no different than swinging a corner confident you have the jump on someone unsuspecting and then your gun doesn’t work. I can only imagine this has happened before out in the field and having to react fast enough to avoid the counterattack and then fix the jam in real time is impressive. I just wish this interaction within Tarkov was more organic, if that’s the right word. Because the exchange goes from fighting him legitimately, to all of a sudden now he just has this aura, a literal radius around him where guns don’t work. It feels so forced sometimes. Which leads to an important question: is there a way to preserve this kind of mechanic but change how it behaves so it’s healthier for the game and also more counter-able?

(Could it be improved at all?)

The only way I could see something like the panic attack debuff making sense in this game would be to take a page from an old favorite of mine from the Xbox three-sixty era; Ghost Recon Future Soldier (love that game by the way). In Future Soldier, if you were behind a piece of cover and there was someone shooting towards you, your screen would lose some saturation, and you would get this vignette effect that was only applied if you were being hit with suppressing fire. From here, sticking your head out of cover was guaranteed to be a death sentence. So what if Tarkov added some kind of effective suppression effect that applied a debuff that made your character have a chance of misfiring or having some of his actions be slower or sloppy? Again, it’s kind of a stretch to add one mechanic to solve another one that’s so niche in the game, but I’ve always wanted some kind of suppression that actually had detrimental effects on your character. Whether it was healing and reloading was slower, or your ability to shoot back was compromised. And from here, having Kollontay with his RPD makes so much more sense. Now, his focus is about keeping you at bay with his belt-fed machine gun while his guards flank and surprise you from the sides or rear. If he catches you behind cover, he pelts you with rounds and prevents you from retaliating. All the while, applying a debuff similar to the panic attack that hinders your character’s ability to do anything. I know this would kind of a word vomit, but from just a hypothetical perspective, this at least to me, feels so much more interesting as a gameplay mechanic tied to a specific boss. I guess since Kaban also usually has an LMG and is also Kollontay’s brother, he could maybe have this mechanic too. But there is one problem at a time. Again, it’s just an idea, and it’ll never get added, but anything is honestly better than what we currently have. It feels cheap, lazy, uninspired, and makes no sense. And if you don’t know about it, it’ll be a swift ride back to your stash once he’s done with you.

(Outro)

For all the mechanics and interactions Tarkov has across the whole game, Kollontay and his panic attack really has me scratching my head as to why this is in the game in its current state. It doesn’t force the player to make any meaningful choices when fighting the boss; just keep your distance and take him out before he gets to his baton. Which you know, this is the game plan for all the bosses and that’s fair criticism. But for him especially, it just feels strange to me. There’s a lot that could be done to make him interesting; and this is just one idea. I’ll take anything at this point that just allows me to fight back appropriately. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on Kollontay and his panic attack debuff, should it get changed, if so how you would change it and be sure to subscribe for more videos about really wacky and weird things in game’s that don’t really make sense from either a gameplay or immersion perspective and just feel haphazardly thrown in because why not. I hope to see you in future ones.