Escape from Tarkov on mobile? This awesome game gets close - Arena Breakout Quick First Impressions
PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?
Absolutely play Arena Breakout. This is the best mobile shooter I’ve ever played, and it’s only in beta. The game’s clearly inspired by Escape from Tarkov, with intense tactical shooting and heavy survival elements. But it goes beyond being a poor clone, with some of the best visuals I’ve seen on my phone and intuitive controls that make for incredible, adrenaline-packed combat.
TIME PLAYED
I played Arena Breakout for four hours. The tutorial took me around forty minutes to get through. Each match takes anywhere between fifteen to thirty minutes to finish. I tested both the Tac Ops mode, which allowed me to bring in my own equipment, and the Covert Ops mode, which randomizes gear. I personally enjoyed spending Tac Ops more.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Combat. Arena Breakout provides realistic gunplay that’s straightforward and intuitive. One element that sets it apart from other shooters, though, is the ability to carry weapons and other resources in between matches. When I planned well and thought ahead, I could leave one match with specific guns, plenty of ammo, med kits, and more, setting myself up for success in the next one.
• Tutorial. Arena Breakout isn’t all about shooting and grenade-chucking; it also focuses on survival and looting, which means learning the ropes is important. Thankfully, even in beta, the game’s tutorial was comprehensive enough to teach me everything I needed to know. The game also has a useful guidebook, which was helpful when I inevitably forgot about important mechanics.
• Visuals. Arena Breakout’s graphics are out of this world. These are some of the most detailed and realistic visuals I’ve ever seen in a mobile game. Heck, I’d even say that Arena Breakout’s visual quality beats Call of Duty Mobile and comes pretty close to Apex Legends Mobile.
• Environment. This goes hand-in-hand with the quality of Arena Breakout’s visuals, but I enjoyed the game’s environmental design. I needed to be careful of my movement and surroundings, since it wasn’t always safe to move freely through buildings or bushy areas. I had to learn how to use the environment to my advantage as I played which was a little daunting, but really exciting.
• Sneaking around. I’m not the type of person to go stealth mode in any shooter, but Arena Breakout has got me playing like a ninja. It’s pretty hard to recognize an enemy hidden in cluttered debris and vegetation, so listening for footsteps is paramount. Every time I ran or walked, I would make a sound and risk alerting nearby enemies. I had to learn to play much quieter and more cautiously, which definitely got me sweating and having a lot of fun.
• Performance. Arena Breakout runs smoothly and impressively at max settings on my Samsung Ultra S22. For a game that looks this good and isn’t even out of beta, I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into no issues such as lagging or crashing.
• Character customization. It’s nothing too outstanding, but I really loved that I could give my character a unique look. Hopefully the game will get more hairstyles and face options by the time it launches.
WHAT SUCKS
• Quiet audio. I’m not sure if it’s the earphones I wore while playing, but I sometimes had trouble hearing the action in Arena Breakout. This was especially frustrating when I was listening close for footsteps and trying to discern the direction the sound came from. Even with the volume up, I’d still die occasionally to enemies I couldn’t hear properly and that felt frustrating.
💬 Will you play Arena Breakout or are you going to pass on it? Let us know down below in the comments!
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