Escape From Tarkov, a highly anticipated extraction shooter developed and published by Battlestate Games, is planned to have a full release later this year on November 15th. However, a closed beta for the game has been out since July 28, 2017, so the game has been in the works for a while. Though I personally have not played myself, I can imagine the hype has been building for the game for those lucky enough to play and those anticipating its full release. With only a few weeks left, I hope it lives up to the expectations of the fanbase, filled with intense combat, strategic planning and loot galore to fully customize your builds and loadouts.
But what if it had ducks?
As the name suggests, Escape From Duckov is a parody take on the Escape From Tarkov game. Developed by Team Soda and published by bilibili, a full release was on October 16, 2025. Escape From Duckov is a top-down extraction shooter in a world of loot, violence and cute little ducks. With five unique maps, tons of different enemies, weather effects, a day/night system and seven different difficulty settings, this single player adventure will entertain and challenge you for each raid you attempt. Starting as an ordinary duck, you must find loot to develop your duck, weapons and bunker to venture out a little bit further each time as you complete quests for fellow ducks. So, ready your ducks because its time to discuss Escape From Duckov!
The Story: Duck Customization in Duckov
The story begins with a shot of the world: Duckov. Duckov teeters on the edge of collapse as cataclysmic events ravage the region, forcing evacuation on most of the population. We did not. After completing a dream sequence (I’ll get back to this), we awake in a prison with a voice speaking to us through loudspeakers. We are unaware of who this voice belongs to, but they direct us through our escape of the prison, leading us to a bunker. They teach us some of the basic ropes, such as movement, looting and combat and eventually we reach the bunker and meet the voice: Jeff. Jeff is an older duck who serves as our guide throughout our adventure. He teaches us about the many facilities we can add to the bunker, gives us our main story quests to accomplish and wishes us luck every time we leave.
The story beyond this has so far proven to be a slow grind to piece together. There are things to read and more ducks to meet out in the world, but most of them only have a line or two of dialogue. Usually, they have nothing to do with the overall story and want to talk about fishing or request us to retrieve a “balanced” diet. Obviously, I have questions. A lot of them. But my hope is that the further you proceed with the game, more story will be revealed to you, such as the cause of the collapse or what we can do to save the world or how will we evacuate. Ultimately, I do wish there was a bit more story early on, but I’ll speak more on this a bit later.
During the dream sequence, you get to do one of my favorite things in video games: Character customization! For a game where all the characters are ducks, the customization is surprisingly detailed. There’s different scales to change size and positions, and different faces, feathers and feet. You can come up with some wacky looking ducks. I spent probably too much time playing around with the customization, quacking up over some of the ducks I was able to create. If this isn’t your cup of tea though, you are able to say you are the “yellow duck” which will give you a preset character to go with. Personally, I believe my duck turned out pretty cute.
The Combat & Loot: Guns, Crafting and the Miscellaneous
After completing the tutorial, we receive a basic firearm, ammo, and a melee weapon to help us survive. Proceeding on the first raid, we quickly learn that field of vision and sound play important roles in this game. Enemies remain hidden unless they enter the duck’s direct line of sight, making visibility a tactical challenge throughout the game. However, enemies pace around and their footsteps can be heard. Once you hear a quack though, they have either spotted you or sometimes another enemy. For example, wolves roam around in specific parts and will sometimes attack enemy ducks. This gives you an opportunity to clean up or make a break for it while they fight. Different sounds of footsteps and quacks belong to different enemy types. Its beneficial to try and remember what goes with what to know whose nearby.
Obviously, combat is not entirely unavoidable, so it’s important to know how to fight. The game features plenty of different weapons, from shotguns, snipers, rifles, bows, knives, shovels, dynamite, etc. Different weapons feature different stats which can be viewed by hovering over them with the mouse. Ranged weapons will display different reticles as well, which might change how aiming might look on the screen. Ranged weapons will also require ammo, so make sure you have the correct set of ammo on you. Some weapons support attachments like extended magazines, laser sights, or suppressors. This allows players to customize their loadouts for improved accuracy, capacity, or stealth. Personally, I prefer the stealth approach with a bow, and a shotgun in case things get out of hand.
Loot plays a key role in this game. Loot can be a wide range of items, such as healing items for your hotbar, other weapons, ammo and armor, and consumables such as food and beverages. Many loot items will be crafting materials and upgrade currency that are stackable, such as wood, bolts, fading feathers and cash. Other loot items include a few “miscellaneous” things that are not stackable but rare to find, such as keys, cups, and IV bags. With all these different types of loot, it can be very easy to get bogged down without proper inventory management. I’m that player that loots everything in games. So I had to make frequent trips to the bunker to store my loot in the warehouse. Eventually, I realized that I needed to start planning my raids, taking note of what items I should look for and what I can leave behind.
The Gameplay Beyond Combat: Upgrades & Stats
You can upgrade almost everything in the game—guns, gear, skills, and more. You can upgrade your duck’s ranged capabilities and melee prowess. Upgrading the warehouse storage space, the overall bunker with different facilities to add, and more are also possible. Along with crafting and quests, there’s certainly a ton to try and keep track of. I almost felt the need to play with a pen and paper just to take notes. So far I believe I’ve encountered four different skill trees, each with their own purpose. As mentioned, some items are rare to come across, but are necessary for some quests and facility crafting. It also doesn’t help that if you die out during a raid, you lose all of your inventory and must retrieve it without dying again, or else it will be lost “forever” (you can restore an earlier save if you want to try again though).
There are also a ton of gameplay mechanics that I haven’t even touched on yet. There’s fishing which I haven’t tried yet. Fading feathers are used to purchase totems, which are items that provide great boosts to stats. The amount of stats in this game is insane. Without a sort of in-game guide to help us out, it’s a tad much to try and keep track of. Hunger and thirst are important to keep track of, but I’m not too sure what they do when empty. Different consumables apply unique effects, though I’m unsure of what they mean. The maps seem expansive and are interactable. There’s bridges to build, extraction points for quick travel, mysterious vendors to sell rare items and mini-bosses to challenge. There’s definitely a learning curve here. This may seem daunting for unfamiliar players who really wanted to play a game about ducks.
The Drawbacks: A Ducking Long Grind
The audio and visuals in this game are great. I have no notes in these departments as I feel like both just work. I love the cute ducks, the quacks (though a dedicated quack button feels like a huge miss), and even the little dog that follows us around. The world isn’t the most detailed, but again, it feels fitting and adds to the overall charm.
However, that charm probably won’t keep the player-base interested in the long run. I think this ultimately brings me to the main drawback of Escape From Duckov. It is certainly not lacking in goals to set and work towards completing. However, it does start feeling like a grind to do so. The sheer amount of things you are able to craft or upgrade is yes, a great thing to have. Unfortunately I can see players becoming disinterested overtime.
Since the game is single player, there isn’t that appeal in playing with friends in co-op or competing online in PVP. Don’t get me wrong, the single player aspect isn’t a drawback for me personally. Single player tends to be my preference. However, I worry that without multiplayer, the game might have a burst of player base (which it seems is currently happening with its peak of 180K concurrent players) followed by a decline overtime as people either grind through and finish the game or get bored. The game requires a grind that may turn off some players. On top of that, there isn’t a replayability factor that I can see of.
The Conclusion: It Has My Interest…For Now
Having just had a full release earlier this month, Escape From Duckov is certainly set to receive future updates. With overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam and modding capabilities, there can hopefully be a bright future for the world of Duckov and all the cute ducks that inhabit it. This is a game that I can see myself continuing to play, spending hours and days on the grind. Though I may get bored in the future or an extremely unfortunate death sets me back a ton of progress, I’m enjoying the game for now and am having a lot of fun.
I think the developers at Team Soda did a great job! I would recommend this to players who enjoy a grind and a challenge. If crafting, looting, questing and cute ducks are your thing, then Escape From Duckov might be the game for you! I’m also glad that Battlestate Games is embracing/promoting the game despite the obvious parody of Escape From Tarkov. I’m eager to see how Duckov holds up after Tarkov launches on November 15th. If you played both, please let me know in the comments how you think the two compare. I am hopeful that the game continues on with its own identity and player-base, and am excited to see what comes next.
Thank you for QUACK reading!
