‘Escape From Tarkov”s Factory map “bled” into ‘Marauders’ development

Upcoming extraction shooter Marauders was openly inspired by Battlestate Games‘ Escape From Tarkov, but Small Impact Games‘ lead developer Cameron Small says that his love of one particular map – Factory – has “definitely bled” into development.

Speaking to NME, Small shared that he’s played “a lot of Tarkov“, and names the first-person shooter (FPS) as one of the big inspirations for Marauders, along with Star Citizen and Sea Of Thieves.

Touching on Marauders‘ claustrophobic close-range maps, Small revealed that Escape From Tarkov‘s Factory map – which is the game’s smallest and closest-quarters location – may have had a part to play.

“I’m a Factory main, so that’s definitely bled into development,” shared Small, who added that he loves Escape From Tarkov with his “heart and soul” and thinks it’s “the best multiplayer game in existence.”

Though Marauders is set in the stars – complete with spaceship dogfights and dramatic breaching – Small said he wants Escape From Tarkov‘s methodical playstyle to remain important.

“We want to keep that tactical element where you’re listening for audio, taking your time, peeking your corners,” says Small, who plans to “marry” the playstyle with Marauders‘ wider approach to adding more social features.

“You can’t beat Tarkov on its gunplay – it’s some of the best in the world! So we’ll carve out our space in another way,” said Small. “We want to reach out into other spaces like leaderboards, guilds, you know – even the concept of Valorant‘s bronze, copper, gold stuff. I definitely want to reach into that where people can create a pirate guild and have a group stat, and do missions together. Which is some stuff I do like with Sea Of Thieves – so I would like to push that in early access.”

Beyond Marauders‘ Escape From Tarkov influences, fans can expect plenty of unique features from the game when it launches later this year – including “bigger ships, bigger guns,” and the ability to customise ships.

In other gaming news, the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man has been made cheaper in the UK and six other regions, due to being “incorrectly priced” when it was announced.