A Whole New Gaming Genre Is Emerging – What Are EFT Likes?

Anyone who has been on gaming forums and communities in the recent past or has been on Twitter a lot may have stumbled across the term EFT Likes. A term that is becoming increasingly popular and actually describes a new genre in the gaming world. But what are EFT-Like games and what does Escape from Tarkov have to do with them?

How does a genre term come about? There are genres in the gaming industry that owe their name to a great pioneer.

These are mostly games or game series that stood out with an innovative or unique approach and encouraged other development studios to follow the principle of the respective pioneer, adapt the idea and create their own game that goes in the same direction.

As a result, more and more games are being created around the credo, and the industry is creating a new term to encapsulate all of these titles. Well-known examples of the development of such terms are the soulslike video game genres that are common today, or the famous roguelikes (or roguelites).

The New Gaming Genre EFT Likes

Where did the term EFT-Like come from? The abbreviation “EFT” stands for Escape from Tarkov – a popular hardcore shooter from Battlestate Games.

The term EFT-Like has emerged in social networks over the past few months and describes games that use the principle of Escape from Tarkov and that, based on the shooter model, take certain criteria from various well-known genres and combine them in new ways.

An example of a game apparently inspired by EFT: German The Cycle: Frontier:

Features of Escape From Tarkov

This distinguishes Escape from Tarkov: Escape from Tarkov has several features that have made the title so popular with fans. In addition to the realism of the hardcore shooter, the game principle is particularly striking as a key aspect of the game and as an identification feature.

They serve as unique selling points of the shooter and partly as a model for existing and future EFT likes.

However, as with roguelikes, there is also a kind of list of features and criteria for EFT likes that a game must meet in order to be allowed to belong to the genre.

EFT-Like: Loot extraction mixed with PvEvP

What does a game need to include to be considered an EFT Like? Escape from Tarkov inspired games have some game mechanics that are important in each round played.

MeinMMO shows you 5 crucial aspects that define the EFT-Like genre founded by Escape from Tarkov:

• PvEvP Shooter: You are on a map and are playing against both NPCs and other players at the same time.
• loot: Collecting weapons and equipment is one of the primary goals. You want to find or craft better weapons, medicine, resources and much more.
• Raid Matchmaking: You don’t play short deathmatch rounds or other well-known modes of the different shooters. The match you start is a raid. Similar to MMORPGs, your goal in raids is to end a match with better loot and goods than you had in your inventory or storage before the raid.
• Extraction: The recovery of loot or mission items is the decisive factor that determines whether your raid was successful or not. You have to reach a starting point, a rescue ship or similar, with which you free your loot and yourself from the dangerous area and end the raid.
• Missions: In order to improve your equipment and increase your account balance or level, there are missions that you can complete. These can, for example, require the elimination of NPCs or other players and must be done independently by the players in an ongoing raid.

EFT-like games incorporate most of these core mechanics without belonging to a related genre such as battle royale or looter shooters, survival games, or MMORPGs.

If you haven’t played Escape from Tarkov for long and are overwhelmed by the many different mechanics, we at MeinMMO have 13 tips for you that will make it easier for you to get started with the hardcore shooter.

Other genre names: Extraction Shooter and EFT Lite

What are the names of the genre? still? Another term that has been circulating for the genre recently is extraction shooter. This name is based on the mechanics that you always have to extract the loot collected in a raid and the character you embodied from the danger area at the end of a round.

Since Escape from Tarkov relies to a large extent on hardcore gameplay in addition to the extraction mechanics, a gradation of the individual degrees of hardness of the respective game could also be made in the future.

An example of a gradation that could be undertaken within the genre would be EFT-Lite. This would mean games that implement the gameplay of Escape from Tarkov without hardcore elements or at least with easier gameplay. EFT likes would then be games that combine the extraction and loot mechanics with hardcore gameplay and aim for realism and high difficulty.

The creators of Escape from Tarkov themselves are already planning a new standalone game:

Games coming straight from Battlestate Games and following in the footsteps of Escape from Tarkov could be named EFT-Borne, as is the case with FromSoftware’s Action-RPGs (Soulsborne).

Do you find EFT Likes interesting and what do you think of the concept of Escape from Tarkov? Can the principle captivate you in front of the screen?

Also check out our list of the 15 best multiplayer shooters of 2022 if you want to discover more exciting shooters.