Battlestate Games Studio officially announced today that alpha testing has begun for Escape From Tarkov. Gamers have already claimed eligibility for partcipation by pre-ordering the game at the game's official website.

For players who pre-ordered but weren't admitted to the alpha test yet, there is good news. According to Battlestate Games, further admittance for players eligible for alpha testting will take place in waves. New waves will be formed within one or two day intervals, and they will be conducted in a chronological order. The first players admitted will be the ones who pre-ordered the game, and they will be the first to try it. The avant-garde of the heroes will be greeted by two already familiar raid locations, Factory and Customs. There will also be 15 types of weapons and a wide variety of equipment and supplies.

During the Alpha testing, Battlestate developers are looking to fine-tune the basic mechanics over high loads, explore potential issues, find bugs that are likely to occur in testing in offline and online modes. Player feedback will also be taken into account to optimize the Alpha version of the game, along with improving it's overall performance, fixing potential problems and adding new content.

The online game mode is said to already have most of the game's essential features, including management, trade, medical treatment, weapon modding and ballistics. Additionally, players can check the daylight and weather changes with adjustable weather effects.

The story-driven MMO FPS is due out later on. The game is set in the Russian City of Tarkov, which has been sealed off by roadblocks and sunk into local warfare between private military companies.