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WARDOGS
Game
Game2025
Escape from Tarkov
Developer Battlestate Games
Escape from Tarkov is a multiplayer first-person tactical extraction shooter video game developed by Battlestate Games for Microsoft Windows. The game is set in the fictional Norvinsk region in northwestern Russia, where a war is taking place between two private military companies. Players join matches called "raids" in which they fight other players and bots for loot and aim to survive and escape. Version 1.0 for… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
668 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
58
Mixed
325 positive · 233 negative
95% range 54–62%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 325 | 233 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 11 | 10 | 67 |
| Lemmy * | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 2 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
9,979 of 15,830 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
57% recommend · 182 yes, 140 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 322 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (33,190 of 66,953 positive).
Players describe the game as a punishing but addictive experience that they love to hate. [1][2][3] Many reviewers complain about technical issues, including launcher problems, bugs, and cheaters. [4][5][6] Some players feel betrayed by the developer's handling of the Steam launch and broken promises. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
I’m a proud Edge of Darkness owner and have supported EFT since the early beta days. I’ve stuck with it through wipes, bugs, desync, and everything in between including SPT (which I love more than PVP). Today should’ve been a big moment, the launch of 1.0, but instead the launcher throws BadGateway errors, the website is down, and EOD owners are asked to pay £40 on Steam just to open the launcher. No free copy, no …
- [6]
The thin veneer of spit polish they've been putting on the game for the last 5 years to ready it for a "1.0" release isn't going to stop players from being unpaid beta testers, nor cover the vast technical debt and inadequacy that makes the game so frustrating to play. Hackers, server issues, bugs that appear and dissapear with patches, the game is held together with bailing wire. Make no mistake, this is a truly …
- [3]
Tarkov is the only game where i loot for 20 minutes, die in 2 seconds, blame killa for everything, and still queue again like i enjoy pain. Every boss has aimbot, Scavs shoot my legs out of pure disrespect, and my loot disappears faster than my confidence but somehow it's still addictively fun. A beautiful mix of fear, suffering, and one more raid.
- [12]
Escape from Tarkov – 10/10 Would Suffer Again Escape from Tarkov is not a game. It’s a psychological endurance test disguised as a military shooter, designed to answer one question: how much emotional damage can a human take before uninstalling at 3am? You spawn in with a plan. A solid plan. You watched a YouTube guide, you brought the right ammo, you even insured your gear like a responsible adult. Thirty seconds …
- [1]
this game stomps on my nuts but i cant stop coming back and loving it
Summarised from 34 of the 423 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
57% of the 322 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Escape from Tarkov. The complaint that keeps coming up: frequent technical issues and server problems. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
In a 2018 preview of the closed beta, Heather Alexandra commented: "Tarkov is punishing, but there's a lot of fun to be found in mastering its complexities and slowly becoming a hardened mercenary." In PC Gamer, Steven Messner described the game as unearthing "a new vein of potential for online shooters", and commented positively on the way the game's systems lead players to value their equipment and recall stories about how they were acquired. Messner also emphasized that the survival elements and high difficulty level turn every win into an achievement and every loss into a lesson.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 668 · most liked firstValve should change their policy over third party launchers, because every game can put this horrible ones like this game, that can't handle players, then you try to login for over 2 hours and can't ask for refund....
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →See edits below - First impression - - Spend €110 on the Prepare for Escape Edition + the PVE DLC - Opens the game - Need to create an account - Open website to create an account - Website maintenance - Wait multiple hours - Opens the game - Need to create an account - Open website to create an account - Website maintenance - Wait multiple hours - Opens the game - Need to create an account - Open website to create an account - Creates an account - E-mail verification required - Got no E-mail…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let me preface by saying: If you are good with ignoring issues in the games you play, then this will easily be one of the best tactical shooters you could every play, but my god, the issues in this game are very difficult to ignore. I want to love this game, I really do, but given this game's development history, I would never recommend ANYONE play it To be clear: this is not my first time playing the game. I have around 2500-3000 hours across both of my Tarkov accounts. To that, you may ask:…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’m a proud Edge of Darkness owner and have supported EFT since the early beta days. I’ve stuck with it through wipes, bugs, desync, and everything in between including SPT (which I love more than PVP). Today should’ve been a big moment, the launch of 1.0, but instead the launcher throws BadGateway errors, the website is down, and EOD owners are asked to pay £40 on Steam just to open the launcher. No free copy, no acknowledgement of years of support. It feels rough. Honestly, it feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Escape from Tarkov is not a game. It is a cosmic punishment sent by indifferent gods to remind humanity of its insignificance. Booting it up is like willingly inserting your face into a malfunctioning wood chipper. Nothing makes sense. Hit registration behaves completely random.The sound doesn't work, everyone moves absolutely silently. Bosses and Scavs walk through doors like they don't exist. Players are plunged into despair the moment another server error occurs. Every raid is a dissertation…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ten years of development, ten years of controversy surrounding this game. We've all heard about the Tarkov support and the memes surrounding it. And then there were the times they tried to sell people another fat $160 edition. Even if you haven't played the game, you've all heard about these problems. Nikita Buyanov once again takes the stage before the game's release and assures us that everything will be fine, just support us. He's done this many times before, and all his words were…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The thin veneer of spit polish they've been putting on the game for the last 5 years to ready it for a "1.0" release isn't going to stop players from being unpaid beta testers, nor cover the vast technical debt and inadequacy that makes the game so frustrating to play. Hackers, server issues, bugs that appear and dissapear with patches, the game is held together with bailing wire. Make no mistake, this is a truly impressive game with a breadth and depth of content like no other. It is also…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Congratulations on the release, but I really hate your attitude towards users. Like: The game concept: This is "hardcore". No other game gives you such a shocking desire to make it out alive. The game experience: Very detailed gun customization, the thrill of finding rare items, and the excitement and rewards of beating strong players. This experience was unique to this game (although many similar games have come out recently). Dislike: Matching wait times are too long. The controls…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the most premium pieces of launcher software I have ever purchased. The UI features a distinct, early-2000s industrial aesthetic, though the color palette seems locked on a perpetual loop of "Error Red" and "Maintenance Grey."It lacks basic quality-of-life features, such as legible error codes, a functioning update progress bar, and the ability to launch the software it was designed for. I have received numerous comments insisting there is an actual "game" hidden behind the launcher's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →EOD and Unheard edition owners should've gotten the game on steam for free. SO MANY other indie games have done this in the past. And in the past you would get a steam key with physical copies of games 15 years ago! The game still feels like it is in a beta state. So many bugs that have yet to be patched years after discovery, poor optimization on Streets of Tarkov, and balancing choices that leaves much to be desired. As it stands with the sheer prevalence of cheaters in PvP, PvE and the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beta testers should've have gotten the steam version for free just as Nikita originally promised. Edit: mainly leaving a negative review because I lost an EOD account when my password was suddenly "incorrect". Tried resetting my password but was neve receiving the email from BSG. Then I magically get an email that my account is banned for cheating like WTF? Stopped playing for a month but the crippling addiction caught up and bought another EOD. Then they released unheard edition when EOD was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thousands of hours spent on this game. I've been playing since pre-alpha test state--I remember when Kivers (the first helmet in the game) were introduced--and I've 100% multiple wipes over the last decade. Here's what Escape From Tarkov has taught me about gaming: Streamers absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ruin video games when devs listen to them and devs should ignore them entirely. RIP Tarkov. Turn off Twitch.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've got 4000 hours in PvP. After PvE came into existence with the Unheard Edition fiasco, my caveman brain decided it's a good idea to spend more money and waste 1000 additional hours into this addictive garbage. I'm aware of BSG's behaviour and I know what I'm talking about very well. This is not a game. It's a scam. Allow me to explain. 1. It's a SaaS, but it's not subscription based. It has an upfront cost. 2. You don't play this game, because you don't have any control, even in the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game. Really enjoy the PVE. But pray to god you never need to talk to any support team in this game, or the moderation in the discord. Because no matter how valid your problem is, or how politely you try to word it. You'll be laughed out of the server and timed out by the staff. Submitted a report ticket, my response was along the lines of "We're sorry about your lack of ability to play the game correctly." Edit: Just got called a brain dead troglodyte by one of the BSG crew in their…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot recommend Tarkov not because of the beauty and complexity of the game itself but because of the devs' agenda and how they treat their playerbase. First of all, their most loyal playerbase who bought the game years and years ago got greeted with a big middle finger with the Steam release, not receiving a free Steam key and having to repurchase the game again to keep track of Steam's features. Many games do it and it's not really a big fuss. A personal example would be Guild Wars 2,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---PLEASE READ WHEN BUYING TO SAVE YOURSELF THE DOOM AND DESPAIR--- This game along with its launcher, website, and profile system was cobbled together by a pack of cavemen, and published to Steam with catastrophic issues. After 365 hours and hundreds of painstaking raids, all of my progress was irreversably erased by Battlestate Games critical oversights. Here's the rundown: When buying this game on Steam, it creates a 'ghost' BSG account which you MUST "sign in with Steam" with. Without…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game stomps on my nuts but i cant stop coming back and loving it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →UPDATE AS OF 8/6/2026 at the bottom After 4k hours of playing this game since 2023 I got false banned on the 1st of June. After a month now of fighting to get this fixed I am just about at my limit. I poured my heart and soul into this game and this community, I bought it again on steam just to have my achievements and hours show on my steam account. I have gone to conventions in cosplay of Killa, I have been an active community member on Twitch and Reddit. To be so belittled and ignored by…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great hardcore experience, it already starts with trying to launch the game - 10/10 - Supplementary remark: First I hated everything about its launch, now this is my cozy game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is still a piece of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, i have been playing for more than 7 years now... HOW THE ♥♥♥♥ YOU CLOWNS CAN RELEASE THIS GAME WITH THE SAME ISSUES FROM WIPE TO WIPE?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't try to refund the game or their company will permanently ban you... which I did not know. and i've tried to contact their support through email because that is the only way to even get a message through to them and it has been days without getting even a response. ridiculous company
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR Don't buy this game on Steam - or if you do, make a BSG account first and link your steam account immediately. Or just stick to buying from BSG directly. Or just don't buy it at all! Hundreds if not thousands of Steam players cannot play the game anymore or have had their character erased completely. EDIT: 2026-01-10 First of all, i was gifted this game to play with friends and wouldn't waste my money on it. Second: I write this negative review hoping it will save other players from…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I heard this game was difficult, but I had no idea it was THIS difficult. I haven't even been able to get past the first level--the BSG launcher.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Play this game only if you truly hate yourself and your life. There are more cheaters in Tarkov than in CS2 at 30K+ Premier Rating. Another great game, ruined by cheaters.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beware of scammer like practices from the developers I purchased the Edge of Darkness edition (the highest-tier version at the time) back in 2021 for around equivalent $100 USD. At the time, I was living in Ukraine and bought the RU/CIS version so I could play with friends. For about a year, everything worked fine - Ukraine was treated as part of the CIS region by the developers, and there were no restrictions. However, after the 2022 Russian invasion, the developers reclassified Ukraine as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →playing this game is like having attachment issues and an abusive partner
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Trash. The game is 10 years old and I haven't seen worse optimization. 64 GB of RAM is recommended lol P.S And I have good hardware. 32 RAM, SSD, RTX 3080ti and Ryzen 9 3900. But Im not ready to play on low settings for the sake of 60 fps and waiting 5+ minutes of searching. The game is truly in terrible shape. Thats a fact. There is nothing more stupid than defending the laziness and incompetence of developers.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wrapping my balls in copper wire and climbing onto a power line would be a more enjoyable experience than playing this game 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →50$ for the base game and another $30 just to play pve.. I bought the game to play PVE and they put it behind a paywall that ONLY unlocks PVE. you get nothing else for an additional $30. greedy devs !
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got Banned for no reason after about an hour of gameplay while i was afk... never got a precise reason for the ban, i just know that its non an anti cheat ban as Im not banned by Battele Eye and i simply don't even use something like colorfilter in the GPU driver or any other way to gain an advantage as it would ruin the spirit of multiplayer games. And im pretty sure that Im not a Bot ;) BSG support wont help via ticket and when i asked for help on the tarkov community forum i got banned…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tarkov is the only game where i loot for 20 minutes, die in 2 seconds, blame killa for everything, and still queue again like i enjoy pain. Every boss has aimbot, Scavs shoot my legs out of pure disrespect, and my loot disappears faster than my confidence but somehow it's still addictively fun. A beautiful mix of fear, suffering, and one more raid.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →--- **– New Player Experience (20 Hours) –** **Pros:** 1. Tarkov is a very addictive, atmospheric, and immersive game. What makes it different from other extraction shooters is that Tarkov has a unique vibe that others don’t have. 2. In Tarkov, you feel like you’re being watched all the time. The maps feel like they are part of a bigger world. 3. The gunfights are extremely intense. Every second you spend in a raid feels scary. 4. Unlike other extraction shooters, your mind always wants…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1. Open the game 2. Gear up 3. Get into raid 4. Get "Head/eyes" from a guy you didn't even see. 5. Break your monitor 6. Close the game 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its Tarkov. You either love it or hate it. I LOVE it. Play this at the worst point in your life and it makes you realize life isn't all that bad
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its been over 4 hours of me trying to log in, this is not a "gaming experience" this is hell. if this happens every wipe then why not fix it? the game is not free, you have the money to fix it!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →played the game for 2000 hours across multiple wipes since 2021 and im disappointed that the long awaited and incredibly hyped up 1.0 full release basically addresses none of the game ruining problems that have plagued tarkov for years at this point. As much as i love this game and will probably continue to play it (although nowhere near as much as i have historically) i cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone thinking of getting into it because of its "full steam release". The level of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly like the game a lot, but waiting 15 minutes for 1 raid then the game crashing makes the game unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a bad rep for allowing cheating, and I took it as people just venting. But in this case, it's completely warranted. I was dumb and bought it first before doing research and learning it's upwards of 60% of lobbies and they don't even ban cheaters right away. They wait 3 months to arguably allow them to get their money out of the cheats, then do a large ban wave and sell large batches of keys at the same time (how ironic). Basically taking their cut from everyone who made thousands…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a long time EFT fan and a returning player to the 1.0 release and after about 70 hours in this full release I literally can not bare to force myself to have fun while playing this game anymore. The decisions BSG has made to artificially increase playtime and "difficulty" has taken all the fun away from this game. Early game is fun, learning the mechanics and seeing all the loot that the game has to offer. But once the rose tinted glasses are removed about 10 hours in you realize how…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →-Seeing Tarkov now available on Stream = Hyped -PreOrder The Game -Launch The Game First Day -Error -Server down -6 hour later launch Again Server down -Get to Play 24hour later -Get in The Game Realize this Game optimization is a Level of Disgusting potato in a trash piles -After Matching for 20minute finally get to play -Get slam by a Try Hard Player with Life time worth of experience in First Raid -Second Raid Got Fps Spike and max at 50Fps while my CPU and GPU run at less than 25%…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →BSG is one of the scummiest gaming companies, do not buy any of their products: don't make my mistake Base game if 50 usd, pve expansion on top of it another 30 usd. They killed SPT because they simply do not know how to make a good single-player experience. The game itself runs like trash, it needs you to offload part of your computing to a server for some maps because of how bad they would otherwise run, but do not worry you can spend even more money on battlepasses and their godawful…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I Came Back… and Somehow It’s Even Worse I played Escape from Tarkov about 2–3 years ago and quit back then because the amount of cheaters was just insane. You literally couldn’t play the game normally. Moving slowly, being quiet, playing tactically, none of that mattered when someone with cheats sees you through walls and drops a grenade on your head with perfect precision while you’re crouch-walking behind a building. It felt ridiculous, frustrating, and honestly just mentally draining. For…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As an ex-PVP player, I only play PVE now. It's a peaceful life, as they say; At least, as peaceful as Tarkov can be. The game has its flaws and AI can be as amazing as it can be horrendous but no other game has that special vibe Tarkov has. If you have a job and touch grass from time to time, PVE is the way to go. No tryhards, no cheaters and no pressure. Wanna try PVP? As far as gaming is concerned, you'll never know what true pain is until you try Tarkov PVP. Good luck, you'll need…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A beautiful game where you spend 20 minutes gearing up, 10 minutes loading in, and 0.7 seconds dying to a guy you never saw. Perfect for people who enjoy donating their hard-earned gear to strangers and calling it “gameplay.” Highly recommended if you love stress, darkness, and the constant sound of your own character wheezing like a Victorian child.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nikita's game and Nikita only. He does what pleases him, instead of listening to player feedbacks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy this game through Steam. 40hrs and then my account got suddenly shows as I did not buy the game. Steam support was zero help, and said I had to go through BSG. BSG support has been slow to respond and zero help so now I have a $50 game I bought but to play I have to buy again and have been unable to play for 2 months now.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game will kick your ass. Have played since 2017. Love the game dearly. But it's not user friendly or new player friendly what so ever. Nothing quite scratches an itch like Tarkov does. Ever wanted to taste the barrel of a .45? Then this the game for you. Even with all the flaws. It's my favorite game that we all love to hate.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Great game, but giving it a thumbs down until the developers click the checkbox to enable Proton anti-cheat support."
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →With over 7,000 hours of playtime, I’ve gone thru every stage of this game and even bought it on this platform. At first, I loved it. The idea of a hardcore shooter with an impressive level of detail and realism hooked me. BUT… If you get the bright idea to dive into Escape from Tarkov, prepare for a digital hell. This game, which in theory offers a realistic and addictive experience, is completely ruined by a plague of cheaters that turns the “escape” into more of a “fading of patience.”…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Escape from Tarkov – 10/10 Would Suffer Again Escape from Tarkov is not a game. It’s a psychological endurance test disguised as a military shooter, designed to answer one question: how much emotional damage can a human take before uninstalling at 3am? You spawn in with a plan. A solid plan. You watched a YouTube guide, you brought the right ammo, you even insured your gear like a responsible adult. Thirty seconds later, you’re dead to a man named xX_PUTINSH0TS_Xx who heard you blink from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →READ BEFORE BUYING. Boy I hope you didn't make an account for Tarkov first, otherwise you're screwed. I enjoyed Tarkov while I could but I am forcefully locked out of the game due to what they do for Steam Users. Basically, if you are playing this game on Steam for the first time, It automatically links your Steam to an account known as a "Steam Citizen Account" that has no E-Mail or no password attached to it so you literally can't sign into it if you get logged out. And if you try…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tarkov is widely considered to be the first extraction shooter and within the genre it helped create it offers 'highs' and a level of depth that no other extraction shooter can match. However, Tarkov also has significantly more 'lows' than pretty much any other game. After years of broken promises, the game is still a technical mess, with poor performance, abysmal audio, rampant cheaters, bugs, glitches, poor AI and questionable design decisions that are done to punish the player as much as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →best and worst game ever. no other game will make you feel like tarkov when you win or lose.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can really feel how sad they are that Steam game purchases can't be made through Xsolla... The addition of the "Streets of Tarkov" map evoked far more emotion than this release and its "over 1000 fixes and improvements"... Feels like it is not a release, this is a send-off into oblivion …
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite its problems, there is simply no game out there which gives you the same thrill as Tarkov If you like hardcore games, then this is your game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played about 3000 hours of Escape from Tarkov and maybe I am jaded but I love it. This is my favorite game of all time and will put thousands more hours in it. While it obviously has its issues, for me, it is worth it. Tarkov is the most immersive game I have ever played. I love the grind of the quests and the thill of finding rare loot. No other game gets my adrenaline pumping where I am shaking after a big raid like Tarkov. No other game last leaves me devastated after a failure like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →unfair, buggy, sus accounts, pure pain... best weapon/attachment system ever, most realistic guns I've ever seen in a game. Satisfying animations and immersive atmosphere, mil-sim with arcade/loot/boss elements hardest quests ever created, stupid hard to learn the game, addictive AF and killing players is the most rewarding feeling ever in a video game probably not the game for you if you have a healthy home life
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to write a real review about the game here. BTW the cheater problem isn't as bad as people make it out to be, I rarely run into them. You will not find a more detail oriented game on the market, probably ever. Everything from the map detail to the gun modification detail is incredibly fun to mess around with, you could spend hours in your stash playing around with all the different builds you can make. That being said, this is also a very punishing game, if you die in a raid you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is so great, the best FPS period, but the main issues keep getting worse: cheaters, poor servers, bugs, bad optimization, and deliberate bad game changes decisions, but players keep their hopes pinned on Nikita's lies. Sometimes the level of difficulty is absurd, it takes months on average to finish the main story, all repetitive boring quests, when I killed 2 priests the game bugged and I had to do it again; the last mission alone took me 1 month, they made it so impossible to play,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is absolute ♥♥♥♥, Cheater infested cesspool. STAY AWAY. The Devs only ban the cheaters just enough so they can still play if they buy a new account. The devs do a "Ban wave" on day, then 2 days later do a "Sale" for 20% off. MAKE IT MAKE SENCE NIKITA, Seems like you have a nice scam racket going on over there! From one gamer to another, just don't bother with this garbage. The game could be VERY good and cool, but with every new update comes new bugs. With every new bit of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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