Really really want to get into this game, but the only thing that is preventing me from purchasing it is being overwhelmed by the pre-game setup and loadouts and the hideout, it just seems pretty daunting to me.
You can just choose to fully ignore hideout, especially during your first reset. Sure it gives you crafting options, some stats boosts etc., but you can "complete the game" without ever putting time into the hideout. For e.g. person who maintains best ammo charts for the game and plays game a lot rarely if ever pushes hideout past rank 1 stations, which are fast to get. Once you are more comfortable with core basics then you can look deeper into progressing hideout stuff.
That said game can be and is daunting to get into because amount of the systems it has, and how little it holds your hand at any point. Community maintained resources like
Wiki,
AmmoChart and
MapGenie are great tools for figuring out stuff like how to complete tasks (this games quests), layouts of the maps etc. to make it bit easier for those aspects of the game. Then you have YouTube as great resource as Tarkov beginner, channels by Gigabeef, Pestily, SheefGG etc. have a lot good stuff for beginners. SheefGG has good video on setting up keybinds, gives good baseline to work with.
Does it sound like you need to to do quite a bit research to get going? Yes, because you should. While knowing X and executing X are very different things that knowledge gives you edge.
If you end up getting a game start small. Your first map should and will be Ground Zero as it's "beginner map". You can just go for something basic like "Loot something, kill a scav or player, loot the kill, and extract" to get your feet wet before even starting on tasks. Then "I have task X so I look it up from Wiki and will complete it, and extract".
When it comes to the gear I wouldn't worry too much about depth of it at the beginning. Is it now nice to have throat protection on your armor? Yes. Should you really sweat it at level 1 with 2 hours played? Not really. You get some gear to start with, and from that you can start with basic headset, helmet, armor vest, rig for mags, backpack and rifle (AK, MP5, M4..).
With weapons, mags and ammo you need to know which weapon takes what mags and ammo, but at the beginning as e.g. USEC you most likely have M4, one type of M4's mags and one type of M4 ammo available to you. Also you need to have 1x2 slot free in your rig so when you reload your mag doesn't get dropped onto the ground, or if you bring extra rounds of ammo (aka not in the mag) make sure to put those into your secure container.
That all said I'm always open to answering questions about the game even if I don't have
that many hours in it (hundreds vs. thousands of true veterans), and could e.g. use Discord to go through stuff if you end up getting the game.
Tarkov is a lot to learn, with high highs and very low lows.
