The Long Dark (2017)

Beat Wintermute story mode on hardest difficulty. I was a little confused in the beginning when it said only so much weight could fit in the plane because I figured everything in my inventory would come. It was not so and I ended up with the first aid kit instead of the food or flare gun. I like this kind of choice but it could have been presented more clearly. None of the 3 optional kits were needed though. After the crash I learned about first aid, sleeping, hypothermia, fire and boiling water. His health bar was so low that he needed to spend hours resting and warming up before leaving the crash site. I slept and boiled a couple tin cans worth of snow before looting the plane and moving on. The next area introduced hunting rabbits with stones, and I hated this so much. There was no crosshair or indicator to tell where the stone would go so it was very frustrating. Aiming down sight made the guy put his left hand out as a kind of sight but that didn't help at all. The only sensible way I found was to approach a bunny, quick save, then load until I hit it. I ate all of the rabbits in that area and this revealed another big flaw; it took about 30 min to cook a rabbit and another 30 for it to burn yet the minimum fast time progression was 1 hr. That meant I had to sit there watching food cook for the entire in game 30 min, or find something else to do outside the game. Absolutely ridiculous. Somehow I had lost my tin can here so by the time I reached the town I was dehydrated, frozen, and dead tired. I went to the old lady's house with the infinite fire and yes this could be the base. Unfortunately it was so ridiculously dark inside that I did not realize there was a kitchen and upstairs. Instead I began looting nearby buildings until I gulped down toilet water and slept outside in a car. I did not like how thirst relied upon cans and cooking pots when you should be able to trade body heat for eating snow, and how you could not sleep outside an actual bed, bedroll or car. That sofa in Granny's house would have been a better sleep than a chilly car. Even the floor next to a fire is better.

I was doing very well on supplies now as I looted the town down to the gas station. Outside at night the visibility was fine but indoors it was pitch dark. I had to use matches to see what I was doing. It was realistic but extremely annoying. I think it fair to require a light source to search containers and find loose loot, but not for basic navigation. Much of being indoors at night was struggling to simply move around with a black screen, especially when there were no windows. It should have shown the basic wall, door and furniture layout. Then I went to the farm and discovered where the wolves like to hang out. The house was locked and a wolf was eating a dead guy. I had my first aggression from a wolf and scared it away by throwing stones. It soon came back with a friend though, and 1 wolf followed me all the way back to base. Maybe that was why one morning I went out to find a dead deer very close to the house. Why thank you mr wolf for your generous gift. I ended up going back to the farm multiple times to loot the guy, make a fire to scare the wolves away while I made some snares at the work bench, later made a rabbut fur hat, and went into the house to kill the convict. I think he would have eventually died anyway with that knife would. Maybe if I used the stuff from my 1st aid kit and spent the effort to get him enough food to survive the weeks it would take for him to be able to do anything on his own. But being in an orange jump suit was enough of a reason to kill him, nevermind how he talked about it being the equivalent of Canadian Alcatraz for the worst of the worst and how he and his cohorts killed the villagers and hurt the ex wife. Shame about no cannibalism and especially about not taking that knife! Then I did the church, got 1 rabbit per snare before they broke, and did the far away bridge. A long cave took me all the way back to the beginning where that very 1st tutorial wolf was no longer eating the deer, so I got more free meat. My 1st death happened soon after just upon entering town when a wolf came out of nowhere and immediately attacked, and I forgot I set the quick time event to hold instead of mash. Not taking the deer hide prevented that wolf from being there. I later used the pry bar to force stuff open for extra loot. I missed a bank key from a dead guy on a steam near the farm which would have given balaclava and ski gloves. I missed a supply cache note in the burned school and did not open the safe at the bank. For the end I spent like 30 minutes real time slowly hauling 60kg of loot to the climbing point only to find out there was a weight limit for the rope. I had no idea what was coming so made some tough decisions about what to drop. I had already used up 1.5 sewing kits fully repairing my clothes. I took all the food, tea and what few prepared mushrooms and rose hips I had left, all the medical supplies except only 1 bottle of anti septic, no water, tools like pot axe prybar and lantern, Jerry can of oil but not the little oil cans, the flare gun and flares, bedroll, extra boots and some extra gloves and head gear. The rope broke so it was the point of no return, but everything found after that could be taken to episode 2.

Episode 2 introduced the rifle. The main quest seemed pointless though since I already had plenty antibiotics and painkillers. Surely that could have saved the trapper. This was another infinite fire base but the location was way in the corner of the map. I stored my excess supplies and headed along the south edge of the map to the train tracks, then to the camp office by the lake, which I decided to use as a base due to its central location. The lake had cabins and ice fishing huts for extra loot which I did later. First I went to the power plant to get the medicine. This was a cool place which felt more like a Fallout dungeon just without enemies. I had a lantern going the entire time since it was dark when I got there. After bringing the meds to the trapper I explored and looted the rest of the map; the 2 lookout towers, logging camp and river area. The wolves were more of a problem here. Whenever possible I skirted around them or let them stalk me to a safe place, but when that was not possible I used the flare gun to scare them away. Just had to remember to load it after each shot because it was not done automatically. I used the rifle to kill 3 because otherwise I would need multiple flares each time I passed by. I killed 2 along the tracks and 1 that followed me up the winding path to a tower. Not letting good meat go to waste and damn these wolves had some weight. Then I found out eating wolf could give parasites, a % chance based on amount of predator meat eaten. I ate enough for 9% chance then ate other stuff until the affliction passed. Unfortunately I keep getting more wolf meat as I followed the tracks into the next bog map. Fell through the ice once. I made it half way along the tracks until finding a train camp. Using a fire barrel there did not scare off the wolves so I had to kill 2 (1 corpse vanished after I loaded and I left the other meat raw in a box). A pack of 3 blocked the tracks further along so I went through the water finding a dead deer. I decided not to explore the rest of this map now, instead following the tracks to the next area. I wanted to avoid killing wolves even more due to this parasite risk. In the next map I drove a wolf into a dead end using a flare shot, then discovered how the Aurora activated electricity and made wolves glow green and be more aggressive. Interesting. I went exploring at night along the edge of the map and had to kill a green wolf because it charged at me immediately rather than the usual stalking. I used the old man's infinite fire to cook but he later left. 2 more wolves were shot just outside the repair yard. I did scare them off by walking up a beam but still needed them dead to progress. There were 2 dead deer around the lake and I made it to the hunting lodge while being stalked. Had to leave some stuff behind and forgot to check the truck outside as I was very quick getting a wolf after me. I laughed when he tried to get past the chain link gate, hehe stupid wolf. Another chased me to the garage where I repaired the spear and had to decide what loot to leave behind. It took 3 trips to get everything back to base, including what I found at the homestead in the south bog area. Then it was back to the bog to get each radio tower, which sucked because I had already been to 2. I got food poisoning, took mushroom tea and slept a few hrs but not enough to fully recover. I figured the walk there would heal the rest but it turned out that only time spent actually sleeping counted for recovery. So I loaded a back up and fully recovered before heading out, fought the bear twice and could not leave the zone. I looked up online, watched a video, revisited all the towers, and did it again with that food poisoned save only to find out I was exiting the zone wrong. Rather than walk into it I had to click like it was a door, so I did that on my good save and did the stealth sequence to kill the bear for good. Unfortunately I lost all the deer and wolf meat I had on me but that could explain why the bear didn't kill him. I died a few times by going the wrong way and messing up the spear once. This whole thing should have been a single spear brace out in the open. It made no sense to stab it during 9 separate charges while being mauled each time. Making an animal charge into a spear to kill itself using its own mass and momentum is a classic archetype tale, but it only works if the beast dies right away without being able to actually reach the man. Here there were times I had to bandage wounds in between bear charges, or just died from not having enough hp. After this I wasted a lot of time hauling loot to the end at the dam only to find out nothing transferred over.

Episode 3 played as the girl. I grabbed the starter stuff and went to the barn, killing 1 wolf with the revolver. It needed a headshot to kill and was overall a little worse than the rifle. I butchered, skinned and cooked it while chopping all the wood I could from the barn, then did 2 more wolves. Since I never got parasites last chapter I was more liberal with eating wolf this time. I then found out I could get back into the house from the basement. The house had infinite fire but I could not use it to cook. The only things I could do were sleep in the beds upstairs (but not the one downstairs where she started off) and destroy 1 table. The old woman was no where so I wonder if I was ever meant to get back inside. The basement had storage, work bench, and plenty of wood to chop but no fire, while the barn had fire but was too cold to be in without. Not the ideal base. Then I explored east to another barn, which had fire, work bench and a truck. The building itself was too cold but inside the truck was warm enough to sleep, and outside had a bear and wolves. I tried to make them infight but they refused to move too close to each other. I continued east to the small town where the community center had a priest with sick people, and infinite fire. Good place to base with plenty of storage though the only spot I could put a bedroll was in the kitchen. Upon leaving I was attacked by a wolf pack, killed 1 and shot up a 2nd while the other 2 fled. I butchered the kill and the 2nd must have come back to bleed out because I suddenly had another dead wolf right outside. While cooking I discovered I could click on something cooking to get the option to skip time until it was ready, fixing 1 of my biggest complaints. I then went along the bottom of the map to hit some side objectives, killing another wolf and finding a wolf coat. Seems like all those wolf pelts I skinned will not be used. Then I went north to the plane crash finding a lot of supplies. I swapped to snow pants, combat pants, wool long John's, 2 thick sweaters and ski gloves. I was not able to bring all the loot as I focused on bringing the survivor. I find it hard to believe that someone survived there out in the cold for days. It was painfully slow carrying her all the way back and I had to fight off another wolf pack. I completely ran out of revolver ammo and switched to the rifle. Then I got the remainder of the survivors and side quests before moving to chapter 4. It was lame how they were all outside with infinite camp fires.

Chapter 4 was at the prison and was similar to my survival game. So much so that I played them concurrently for a little so the area was fresh in my head. The prison layout was slightly different with no back way to the warden office. The infinite fire was outside in front of the main building. I headed east finding some nice stuff, including a rifle, revolver and bow. I shot a moose and learned that approaching it from next to a fallen tree offered no protection. I was not able to harvest all of the meat before the corpse vanished. I did go all the way N to find out I could not enter the mine yet. The wolves here were ridiculous and it took a lot of save scumming. I had a timberwolf pack of 7 trying to get me at that lake cabin but they could not path the docks properly unless I was outside. I killed a few, trying out the bow. 1 shot kill headshots and the arrows could be reused if they did not break, or salvaged if they did. I ran out of fire fuel and that cabin was not an interior so it was not warm enough to sleep during a blizzard. I had to go back west to the trailer past more hordes of wolves. Not counting the ones I killed there was probably around 15 wolves just in that area. I heard them trying to break into the trailer and wondered if that was even a mechanic, but no wolves were outside. Anyway I made another trip to haul loot from the cabin then went back to the prison to progress the story. Most stuff had to be stashed outside to avoid the prisoners taking it. I kinda get why he kept surrendering to them despite having multiple guns and plenty of ammo, given how many prisoners were shown near the end. I still would have tried to kill them. Most times there was only 1 guy outside to collect me. I would have shoved the revolver in his back, marched him out where the wolves were then slit his throat. Repeat as necessary until the prisoners catch on then go full fire fight. For the final chapter the lead villain even came outside too. Like you could have shot him right there then maybe reasoned with the others. I did the south and west areas, leaving behind 2 stashes of loot, then going north to the power plant. This part was a little annoying with the frozen pipes puzzle but I liked how there was some infinite light unlike in survival. I had to look up the solution as I was struggling and probably over thinking it. The solution did not help but there was a bug that could be fixed by loading. I did that and found the solution within seconds, so maybe it was bugged. It was 1 lever I had to pull that was not in the logical sequence. I lugged my loot to the prison, progressed, then went for those 2 loot stashes. I did every side quest and made my way to the mine. Along the way my hides at the logging trailer were cured but there was only 1 cured gut. What happened to the rest? So I was not able to craft wolf or deer clothing. And the moose stuff was not even showing in the menu. I killed about 8 wolves on the way to that trailer and east cabin and got some new gut, this time put in container instead of loose on the floor. The mine had some timed poison gas sequences and a combination lock sidequest, which I cracked easily knowing 2 of the numbers. The mine collapsed at the end cutting off access to some stuff I dropped so I corrected that with an auto save. Then was a large heavily encumbered trek up and down ropes to get back to the prison. The end was a fall with no way back up so I stashed enough stuff to go back for the loot I left at the 1st rope. But I was not able to make it up the very long rope right where some wolves were, despite being fairly light and well rested. Online talked about ledges to rest on in survival but I saw nothing like that. I was finally able to make it up by using an energy drink just before climbing. The ending was a mad escape from the prisoners and fire, with search lights and guns to avoid. The way to main yard was cut off so no way to get my stuff. I would have to put it near the exit to the back or in the tunnels, but nothing carried over anyway.

Episode 5

Unusual for me to play something so newly released. Started as the girl, looting the town, repairing gear and setting up base in the police station due to the big 6 slot stove. There were 2 infinite fires in town but neither could be used for cooking. The wilderness area had no quest markers, unlike the previous chapters. I had no trouble finding the goals though. 2 trips were just killing and skinning 1 wolf each. Then I crossed the broken bridge to the east where I shimmied up a ledge to avoid wolves and used flare gun to scare 1 away from the cop body. Getting back across the bridge seemed like it should not work, jumping on flimsy broken boards. Then I went to the frozen lake where there was a pack of timber wolves. There was a cheesy ledge I could get on but it was tough to score any kills from there. I somehow lost their interest and moved towards the cabin. Before I got there I went onto a high point where the wolves struggled to follow. 2 easy kills, then a blizzard rolled in. It was very close to the cabin so I alternated between sleeping and butchering. Getting back to town was not done optimally. I used a flare but it did not last the whole way. I tried to replicate losing them on that ledge but it did not work. I took 2 bites and uses a couple flare shots. Only had 1 bandage so I left a trail of blood through town until getting to base. The last trip went to the north behind the waterfall where I was automatically teleported back to town. This was a weird design since her previous chapter had her manually carrying people long distance. I did not get to fully explore the area but I doubt there was much else to find. I definitely needed a fire to warm up. The next major thing was the cargo ship. It took a few days to get there as I killed and cooked some rabbits, birds and wolves along the way, resting at the light house and cabin. Near the docks I stole a fresh deer kill from a wolf but this attracted the bear. I got mauled twice but loaded the save to avoid that. I cooked it all up at a campfire inside a boat house and had to repeatedly juke the bear by running around and going under the pier. This was all a waste though because control switched to the guy after completing the ship. I was getting Cryostasis vibes and was on edge for combat to happen. It did sound like there could be wolves or a bear inside. I spent way too much time dismantling cloth only to find she was not allowed to sleep while on the ship.

The guy was not allowed to sleep either as it was a rush through each area with no beds or bed rolls. In fact there were plenty of coffee cups spread out. The outside area was simple but he didn't have much to start with. I killed and cooked a couple rabbits, even making a fire in the middle of the wolves in a small cave they probably used for lair. The wait until cooked option was mysteriously gone. The gondola sequence was kind of dumb. Like I was thinking about them destroying it before they did, and I figured it would be too difficult. It seemed too sturdy to be affected by hatchet blows. The mine was a little annoying because I insisted on carrying way too much loot, so it took way longer than necessary. The gas mask and crank light were cool additions though I was surprised that the light never lost any durability. Then I came to the observatory where I was finally able to offload the loot. There was a ton of food here but this part kept the trend of not being able to sleep. You got 1 scripted sleep then a timed mission. Only I did not know it was timed and spent a few hours repairing the clothing I found in the bunks. The timer did not start until I got outside but not having full fatigue would be a problem for this entire mission. The supply room had sweet equipment; full military gear, military backpack, crampons, military stims and a new shotgun. It only held 1 shot but killed wolves at close range more easily than the other guns. I tried to go light but still took too much stuff as I had to drop some things later, but did discover the military stims restored a lot of fatigue. The area was set up as a linear path with separate time limits for the 3 locations, and another to escape. The wolves along the way were fast and aggressive. It was fun playing more like a shooter, but I hate time limits. I beat the 1st but failed the other 3 until I locked in and squeezed every extra minute. There was plenty of stuff to loot but no time or capacity. I made backup saves at each threshold, looted each building, then loaded to only go for the useful stuff; coffee, stims, ammo. Had to use energy drinks and some sprinting. There was no time to waste on combat so 1 shot kills or reload. Getting jumped and having to fool around with bandaging would have been acceptable if the time limit was more generous. At the end was a cougar boss fight. I thought it was going to be a bear. It acted the same as the wolves only I could not seem to actually hit it, losing hp and dropping the gun each attack. Not sure if it was possible to kill but there was enough time between each attack to progress towards the exit. I loaded up on stuff but he lost everything the next time he was playable.

Until then it was back to Astrid, still over encumbered from all the cloth and stuff from the ship. There was no chance to drop anything off in town, instead she started in a new area. Again no sleeping allowed but at least there was not an actual time limit despite one being implied. I wasted time killing rabbits and cooking them up before triggering the train objective, which made an infinite fire. This area was about operating a steam locomotive using coal. So that is how I would get past those locked gates. The train needed regular coal to move and extra to go fast enough to break barriers. This area was pretty cool. There was a lot of optional stuff to loot and plenty of extra coal to find along the way. Lots of wolves, and some puzzles around track switches. The end area had a heavy helicopter lit up by the aurora, which was really cool. Maybe it could even fly if she knew how. Of course the way back was different, and now the wolves were glowing, but they did not run fast. They seemed to be afraid of the train but sadly did not die from being run over. I did find out that high beam flashlight scared them a bit. This entire area was not too long but I was extremely encumbered the entire time. It would have been better with a box on the train to store stuff, and the wolves fleeing from the moving train rather than lamely pushed out of the way. The final sequence was back to McKenzie, having lost all of the sweet stuff he had. He had to sneak past the convicts while they burned down the town. Somehow all the fire did not keep him warm and the prisoners stood completely still. They were blind and deaf with the only gameplay being following a linear path around the guys that were facing you and choking out the guys from behind. It was pointless. The convicts should have been a new type of enemy to fight as you use stealth and weapons to kill them, ultimately ending in a boss fight with the bad guy. Instead 2 convicts get shot by the good guy NPCs while McKenzie was forced to stay outside with the convicts, setting the stage for the next game. But given the resources and abilities of the player it made no sense that these convicts were not killed. I would have killed them all at the prison during the previous chapter. Or at least the villain since the others might actually cooperate without him around.

Not going to talk about the other game modes in this write up other than how I think the story mode was a great tutorial to learn how to succeed in survival. There were some mechanics in survival that were not in the story though, such as skill progression and moving furniture. The story did have plenty of mechanics not found in survival. I overall enjoyed the game and the story, and found the game to be fairly well made. Though some things specific to each episode could have been done better. I found the story too easy with too much supplies and no real need to do crafting or fully engage with every survival mechanic. But I am sure survival mode will be more satisfying in that respect. My biggest problem was ths lack of cheat menu or console commands, which I would have used to fix the things I disliked; limited carry capacity, slow movement speed, wasting my time, and excessive darkness indoors. Really just give me an infinite bag of holding, instant teleport fast travel, a button to speed up the game like in Zomboid, or at least an auto run button. I liked dealing with the survival mechanics; looting, crafting, dealing with threats and injuries etc, but the long periods in between of just holding down W were a waste of my time.

7.0/10

This game is a strange mix for me: I'm not very eager to come back to it, but each time I do play it, something interesting happens. It has a lot of mechanics to simulate cold wilderness survival, but also feels like a walking simulator at times, because your character is slow and points of interest are far from each other.

Overall, it's a cool unique experience, burdened by realistic movement speed of someone with 30-50 kg worth of gear on them.

Once a wolf charged at me, but then fled, when I aimed my rifle at him without shooting. That was interesting. The next wolf didn't buy my bluff though.

This is a game that I restarted playing twice. Each time when I started playing the game it hooked me. This game has a really interesting story that grabbed me. However, I ran into two separate and different issues while playing which caused me to never finish the game. First playthrough I moved part way through my playthrough and didn't get back to it until years later. When I started my second playthrough I ran into a lot of technical issues, I even submitted a support case to figure out why the game wasn't workings.

My second playthrough I got through probably half of the game, maybe more, and I was really enjoying the game, except for the bear (LUL). But, unfortunately, my game save corrupted and I lost a TON of progress. This just killed my desire to ever try to finish this game after trying to play it twice.

Overall thoughts the story is very engaging and I'm a big story person. The game play is fun, a tad grindy but it's a survival game you gotta expect that to some extent. Unfortunately the technical difficulties ruined my playthrough and I'll one day watch YouTube videos on the full story. If you're big into survival games I would recommend, otherwise I think you could skip this game and not miss out on anything.

~ 40 Hours played over several years, almost all on normal mode. Did not finish the Wintermute and at this point I’m probably not going to.

A long time ago, when I was younger and less experienced. I stumbled onto a game that was being played by some favorite YouTubers of mine. This game was focused on survival and a feeling of dread. Back then, The Long Dark was just a sandbox and people were seeing how far they could go. Today, The Long Dark has several episodes and various modes, but I think somewhere along the way it lost what made it so interesting in the first place.

Pros

• The survival gameplay is fun.
• This game excels in rewarding the player for exploration and it has a direct impact on the overall difficulty.
• In lieu of traditional advancement, you will find more gear and you will work to improve it, and this gameplay loop continues to reward you.
• Wildlife is an impactful threat.
• You’re teased with a good mystery.
• This game is priced anywhere from ~$15 on sale to its full price of ~$40. For the money, I think the values there. It not being priced super high is why I think this game can provide enough value to a consumer.
• I really like the sound effects.

Cons

• The survival gameplay is repetitive.
• If you understand some of the basics of the games systems, the difficulty ramps down quickly. I.E. once you realize how quickly and easy it is to get all your clothing in order and repaired, thermal management becomes less impactful.
• As much as I liked the sound effects, the absence of music (except some brief interludes) didn’t always do it for me. On the one hand the rushing wind of a blizzard was immersive and you needed to be able to hear to detect wildlife. On the other hand, there were times where you are just constantly listening to the main character grunt. Due to the importance of hearing wildlife, I couldn’t even turn on some TV or a podcast or something. Another thing, I don’t have a solution for, but it didn’t feel great.
• I totally understand the need for inventory management and weight capacities in this game. It adds an additional layer of depth which is great. Except, in the winter mute its much harder to “home base” a location, meaning you’re going to want to carry a lot on you going area to area and frankly the system becomes cumbersome. I don’t have a solution here as too much carrying capacity would trivialize survival modes, but potentially introducing story only items to increase pack weights would help the fluidity of the story mode.
• The story doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I just finished a play session where I realized that I didn’t have the will to keep playing (as I was getting bored). I googled the story and from what Reddit is telling me is Episodes 1 – 4 do little to enhance the story and all will be told in episode 5 later this year (2024). Well f*** that.
• I had a point where I was talking with an NPC and a wolf kept spawning near me and attacking me. It ran through a bonfire to get me. I reloaded until I eventually shot the damn thing, but it was a bad place to spawn in (behind me in an area I just walked that had no other entrance due to a cut scene).

Conclusion

Look if you really want a game that is pure survival The Long Dark can deliver, but it can only provide so many hours before things become trivial. I will say this, it’s kind of like real life survival scenarios, you’re doing good until you get bored or overconfident and then you quickly spiral until you’re dead.

This game makes me want to be cold and go outside. The atmosphere is perfect, and I love the art style. The soundtrack is surprisingly solid as well, the theme gives me chills (no pun intended) and I love me some cello. I haven't actually played through all of the story mode, but I have played plenty of the sandbox.

The different locations are unique in spite of the universally snowy ground, and you have to pay attention to landmarks to get around as mapping areas can be difficult.

My only real issue with this game is that I wish there were more late game goals. You can craft or find better clothing and fiddle around with forges, but after that there isn't much as far as I know.

There are the scenarios which I am too scared to try to be honest, though they do provide more goal oriented gameplay.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the fact that the inventory management system is based on weight. You can be encumbered but you'll slow down which makes you more susceptible to cold, wildlife, etc. I also like that there aren't any supernatural threats. It's literally just you against nature.

Overall, a nice, difficult but cozy game that is great to play on winter evenings.

Turtle walking simulator. The scavenging part is good. Hunting + carrying your loot is a chore (also hunting rabbits is not worth the effort for the meat), plus the story mode encourages you to walk away from your base. Health mechanics is flawed (always starving, negligible consequences). If you want to discover by yourself the map, don't: the story will make you walk EVERYWHERE. Every single spot has a delayed purpose. If you've already been there, you've scavenged the resources there... The story doesn't promote discovery.

The biggest flaw is hunger. No benefits for having the gauge filled up, and it drops so fast, and very little consequence for staying at zero hunger (starving).

Really good sound ambiance. Music queues are interrupted too quickly? As for the wolf attack theme, it fades away really fast.

after around 10 hours of play accumulated over six different attempts at survival mode, the time feels right to review this game. i won't be covering the story or challenge modes, as i've yet to play those (i'm waiting for story completion), and my survival experience will be based on voyageur difficulty.

the good

• the graphics look modern, stylized in an almost telltale-like, painterly way. it's nothing special, but definitely pleasing to look at for extended periods of time.
• gameplay elements are so well-designed and polished that repetitive tasks feel addictive instead of boring. this is key in survival games, since for most of your journey you'll be doing the same tasks over and over.
• the sound effects in this game are some of the best i've seen in any game period. each type of item makes a different noise when picked up, or opened, harvested, crafted, etc. if you carry liquids with you you can hear them sloshing around in their containers as you walk. walking itself gets louder the more items you carry. if you're carrying more than you can handle, your character starts to heave breaths whenever you step forward. it's incredibly immersive, and goes beyond even what i was able to mention. i'd be here all day if i were to describe the sheer complexity of the aural landscape in this game.
• while we're talking about sounds, it's important to discuss the voice acting. your character gives audio cues whenever their situation changes, pragmatically i presume so that you don't forget about a certain need when you're busy doing something else, but not only for that reason. i was vaguely annoyed by the fact that my character spoke at all at first — it didn't seem likely that they would, especially in such a cold environment where simply moving can prove to be a monumental effort. but, and i now think this is what the devs intended, with time i ended up growing fond of my character's little quips. it gave them a bit of personality, and the more i immersed myself in the game, the more realistic it seemed that they would be talking to themselves. as the loneliness and hopelessness grow, as they come to terms with existing alone in this wilderness for potentially the rest of their lives, they become their own companion. i've never been stranded in the canadian winter during the apocalypse, but it still seems incredibly realistic to me for anyone to start using their voice to fill the emptiness. it really helps that they hired jennifer hale to do the female voice. her talent alone carries the performance. (i can't speak for the male voice, though i know they hired both commander shepards for the role. i've never liked mark meer's acting, but if you've played through the mass effect series, there's likely a sense of comfort in hearing these particular characters' voices while traversing such a bleak setting. extremely big brained move on the devs' part)
• signs of life are sparse and feel truly special when you find them. you can find notes and cairns that were apparently contributed by kickstarter backers. i'm not sure whether they wrote them or simply gave the devs the cue to write them, but either way that's a pretty neat idea, especially if you want to keep your supporters engaged with the game. the notes i've found, which were only two in total, were a small poem and a simple bread recipe. although you can pick them up and take them with you, i felt compelled to leave them where they were in case someone else passed by, or the owner ever returned.
• see, there's a weird sense of hope i felt while playing this game. i mean, you're factually alone. you will never meet anyone else in survival mode, unless you count the many frozen corpses you can find on your journey. but every pack of industrialized food, every piece of clothing left on top of a bed, coffee poured in a cup and left inside a microwave — they're all signs that life did exist, and if it did exist, and now you're here, what's to say someone else won't come after? that's what i really like to see in a survival game: loneliness, but also resistance that can only be accomplished with the help of those who came before.
• that said, the game can be hard. i consider this a positive, since it is a suvival game, but ymmv. there are around 10 regions to pick from, and some of them are easier to survive in than others, with more lodgings and less unforgiving wilderness. but unless you play on the easiest diffculty, in which fauna is docile, you will be attacked on sight by wolves and bears no matter where you are, because the geomagnetic storm that started the apocalypse also riled up the wildlife. food found in houses is generally less filling than game you hunt yourself, so even if you're swimming in granola bars, at some point you'll likely want to start going out for meat. problem is, guns are extremely hard to find (ty canada) and your aim generally sucks since you're just a stranded normie. you can improve your skill in many areas with the help of survival books, but those are also a fairly rare resource. basically everything you do has risks, and even if you settle down somewhere, you'll still have to put your life in danger every time you go outside, and you will have to go outside sooner or later.

the bad.......but still good?

• music is very atmospheric, but happens very occasionally, seemingly with no real trigger. it's cool in a sense since it can trigger fear and anxiety in what would be otherwise a mundane activity, but i do kinda wish it had been used more often (or simply more logically) or removed entirely.
• if you do manage to settle down with a good source of food, i imagine things may get boring, as the gameplay would be reduced to nothing but needs management. i think this state is very hard to accomplish in this particular game though; even if you do have a forest full of deer at your disposal, you're gonna run out of bullets sooner or later, and bullets are about as rare as guns. you can craft them, but from what i remember you need very specific ingredients that, guess what, are also hard to find. basically the game punishes you for settling down for too long and encourages a more nomadic, inevitably dangerous existence.
• i would absolutely love to be able to repair computers, fridges, and technology in general, but i can see why that might be better left out in this game (see previous point). there is also something nearly magical about having all this equipment work only during the auroras (i imagine the geomagnetic event did something to the atmosphere) — you have a limited time to look at computers for messages, for example, before daybreak comes along. when things first started powering up around my character in the middle of the night i genuinely didn't know what to expect — is there someone here with me? did i press a button somewhere? it was really cool, to say the least.

as u may be able to tell, i really enjoyed this game, and i predict i will continue to going forward. if you like survival games, it doesn't get much better than this. give it a shot! (or rather, throw a rock at it, cause that's the best and only weapon you're gonna find.)

finally died trying to fish up some more food because this wolf kept hounding me and i had to fight it off twice. second time i bled out. clearly i was too bold, but it was either that or dying of hunger, or throwing (and missing) rocks at rabbits and dying of hunger in the process anyway.

chose a different beginner area for the next game, which spawned me directly next to an abandoned farm full of deer, but no gun in sight. this game is genuinely hilarious

I JUST REACHED MY BED TO REST WITH LITERALLY 1% HEALTH LEFT. i thought my 11 day streak was over for sure but my character somehow made it. i was on the edge of my seat worse than the 2014 winter olympics

also finally found a gun, but aiming is as painfully realistic as you'd imagine. better have some gun skills from one of the lil books or you shake like a leaf. better not be cold or you shake like a leaf. better not be hungry or you shake like a leaf. better not be tired or you can only aim for like 2 seconds at a time.

regardless, next mission is to successfully bring down a deer. the fish are only lasting my gal a few hours; i'm guessing actual game might fill her up enough to safely gather materials and quietly hole up in her cabin for a few more days.

I never got into the early access survival game craze. I tried a few because on paper they do sound neat. You start with nothing and have the ability to build up your base and craft new gear. Basically the game is your’s to make. In practice it’s usually just wandering around hitting trees for several hours to make an ax, then getting killed by overbearing survival meters or jerks with better stuff than you. The Long Dark intrigued me because, one it was a single player experience, two the scavenging seemed a lot more player friendly, and three you were surviving in the Canadian wilderness, not the typical tropical island or apocalyptic desert. I’m glad I threw my hat in the ring with this one, as it’s actually getting better.

I really like the art style they went for in the Long Dark, instead of trying to look realistic they went for a pastel painting look. The characters look more at home in a piece of artwork than a video game. The use of these varied colors in the environment really makes the Canadian wilderness pop too. Even though you are surviving on your own, the world feels like it has life to it and isn’t just a hunk of ground texture with trees placed on it randomly. This game is one of the best for getting scenic landscape screenshots to use as a desktop background. The music is not bad either. It serves as a subtle enhancer to the game. It’s not meant to be center stage. You are usually left to just the sounds of your footsteps in the snow and the birds in the trees.

Speaking of the game world, you actually have about 7-8 different maps to choose from. These work as an added layer of difficulty. Some maps serve more as throughways than places to make camp at. Like the Highway and the Muskeg are just stretches of vast wilderness with no shelter and little scavenging loot, unless you’re a late game frontiersman living solely off of animals and plants. The more hospitable locations like the Town of Milton or Mystery Lake have a few buildings you can hold up in for the night and be safe from wildlife. And the buildings in town feel placed with care, none of that random generated geography here. I do know you should have your sleeping spot picked out before night sets in, because interior spaces become pitch black and I had to bump around a house to find a bed because I didn’t want to waste a match or flare for light. There is also blizzards the can roll in and drain your warmth and heavy fog that makes it hard to see pass the end of your nose.

The game has a regular difficulty system as well. Each level effects how plentiful resources are, how many wolves there are and how aggressive they act, and how fast your survival meters drain. For the story mode, I played on the super easy difficulty because I wanted to go through the narrative more than worry about survival. I tried it on easy mode first but got lost in the dark and froze to death. I wouldn’t consider this an overly punishing game, just as long as you’re methodical in your approach. While I never had to “baby” my survival meters, you can’t just go trudging out on a 2-day venture in a snowstorm and expect to do okay. Pro tip, the developers love to hide food and small gear under furniture. It always pays to crouch down and peek under beds. You are likely to find candy bars, lighter fuel, socks, etc.

Once you have yourself geared up you have to deal with the wildlife. As you explore you can find weapons for hunting and defense, like bows or guns. At first you find some rocks you can use to throw at rabbits to stun them, but I had a terrible time trying to figure out how to aim them. The main antagonist of this game is the wolves. If you keep your distance you should be fine, but occasionally you will get rushed by a wolf. If you have a gun they aren’t a huge deal, but if all you have to your name is a knife they become an issue. They don’t go down easily and if they get ahold of you, you’ll need a lot of medical attention if you survive.

Again, I have a lot of respect for Hinterland Games. This could’ve been another abandoned early access survival game that just rakes up a little money, but they actually put the effort into making this a real game. There is a relatively well fleshed out story mode, a rarity in these parts. It’s kinda neat seeing this game go on its development journey. When I first got this game all it offered was the standard survival mode, which was still a good experience at the time. Now, they’ve polished everything up a bit and there’s 3 episodes of the 5-episode story mode released. The story is you play as a bush pilot in the Canadian wilderness, Mackenzie, who is voiced by Commander Shepard, couldn’t unhear it. You’re hired by your doctor ex-wife, Astrid, to deliver a locked case to the remote and seemingly abandoned Great Bear Island. She doesn’t really explain why though and you two didn’t leave on the best of terms. You fly through a Northern Lights looking EMP field that shorts out your plane causing you to crash. When you wake up, Astrid is gone with her locked case being left behind. Your main goal is to find her. I haven’t gotten to episode 3 yet, but I believe in that one you play through Astrid’s viewpoint of events.

I saw it somewhere that this game takes place during a “quiet apocalypse” and I like that term. The world went through a financial crisis in the mid-2010s that left Great Bear near deserted and there’s a weird issue happening with EMPs disabling all electronics and enraging the wildlife that seems to have a natural origin. It’s a unique take on the end of days; no nuclear war, deadly virus, or mass riots, just the world slowly dying. Granted this apocalypse could be relegated to just the Great Bear Island area. During your travels you do meet a few islanders who didn’t abandon their home when things went south. These are your mission givers and while the overarching story is interesting, the missions are usually very simple fetch quests. This being an indie game, I won’t hate on it too much for having fetch quests as the bulk of the story mode, but it does make the story drag at times & my interest did wane occasionally.

All in all, if you want a survival game with some real thought put behind it, Long Dark is the game to choose. Surviving against the cold, lonely Canadian wilderness is actually fun and there’s enough depth to the gameplay and interesting places to explore to make it worth your time.