The Long Dark: Full Release
The Long Dark is a game about survival, so it’s only fitting that we celebrate its advancement to full retail release — it has finally survived its time in Early Access purgatory!
Early Access is a somewhat controversial topic, as you pay for a game that’s still technically unfinished in the hope that all the funds gathered will give indie developers enough funds to actually complete their project. Some games remain in Early Access purgatory for ages, sucking up money in exchange for mediocre updates and buggy game mechanics.
Fortunately, Hinterland Studios was always a good egg. They’ve always made steady progress on The Long Dark. Every update felt substantial, from improving game mechanics to adding more and more regions to the interconnected world map. It’s been fascinating to watch the game evolve from sandbox survival to a fully fleshed out experience.
If you didn’t pick the game up during its time in Early Access, you can now purchase the full retail version on PC, XBox One, and PS4. Don’t know much about it? Here’s a rundown.
Doomsday in Canada
A geomagnetic cataclysm alters the global climate and knocks out most forms of modern communication. Your plane crashes on Great Bear Island, located in the remote wilderness of northern Canada. You are alone. You have few resources. And you must survive.
The cataclysm has also made wildlife inherently more dangerous. It is very cold, they are very hungry, and you are usually carrying around at least a couple snacks in addition to all the meat on your body. So on most difficulty settings, you’ll be actively hunted by wolf packs and other creatures of the northern woods.
The Long Dark has a few different game modes. You can either freely explore in sandbox mode, which remains my personal favorite, or you can start an episodic single-player story known as Wintermute. The story mode further fleshes out the world and provides you with increasingly complex motivations to push forward. There are also challenge runs for those who want to push themselves.
Difficulty settings will allow you to customize your Canadian adventure. The easiest difficulty is essentially a “live alone in the woods” simulator. The hardest difficulty makes day-to-day survival a stressful nightmare, and there’s a strong chance you’ll die of hypothermia on Day 1 if you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s enough variety in difficulty to find what suits you best.
Difficulty primarily impacts the severity of the weather, the hostility of the wildlife, and how many resources you’ll find lying around. But the basic game mechanics will remain the same.
Gameplay
In sandbox mode, you can choose your gender and (except on Interloper) your starting location. The game has various regions to play in, and all are connected by narrow transition zones — caves, tunnels, a rickety-ass train bridge that never feels safe. So you can explore the entire island in one session, provided you’re nimble enough to survive the expedition.
In Wintermute, the campaign mode, you’ll begin playing as the male protagonist as he searches for his estranged wife after a plane crash. You will switch to her point-of-view later on in the game.
The protagonists are voiced by Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale. Which means that this is actually Mass Effect 4: Canada, in which Commander Shepard survived the ending of Mass Effect 3 and subsequently landed in Canada. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
The graphics aren’t anything special, but the game runs smoothly and the overall scenery looks great, especially when you’re at a mountain vista and can see the whole map at once. The mechanics are really where The Long Dark shines, though.
In this game, you will
- Gather resources and clothing from abandoned settlements.
- Harvest natural resources from plants and trees and carcasses.
- Hunt wildlife using snares, hand-crafted bows, and rifles. Or rocks, if you’re a good shot.
- Tan hide and dry guts from hunted animals, which can then be used for crafting.
- Evade hostile wildlife. Wolves, bears, moose! Oh god, the moose!
- Endure snowstorms and whiteout conditions. Figure out when not to travel.
- Purify water by melting snow and then boiling it to kill bacteria.
- Cook meat to avoid agonizing stomach infections. Mmm, steak!
- Go fishing and yell a lot because the lines often break.
- Try not to freeze by finding abandoned homes, caves, or building your own shelters.
- Maintain campfires by praying the matches work and gathering as much wood as you can.
- Craft cool deerskin boots and other goodies from all your resources.
- Probably die!
If other survival games haven’t been scratching that itch to really tough things out in a hostile environment, then give The Long Dark a try. It doesn’t fully represent outdoor survival, but it’s one of the few “survival” games available that doesn’t skimp on difficulty or complexity for the sake of making you feel good about yourself. You’re gonna be micro-managing all your resources every day.
And then cry when your last fishing line breaks and you die cold and alone in Canada.
Rumor has it you can find Leo somewhere out there.