As I mentioned in my last blog I haven`t done anything exciting in the last couple of weeks due to my mood becoming very low meaning that I have been sat in front of a computer screen playing games, as I was playing one I decided that I would blog about one in particular, The Long Dark, this game is made by Hinterland studio and is available on steam, a pure survival game, no zombies, no mad scientists, just you verses whatever mother nature can throw at you, including blizzards, wolves, bears, thin ice, starvation, dehydration etc, the key to survival in this game is making the right decisions and choices in terms of what equipment and clothing to use and when to move and when to stay where you are.
The game takes place in the Northern Canadian wilderness on Great Bear island and is set just after a post apocalypse event, leaving the area in perpetual winter, currently there are six areas to explore in game, each with differing hazards to contend with,
Forlorn Muskeg where ice is treacherously thin in places leading to you falling through and the onset of hypothermia.
Mystery Lake a fairly easy area but with plenty of wolves to avoid.
Coastal Highway a vast and open sea bay where thick fog can cause disorientation and send you in the wrong direction towards thin ice, not to mention bears and wolves with superb eye sight and sense of smell.
Desolation Point, a relatively small map right on the coast, thin ice, thick fog and patroling wolves abound.
Pleasant Valley don`t let the name fool you, frequent blizzards and sub zero temperatures will keep you inside for days waiting for the smallest of opportunities to get outside and get food.
Timberwolf Mountain, a plane crash on top of the mountain is too tempting an opportunity to miss but getting there means expending alot of precious energy.
why do I like this game? well for the most part it actually is a game that I can closely associate with, one of the jobs that I have is I run my own bushcraft company, so the idea of a game where these skills are necessary really appeals to me.
I will be playing the game on easy (pilgrim) mode, this is for a couple of reasons, one I`m not a hard core gamer so the idea of making it harder than I need to really doesn`t appeal to me, oh and its your problem if you think this means i`m not playing it properly or a coward, two and more importantly it means that the hunters (wolves and bears) don`t hunt you and will actually run away when they see you, yes this makes it easier but ironically mimics real life wildlife behavior more accurately but more importantly why wouldn`t I want to kill these animals.....take a look at the name above.
after selecting whether I wanted to play as a male or female character I had the choice of what region to start in, as always I went for random and when the screen loaded I was presented with this,
I instantly recognized where I was, that is the broken bridge in Desolation Point, the next thing I did was check what supplies I had and more importantly what clothing I had and its state of repair.
the clothing itself, not great, basic hat, hoodie, synthetic vest, fleece gloves, jeans, sports socks and trainers, but its state of repair was all pretty good. knowing where I was in the game world meant I knew the closest place to get some shelter and also possibly get some good starting supplies, directly behind me is a cave.
inside the cave is usually a plethora of supplies and quite often a couple of deer carcasses to harvest, this task is easier once you find a knife but I didn`t have one at this point.
a few kilos of meat to supplement the granola bar I had in my bag but it would mean I had to cook it first which meant a fire had to be built, before that though I knew there were still areas of the cave to explore and other opportunities to seek out.
yes that is a frozen corpse but no your character descend into cannibalism at any point in the game, unfortunately this particular corpse didn`t have any supplies on him, at this point in the game night began to fall, I decided that I needed to rest and cook the meat I had harvested from the two deer carcasses, this was also my first decision
I had a 60% chance of lighting the fire using what I had above or I could increase that chance of success to 100% by using an accelerant but I would lose the accelerant meaning I wouldn`t have it for future use.
in this case I decided not to use the lighter fluid and actually did get the fire going anyway.
I cooked the meat and boiled up some water before getting my bed roll out and sleeping through the night, another mechanic that I will mention here is exhaustion, whilst you are awake your character becomes more tired affecting the load you can carry and will eventually kill you if you don`t rest.
leaving the cave on the second day the first thing I did was check the stats I had and the current weather conditions.
current condition 100%
air temperature, well into the minuses, will start to loose body warmth soon
feeling rested
not thirsty
calorie count, good but not perfect
to get out of this ravine I need to go under the bridge and turn right and make my way up to the road,
this does mean leaving the comparative safety of the ravine and venturing into colder climes but I know where I am so this isn`t too bad
up ahead on the left is a factory that I will be heading for, this usually has plenty of supplies to help with survival.
from this direction the first thing I came across is the guardhouse and an abandoned car, inside the guardhouse is a first aid kit with a couple of bandages and a sewing kit.
the car unfortunately contained nothing
the factory loomed ahead, I will point out now that yes this is meant to be a whaling station but the premise is that it has been long abandoned.
the factory area itself contains several buildings as well as the factory and to make the best you will need to search through all of them, after some time searching I had found several useful items, mostly firewood, a couple of tools, one rifle round and most importantly for now, lots of clothing items including,
because I`d harvested cloth from some of the other items I repaired these and promptly wore them incresing the feels like temperature significantly. this is another decision you have to make in the game, what clothing do you sacrifice to improve your other clothing
as you can see here I`d changed most of my clothing so that I was warmer in the situation I had found myself in, still however I had no rifle, bow, fishing equipment, snares or any other food to help me out, water was not a problem, in game you melt snow and crucially have to boil it too, I had protection from the elements as I was inside, I decided to check out the last of the habitations to see if could change that situation on the way to the cabins I saw what I thought would be my next port of call.
in the distance you can see a boat, this is known as the Riken, a former whaling vessel, how do I know, a whaling harpoon sticks out over the bow, however there is a massive hole in the side which mean even if the Riken was to get off the rock it would sink almost immediately and incidently that same hole is how you gain access to the boat.
I spent the night in the accommodation trailer and had decided that I would make for the Riken that day, however thick fog prevented me from seeing the boat and this being the coast I wasn`t willing to risk overshooting walking onto thin ice and falling through contracting hypothermia, so I turned and started following the road again making for the next land mark which would be the Lonely Lighthouse, to get there though meant crossing over a bridge and underneath that bridge would potentially be a source of supplies.
somehow I don`t think Matt will be needing or using that truck anymore (Matt is the corpse, presumably, to the left of the truck).
walking a little way around from Matt`s truck I saw the land mark I was heading for
the lonely lighthouse, this is usually quite a well stocked area and this time was no exception, the most important find in the whole place though was this book
books like this increase your skill points and there are several in world, ones for fire lighting, ice fishing, hunting with rifles and carcass harvesting, increasing your skills obviously makes life in game so much easier at the start of the game your skills are obviously nothing
but as you progress thing become so much easier, just as a comparison the photo above shows the character I`d started with here and the following pictures show the character that I have been playing with for some time as well as the clothing I have acquired and manufactured.
note that it has taken me 264 in game days to get to this stage
The long Dark is a game I would recommend to anyone interested in survival or who wants something a little different from what they would normally play, I thoroughly enjoy playing it and I looking forward to when the story mode comes out
