The Long Dark

This game has been a great distraction since I lost my ability to walk. Sustained a work injury in the oil field that left me permanently disabled. It's so calming to walk around the frozen tundra and looting old houses. I love the animation and detail in this game. All sorts of locations to explore, wish my wife could've played this game with me :)

TL;DR
Definitely worth full price. The best survival game imo. Story is alright it was like a tutorial in a way. But survival mode is the real deal. Try it out if you're into survival games.
With that out of the way let me continue if you're still reading. I'm gonna start by saying this game is VERY different than your average goofy looking other survival games where manage to craft yourself a whole arsenal of weapons seemingly out of thin air and you fight against savages or zombies.
This game is very poetic. The soundtracks and nature sounds are extremely immersive. You're alone. Completely alone. It's man vs nature. Sure there are wildlife you can encounter but your biggest enemy is the cold. The freezing, unforgiving cold. Especially at night. It's almost pitch black if there's no full moon. It fills you with dread and makes you uneasy. You do NOT want to be outside after dark.
But there's also a sense of peace and calm. It's relaxing. At the end of each night, a sense of accomplishment. Surviving one more night. Seeing the sun come up. If you let yourself really get immersed into it, this game will make you feel... well it's hard to describe. A sort of a zen state.
Item variety and crafting are pretty nice and balanced. Only weapons are revolver, rifle and bow. And I'm glad it is that way. We don't need bazookas. It's not a shooter game. Though it is a lot of fun to hunt game regardless. There's also a few unique item spawns which will help you a lot but beware, they're in harsh environments.
When it comes to realism this game has almost everything pretty accurate. At least it seems to me. I'm no survival expert but I can understand a grown man will definitely need 3000 calories daily to survive and keep his strenght up in this bitter cold environment. Biggest unrealistic part is that a single wolf charging at you. Wolves are usually scared of humans and will run away when they see one. But even devs know this and they even explain it in the first screen when you boot up the game. I guess they had to bend reality a bit to make the game more engaging. Perfectly understandable.
I'd recommend you start on pilgrim(easy) or voyageur(normal) mode to get the feeling of the game see if you like it, if so then you get yourself familiar with everything and if you play enough you will eventually memorize the map. It is a huge map though.
Map knowledge will be what keeps you alive in harder modes later when you want to step up your game. If you don't know your way around and jump straight in the hard mode you will get lost and since you won't know where the nearest shelter is, you're gonna fade into the long dark.
If those difficulties don't suit you and you wanna change something up, fear not because there's also custom mode where you get to choose, in detail, whatever you want in your playthrough. You can make the weather a bit more forgiving or 9th circle of hell. You can make loot abundant if you like hoarding supplies at your base camp, or make it really hard to get them. You can make the wolves completely passive or make them killing machines where they will most likely eat you alive at your first encounter. And so on, it's great. Only downside is the achievements and feats do not count in custom so keep that in mind.
Thanks for reading. I'd also like to recommend turning off your lights when you play. Makes it a lot more immersive. Enjoy!

The Long Dark is an absolutely mesmerizing survival game set in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness. Trust me, it's an experience that will leave you breathless. You've got two ways to play: Wintermute, which takes you on a captivating story journey, and Sandbox, where you can forge your own path. Let me tell you, Sandbox is where this game truly shines. The freedom to explore vast regions and make your own choices is pure bliss.
Now, picture this: you're on the verge of starvation, with just one bullet left in your rifle, and a skittish deer in your sights. The tension is nervewracking. Now imagine you're huddled in a cave at night, the campfire flickering, listening to the haunting howls of wolves outside, it's a moment you won't soon forget The sound design is amazing! The Long Dark has a way of creating these organic, heart-pounding moments that just stick with you.
Sure, dealing with wildlife can be a real pain. Those wolves, oh boy, they're a menace. But trust me, the true challenge lies in battling the elements themselves. The weather is constantly changing, and it adds a whole new level of intensity. One moment you're basking in a crisp, sunny day, the next you're caught in a raging blizzard.
Managing your resources is key. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion - they're always on the brink. But don't worry, the game's elegant design keeps you immersed without drowning you in complex menus. My only wish is that I could see my character interact more directly with the world. Nevertheless, the feeling of struggling against the Grim Reaper, fighting to survive another day, is unbelievably rewarding.
Believe me when I say there aren't many survival games out there like The Long Dark. It's a rare gem. The hand-painted art style captures the beauty and brutality of the wilderness in a way that's simply breathtaking. So, if you're looking for a game that's both challenging and soul-stirring, give The Long Dark a go.

I have played this game for nearly 600 hours at the time of writing and have never played the story mode because for me, survival mode is where this game truly shines as a unique experience.
Unlike most open world games this game doesn't feel the need to periodically distract you with events: you aren't the centre of attention, you are just one element in the game world. Your only goal is to survive and your adversaries are the elements and some wild animals. You will spend a lot of time just walking, either to a specific location or lost, hoping to stumble upon some shelter before you freeze to death.The game wants you to explore and in harder modes it's a necessity as resources are low.
Once you learn the essentials survival becomes easier especially after the early stages of a run, but death can take you at any time. The game can switch from relaxing to desperate in a heartbeat. I have been 100 days into a run and comfortable only to get into serious trouble on a routine expedition and suddenly plunged into a desperate attempt to survive. These are the most memorable events; sometimes you will survive through your experience, other times you will survive through luck and other times you will die.
There are a number of difficulty levels and there's a detailed custom mode that that lets you choose the difficulty of each individual component of the game.
This game won't be for everyone - it's a unique experience. This is not a base building game (although you will have a number of bases dotted about the game world to store resources). This is not an action adventure. This is you alone in a frozen wilderness using the resources available to survive.
This is my most-played game of all time and deservedly so. The developers are a small team who, appropriately, use their resources to the max to deliver the kind of game AAA publishers wouldn't touch.

I've played this game for years. The way the studio has developed and the gameplay has changed is spectacular. If you want a single player survival where you can hop in and get lost, this is it. Where it lacks in the coop sense, it makes up for in the challenge of surviving on your own and getting lost into your own world.

First: this review was done on “The Long Dark: Survival Edition”, so it will cover only the sandbox part of the game, not the Story mode. The review also does not cover the Challenges for the sake of brevity. Keep this in mind as you read it.
Now, I’m being honest when I say I don’t have much experience in survival or sandbox games. Sure, I enjoy a game with interesting mechanics that allow for some kind of sandbox-y, creative gameplay such as the Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause series, but as time passes, I engage less and less with pure sandbox games like The Sims or MS Flight Simulator. I like the idea of having an endpoint to my gaming experience, even if it might take a while to get there or the path might be unclear and undefined. So when I decided to review The Long Dark, I knew I had to throw away some of my preconceptions and expectations and just go with the flow.
So I boot up the game and navigate through the main menus until I find the New Game option. I chose a difficulty (in my case, the easiest, since I heard the game can be quite unforgiving) and a starting location (the game gives you hints of which ones are good for starters and for lack of a better reason I chose Mountain Town).
And then, it was on. No tutorial, no keymapping, no explanation of the HUD, nothing. Just my character breathing. And that was enough to freak me out instantly, since I knew my struggle for survival had already started. I pressed random buttons for the first five minutes and tried to figure out what did what. This madness allowed me to get a good (yet basic) grasp of the controls, but I was still confused by the fact I cannot jump and by how clunky it felt to get to the menu and do basic things like change clothes or look at your inventory. While there are radial shortcuts to some actions like having food and drinks or getting light sources out, menus are still your best friend in and out.
I looked around and saw only snow. There seemed to be a bunch of crows circling overhead and a trailer nearby, which made my destination. And that’s when I start to get a feeling of how systems interact - how my stamina gets consumed when I sprint, and how some of the icons on the screen change depending on what I do. For example, I decided to “harvest” a cardboard box outside the trailer - and then suddenly the sun icon on the top right of my screen moved a bit, indicating that time was passing faster as I did that activity. At the same time, the four icons at the bottom started running down - while it wasn’t immediately clear, I quickly figured out they represent warmth, fatigue, thirst, and hunger, and that their depletion contributes to your overall “condition”, or the way the game represents a health bar.
You eventually realize this all this information is given to you at the “harvest confirmation” screen, but it certainly takes a while to get used to the icons, screens, and how to consume all that information. I really, really feel that it would be helpful to have at least a mini tutorial telling me how to navigate the world and what to watch out for. But even without that tutorial, after roughly one hour of playtime, I felt that I understood the game basics and could at least survive the first in-game day.
(Now - a caveat. Some people told me the story mode is basically an extended tutorial for the survival mode. And I would love to be exposed to that tutorial! But as mentioned above, the version I’m playing doesn’t include the story mode, so that doesn’t help me. I’m still a bit baffled that a complex game like that doesn’t include a tutorial, but let’s move on).
A few days later (in real life), I booted the game again for my second gaming session, now with 90 minutes of gameplay and some basic understanding under my belt. And it was only now that the magic of the game really started showing. For starters, I was finally able to get away from my puny trailer and start exploring. While the game graphics are not realistic, they are beautiful - the nature is stunning yet intimidating; the buildings feel old and dilapidated, but still better than the outside; and the whole landscape comes together really nicely. Weather effects look good and provide useful information - blowing wind with lots of snowflakes and low visibility not only look good but are probably good indicators that a blizzard is coming or already arrived. This, combined with great sound effects (from the wind blowing to cloth tearing) makes the experience very immersive.
Venturing a bit further from camp took me to the town of Milton, where I could start looting the houses, finding better gear and supplies, and becoming even bolder in my adventuring. When you finally start exploring, the mechanics of the game become second nature and you enter a flow state - you’re not thinking too much about every microdecision on your day like what to eat or where, but instead, you can start focusing on macro stuff - what’s the condition of your clothes? Do you need any special items like cured leather to repair your boots, and if so, where can you find them? Can you start mapping your surroundings? Should you try to stock those heavy batteries? Today’s weather looks fine, should you drop your parka so you can move faster and carry more stuff? Is it gross outside but you spent too much time inside and need to avoid cabin fever? How long are you going to stay in Milton, and when you decided to leave, where will you head towards?
Reaching that zen, that flow state, is extremely satisfying and somewhat easy to achieve on the easiest difficulty, yet it’s super engaging and addicting. 2-3 hour sessions fly by as you’re exploring freeform, without a clear objective but self-driven to explore further. I imagine higher difficulties make the experience less zen, but part of that flow state is maintained by your knowledge of the game systems and mechanics.
My first “run” in the game lasted a bit over six hours split over four real-life gaming sessions, covering 13 days of in-game time. I was able to explore what I think it’s a decent chunk of Mountain Town, and even head toward Forlorn Muskeg, an area that is absolutely more difficult than Mountain Town – while the former has roads, lots of solid ground to navigate around lakes, resources aplenty. and buildings that provide shelter every hundreds of meters; the latter is a patchwork of frozen lakes that are ready to break at any time, resources are scarce and hard to come by, timberwolves roam the land and you can always hear them getting closer, and you almost never find a building.
After spending a few days looting the town of Milton and gathering what I now recognize was WAY TOO MUCH food, cloth, and wood, I was too heavy and encumbered and my fatigue was draining too quickly. Once I reached Forlorn Muskeg, I noticed the days were getting short because my character was getting tired too quickly, and I had no reliable source of potable water. While I could probably have survived a bit longer, I woke up one night and saw that an aurora was going on, and I decided to try to explore some nearby radio towers, knowing that they usually hold secrets if you can visit them during an aurora and interact with its electronic devices. BUT, I stepped on thin ice on my way there, my clothes got soaked, I ran out of fuel for my fire, which was put out by a blizzard, and before I noticed, I embraced The Long Dark …
Do I regret leaving the safety of my shelter with less-than-ideal environmental conditions, encumbered, and with little fuel for fire? Absolutely. But this is the kind of risk-taking that makes journeys in The Long Dark have meaning and have stakes, and how emergent stories are created. And I’m looking forward to starting the game again, in a different place, with a different world around me, a different inventory, and a different set of emergent objectives. This is what this game is all about.

please finish the story it has been years.