I knew this whole game was meant to be placed after a rather disastrous worldwide catastrophe, but was surprised to see it actually take place before my eyes. We know how this part ends, but a funny thing happened on the way to the plane crash: there was the cataclysmic EMP type of Aurora Borealis event which knocked out the electrics. And then I got thrown into a messy and rather unexplained backstory that wasn't really resonating before being led headfirst in a propeller plane into a winter blizzard. I took the controls of my avatar and was directed to build a fire, knowing that Jack London would soon be coursing though my veins. The opening credits and background track of "The Lions Roar" by First Aid Kit set up an Atmosphere that had me on the edge of my seat. Wintermute nearly turned me off the game entirely. No, the only thing in this game looking to hold your hand is the icy grip of frostbite.
My thought was story mode might teach me how to play, might introduce me to the basics, and maybe even hold my hand a bit for the first few hours. Survival mode is the core loop.īut this genius here decided that he would be better off starting in the story mode, called Wintermute. It was the only way to play for all that time up until a story mode was tacked on for release.
Survival mode was how the game started way back in that Early Access period. The game drops you into one of the maps, your drop is randomly chosen, resources are randomly generated and placed, and your starting gear is randomly rolled as well, but pretty much guaranteed to be not much more than some sneakers and a sweatshirt against the cold of the Canadian arctic. Survival mode is just like it sounds: survive. Now, the core of this experience is in Survival mode. It is meant to beat you and if it's not, then you haven't amped up the difficulty enough yet. Or short dark as you jump in for another run. There is no "Congratulations, you win!" at the end of any playthough, there isn't even a "but our princess is in another castle." There is only death, and the long dark that follows it. It's a survival game, where you are not really meant to survive, only last for as long as you can until you either run out of resources, run out of time scrounging for more, or run into a wolf. You see there's this little thing about The Long Dark that I feel you should be aware of before jumping in. My first steps into this gaming world, well, it was anything but love. I was enthralled with the concept of The Long Dark, and I so wanted to love this game. When I heard the game was coming to Switch, I was champing at the bit to finally get to play a game that had practically become a personal unicorn.
I did finally buy it last year on one of the annual sales, but still haven't found the time to fit it into my gaming schedule as I so rarely get in front of the screen of my PC for anything other than work. So many times I had nearly pulled the trigger and purchased it only for my better judgement to take hold, take a look at my long list of unplayed games not in "Early Access," and take my finger off the mouse button hovering over the Add to Cart button.
I remember first finding out about it in early access long before its initial full release on Steam in 2017. The Long Dark is a game I've been wanting to play for probably five years. On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.