The Long Dark - survival

For a change of pace from the Division 2, I downloaded The Long Dark from game pass.
At first what intrigued me From the trailer was the games graphics choice.
It’s almost like a cross between water colour and comic art.

The games been around for years now on PC, so some of you have probably already been there done that.
But I play on Xbox One, so it’s new to me.

The story takes place in the Canadian wilderness. Some call it a Canadian Summer SIM.
Your a pilot taking a friend up north with a mystery case.
There’s a geomagnetic storm, your plane crashes, your friend is gone, and your alone in the wilds.
You start out with just the clothes on your back and what ever supplies you can scavenge from the crash.
But you need to find shelter, your not dressed for the weather, so you need to get in doors.

You look for new cloths to protect you from an ever changing assortment of weather effects,
You need to find food
And survival tools if your going to make it.

There’s quite a few different crafting options all dependant on things found throughout the map.

No matter what, There’s an always present danger, not only packs of wolves or bears, but the weather.
The weather will kill you fast.
Almost to a fault.

I live in northern Canada.
In game your character runs the risk of freezing to death when the temperature falls below -20.
Well, has anyone been to Canada?
-20 is Considered a nice day in our winter.

There are a few different game play options;
You got a campaign like story, segmented into different parts, It allows you to get familiar with all the maps and mechanics.
Then you have a survival mode with 4 or 5 difficulty levels.
Then a challenge mode.

I played up to the third part of the story, just so I could get familiar with the game mechanics and some crafting recipes.
Then I jumped into survival.
My first two attempts were short lived.
I’m Now on my third life and holding strong.
Been alive for 32 days now.

Last night it almost all came to an end.
I found a forge, so I went back to my main camp and carted 25 pounds of coal across 2 maps.
I Made a bunch of arrow heads and headed home.
Well wouldn’t you know it, not 1, not 2, but 3 damn wolves jumped me.
Usually you can scare them off with a revolver gun shot.
But these bad boys were hell bent on taking me down.

I made it back to my camp with Severe blood loss and just a sliver of life.
I knew if I Just went to bed I’d die because infection would set in.
So I dumped my arrow heads at my main camp, Grabbed my hunting rifle and then Carefully headed to a supply cache I have, to get some disinfectant on my wounds.
I thought it was all over for my character, but we pulled through.
Cleaned up and bandaged my cuts, ate a slab of venison, read a chapter in a skill book and called it a night hoping I would hear the birds chirping in the morning.

Anyways, if your looking for a great time killer, it’s a fun game to play.

My only gripe of the game is the need for food.
It’s like the guy is constantly complaining how hungry he is.
Before you kill your first deer or wolf, you need to monitor your calories.
Everything in game you do, burns calories.
So before wandering off into the wild, consider your consumption needs unless you have a good stack of things to eat.

You can also adjust the hunger and thirst levels in a custom survival game.

Gave myself a choice : The Long Dark vs Outward
Outward won.

Great game indeed, specially if you are down or feel bad because of something that happened in your life.
This is the type of game that will suck you in and keep you on your toes.

In my attempt i made it 24 days but messed up when i burned my meat while not paying attention for 1 minute.

Really love how you become very aware of your resources and constantly do inventory checks to see if you can make a trip, calculate the intake and also make sure you have weapons and decent clothes, is it clear outside or is there blizzard if so then hell i wait it out a day.

Cool to hear you live in t he same conditions almost, so you can just walk into a forest and play the game for real
please don't do that

a reply to: Dimens

Haha no I won't be doing that.
But your exactly right.
I just noticed my jacket is getting tattered, so I made a trip to mystery lake to look for cloth.
My hat was at 30%, my Outter jacket Was at 25%" I'm guessing from my wolf attacks last night.
But the weather was crap, so I'm sitting by a fire in the ML camp office waiting out the blizzard.
I have a bunch of deer pelts curing back at my main camp so I can craft deer skin pants.
I would love to be able to find those wolves who tried to gank me last night.
I'd make a jacket out of them lol.

a reply to: Macenroe82

This game sounds pretty interesting, I will have to look into it for PS4, quick google search says first person survival?

Sounds fun, kind of like in Fallout New Vegas but more in depth.

Few questions:

1) what's the HUD like? Crowded or minimal

2) is the story mode worth going all the way or is survival mode where the true fun is?

3) about how much $

4) big maps or smaller?

This sounds like it could be really fun, thanks for sharing!

a reply to: Macenroe82

Kenshi

a reply to: ware2010

Correct, It’s a FP survival.
In the early days of starting out in the game, you need to plan smartly before heading out.
Now that I have a rifle and can take out a deer or moose, I have a lot of food.
And water is abundant, because you can just melt and boil snow.

The crafting aspect of the game isn’t overly technical or anything, but it’s good.
There’s enough components to it to make it interesting.

a reply to: timewarpedbrain7

HUD is minimal.
Bottom left you have your body temp, your fatigue level, thirst and hunger.

Other than that, the FP view is wide open.
There’s No map on your HUD.
You create your map by finding charcoal and surveying an area. Even then it’s just the immediate surroundings that get mapped.
Story mode, I’d say at least the first chapter Or two is a must to get familiar with a couple of the maps and the mechanics. But you could always just Jump into survival and use YouTube.
I’m playing it for free on Xbox game Pass.
But I can’t imagine it being expensive.
It was a kickstarter game years back.
The maps are big.
Each territory has enough there to keep you wandering lost for a long time, or until you die.
But you can also find maps online. And I’ll admit that’s what I had to do.

And for anyone who decides to play the game, if you come across crow feathers early on, pick them up and save them.
Same with a maple saplings - which once cured will become your bow.
birch saplings when cured will become arrows shafts.

ETA: a couple starter tips.

-Mystery Lake Or coastal highway Are probably the best maps to start on.
-You can stash stuff anywhere with out worry of it despawning, however once you touch something a decay rate begins.
You most likely won't notice it, but it is there.
-If you have an abundance of meat, store it outside on the ground.
It will be kept cold by the weather and prolongs the life of it.
-Fishing has the least reward for time Spent vs Yield
You spend an hour at a time fishing.
If you don't have a fire going, you could die in that hour.
-Hunting, even just rabbits has a better payoff, plus you can use their furs for crafting. You don't need a gun to hunt rabbits, pick up some stones, aim and toss. It will stun the rabbit for a few seconds. Run up, pick up the rabbit and break it's neck.
-if you find a skill book early on, read it as often as you can, but make sure you have food and water. Again 1 hour in game increments, so do this indoors until you get decent clothes.

The game looks fun for sure, graphics not so much, but definitely interesting game play!

Made it one day, then got lost in a dark empty building and froze to death.