Ranty Rant: The Long Dark

Came across this one, mentioned by someone in 4chan’s /out/, had never heard of the game.

It’s one of those Indie games that somehow manage to sell an alpha version that may never reach Gold for the price of a full functioning game. Steam calls it “Early Access Game”, I call it beta testers and unlimited gameplay and design feedback, that pay for it.
Honestly that practice kind of rustles my jimmies.
At the same time it’s a smart move, reduce testing costs, lots of feedback and even gameplay ideas that will help you make the game more tailored to your average user, potentially enhancing the game experience (and getting you more sales, because an happy gamer is a valuable marketing tool). And best part, people pay for it…full price!

(long ranty rant incoming, nearly 1500 words)

But if people like it…I’ll have to grudgingly accept it. If this thing doesn’t hit 1.0 and become a rock solid game, I want my money back.

So let me shred the thing to bits.

First, for a cartoonish looking game it’s heavy as all hells. “Can it run Crysis?” should be changed to “Can it run The Long Dark?”

Recommended:

Processor: Intel i7 CPU @ 2.6GHz or higher
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: nVidia GTX 555 w/ 1GB VRAM or better

Really? 8GB of ram and an i7 for XIII on steroids?
Really?
Let me put that into perspective.

Skyrim (which while not very recent, nor the most beautiful game ever, had some stunning landscapes in my opinion and hey, I like the game)

“Hey dude…that’s an old game!!”

Yes, an old game with good graphics and an open world. But wait, if the problem is “old game”, I have the solution: “not yet released game”
I present you with GTA V’s system requirements. Which is undoubtedly the most well known open world game with good graphics and in this case, yet to be released. (I repeat myself)

Recommended specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
Memory: 8GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB

It’s official, The Long Dark asks for more than GTA V.

Now that the system requirements rant is done.

Liked the game…
It’s NOT a fun game…and I didn’t want it to be. I wanted it to be a survival simulator, it isn’t, but it’s probably the closest thing that doesn’t make you want to die instead of playing.
Well, it IS and ISN’T fun at the same time.

So the basic plot of the thing (which doesn’t really matter as you only have sandbox to play with for now) is:
Big ass EMP fries all the electronics, you being a really lucky bastard (who happens to be a bush pilot) are flying somewhere in Canada (yes, Canada…the frozen wasteland of the world) and your plane goes all “Nope Nope Nope” on you and you crash. (Thank you EMP!)
Great, you crash in the frozen wasteland and all you have on you is your dick (or tits), a pack of matches and the clothes on your back.

Their marketing blurb talks about “how far would you go to survive”…I really hope they don’t just mean going around “relieving” abandoned houses of their content. So I take that in story mode you’ll have to make some morally ambiguous (or straight good/evil) options.

Still trying to figure out why there’s no flashlight; inb4 “hurr durr, EMP, electronics are all f*cked you moron”, an EMP would not affect old style halogen/xenon bulb flashlights since they are as simple as possible: battery connects to bulb, the end, no electronics. Sure one of these things would give nearly no usable light, but still better than having to spend matches or kerosene to look around a house.

Now into the game itself. The rest of this rant is pretty much describing my first play and some ideas/opinions.

Sandbox->*click*->”Choose your experience:”

Pilgrim
Voyageur
Stalker

Since it’s my first play…Pilgrim, don’t want to be wolf food before getting used to the game.

Armed with all the mightiness of your dick (or tits) you’re dropped into one of three areas.

Mystery Lake
Coastal Highway
Pleasant Valley

Pleasant Valley sounds too reassuring in a survival game, so it’s a trap…Coastal Highway, meh. Mystery Lake (Manitoba?) it is. Guess I can go fishing and stuff, no?

Dropped in game armed with my dick, a bedroll, very basic first aid, a flare, a tinder bundle, matches and clothes.

Nice…

Tab to see the survival menu (you’ll use it a lot)

Looks good to me. (Illustrative pic only, in my first play I was dropped somewhere else)

So…survival time!
What do we need?
Survival 101 for dummies, rule of 3: 3h shelter, 3d water, 3w food. Yeah, survivalists of the webs…I know it’s inaccurate and just a generalization so you can memorize the priority of things in a survival situation on extreme conditions.

Shelter first then, so I can look around a bit and plan my next move.
Oh look a watch tower (tower…right…1 meter off the ground)
Things inside! (if I remember correctly)
Hatchet
MRE
Pork and beans
(a couple more items I can’t recall)

Good, the MRE and the can of food should be enough calories for two days in game. (max. calories “stored” is 2500)
Let’s gather wood…I think I saw an option for that in the survival menu.
Soft wood or hard wood?! Hard wood takes longer and consumes more calories, (survival 101 for dummies) but will burn longer than softwood.
Now, to start a fire.

So, I have (temporary) shelter, food and a fire. Time to explore!

Upon reaching the lake I notice…the cabins? No. The ice fishing shelters? No. Wolves? Nah…
“Are those cattails? Ah, I bet you can only use them as tinder in the game.”
Nope, they are also food…although I would point out they don’t include the root which is also edible. But since it’s a game set in a frozen place, it’s understandable, it would be hard to dig the ground.

So I keep exploring and find my official homebase: “Camp Office”. Meanwhile there was a slight problem, the “Thirst” bar was nearly full.
“Well, obviously (survival 101 for dummies) you harvest snow, melt it and then boil it.”Crouches in the snow…no option to gather snow. Try somewhere else, nope. In the survival menu…nothing. Pause the game and…”Internet, save me!!!”.
Ah, you just interact with the fire (be it a stove or whatever) and the snow gathering is automatic, you have infinite snow, hence infinite water. But not infinite fire starting, don’t waste your matches, after you decide on your homebase, keep feeding that bastard.

And now I stop being so detailed with the playthrough.

The Camp Office also has a workbench, which is obviously used to craft stuff. (basically, clothes and fishing equipment)
To repair stuff you use the inventory select the item and click repair.
One peeve with this is…you can’t make sewing kits. Come on…you can make fishing line and hook but not sewing line and needle? Just use scrap metal like for the hook, or add bones and make it out of bone. (gameplay idea #2)

Was interesting to see how quickly I got into a daily routine, by day 4 of the game I was waking up, gathering wood, feeding the fire (max 12 hours), if necessary getting food, preparing it, eating and then off exploring, by 16-18 each day — depending on how far from the base I was — I would go back, feed the fire again, do some repairs and sleep.
Getting a daily routine was quick.

And on the first play (on easy, so no wolves attacking me) I lasted 14 days, died because I went exploring the other areas for days and eventually ran out of matches. They should really add a more…renewable way of lighting fires. (gameplay idea #3)

Then I tried “Stalker”.
Survived 6 hours, attacked by a wolf and didn’t react quickly enough.

Game ambience wise, the weather variations fit really well, being in deep fog bumbling around, stop for a bit make a fire and come back to a nice sunny day adds to the whole experience.
But there’s one thing that — while realistic — is a bit too much of a game changer: the hunting rifle; before you find it any wolf attack is a life or…wait…is a death or death situation, after you find it (and ammo) wolves might as well be fluffy bunnies.

So…final verdict?
Nice game, hopefully will become even better…so it becomes worth the 20€. (f*cking steam and their USD$20 = 20€)