I had survived for five long, cold days.

At dawn I exited the little cabin by the lake and walked out onto the ice. This frozen expanse had provided me with valuable resources, so I made my camp in the lodge across the way.

As I began to make my way back to camp, we spotted each other. A very large, very angry bear stood to my right. We locked eyes and everything stopped. I raised my rifle as he charged and fired. Direct hit, but still he came. As the remaining three bullets did little to slow him, I realized this was it.

He hit with the force of a runaway truck. Teeth and claws thrashed and ripped by clothes and flesh. The attack lasted mere seconds, but the damage was done. I pulled myself, bleeding and bruised from the ice and administered what little first aid I had. With the last small ounce of adrenaline left in me, I began to run. Straight across for the lodge where all of my extra supplies, firewood and food were.

The black crept into the edges of my vision. My staggering grew worse. I couldn't walk straight, but still I pushed on. After what seemed like a lifetime, I pulled myself to the door of the cabin and went inside. Slowly up the stairs, vision all but gone, I crept. Finally, I lit a fire with my last accelerant and a few books. Water, food, rest and pain killers pulled me back from the brink over the next day.

When back at 100 percent, I ventured out for more ice fishing, only to be surrounded by wolves and killed; overtaken by hypothermia and blood loss.

I survived six days, eight hours.

TLD is the definative survival game. Lightyears ahead of anything else.

Well I bought TLD sometime back in 2014, just after they added the Coastal Highway map. For the purposes of this review, i've only ever played on Stalker difficulty.

I still remember my first death.....I spawned, walked 20ft into a building and was mauled to death by a wolf that came running out of the darkness like some horror film whilst trying to work out how the inventory system worked 3 minutes into the game. I got better after that.

TL;DR
I'll say this and this only:

The Long Dark is the only game where I thought I should have bought it twice for the amount of effort and content the dev team have put into it over the two years since I bought it originally. I'd gladly pay for the whole game again. TLD is not your run of the mill survival game, If you like an atmospheric survival where you think and make your own descisions about what you do next, you will like TLD.


Full:

This is not your run of the mill multiplayer survival etc. It's more of a carefully crafted atmospheric story that drives itself as you play through the sandbox. There is no guide, no hand holding, no tutorial. TLD makes you think to overcome problems. If you think that is what you would do in real life, there is a good chance that is what you would do in TLD. You're bleeding and have no bandages? What would you do IRL? The more you do this, the better you get at the game.

The other thing is TLD can force you to make choices, There is a blizzard, you're slowly dieing of cold...do you hunker down? or do you continue on? Will you make your safehouse?

It's nasty out and you're out of food. Do I stay and wait it out? or do I try and make a run for it? Do I know the way back? How far is it? Will I get lost? Will I make it back before the sun sets? Is it safer to stay here?

The above are all situations i've found myself in within the game and made the right descisions to get out of them.

There is no game like TLD currently and it's one of the best games and personally highly rated games in my collection. It is the definitive survival game.

The devs are constantly updating the game and have added loads since bought it, including two new maps and mechanics changes and additions. The game has come a very long way.

Hinterland are very receptive to player input and feedback, more than any other developer i've come across. After playing for a long time I made several posts on the Hinterland forums about how to possibly improve the game (imho) and several of them appeared in later builds, most notably the addition of skill books.


A word on story mode. Yes it's been delayed several times but i've seen the changes that are being made and honestly, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I have every confidence in story mode being released and i'd rather it was delayed and highly polished than just released.

TLD really is a unique single player game, It has so so much more depth than anything out there. So, if you're in doubt, or teetering on the edge or comparing it with another survival title, just buy TLD, you won't regret it.

I have to admit I was a little weary playing this game. It was difficult and I found it really hard to get a footing or control of the situation. Then I realized, that's the whole point! It's supposed to be difficult you crash landed in the middle of nowhere...so it seems. I encourage you to not let this game go! Trudge through the "dying all the time" stage and be patient trust me you will have a very fun survival experience.

This is simply one of the best games I played in years.

Superb Survival mechanics without zombies!!!! At last.

I bought this game a while ago, but I decided to write a review now. I had been looking for a survival game that would be as as close to real wilderness survival as possible. If you have spent any significant amount of time backpacking in wilderness you will understand how unforgiving it can be. And this game portrays that aspect of real life, granted wildlife like wolves don't come charging and try to kill you when they see you. I would say if you want a game that is very challenging and can be brutally unforgiving and will test your skills and luck around every corner, buy this game and immediately play it on Stalker mode. You won't regret it.

I am most likely going to get downvotes and probably have my review marked as "funny" due to certain members of the community, but I'm here to say what I've been holding off on saying for the past few months.

I bought The Long Dark primarily for the Story Mode; back when it was seemingly right around the corner. On the fence about purchasing, I was persuaded by the 90%(!) approval rating and endless amounts of positive reviews, so I thought I'd buy the game. While waiting for the Story Mode, I thought I might as well give Sandbox a try, so I'll start there.

Sandbox mode started out fair enough - The visuals were amazing, the wolves felt like threats, and I was always on the edge of my seat, planning my next move. The atmosphere was great.

However, after some hours, it became obvious that there was no point to surviving - There is simply nothing much to live for. Even with these new "challenges," the game's sandbox lifetime is disappointingly short. Simply put: It gets rather boring. Surviving for months is a tedious chore, not a fun adventure. There's no reason to live. If the game had been marketed as yet another sandbox survival, I wouldn't have bought it. There's a multitude of those already, most of which are better than this game.

Moving on to the mess that was/is Story mode: 18 months and multiple failed release dates later, the devs have engaged in a rigorous "it's done when it's done" stance. Waiting for months upon months for a story mode that was promised to be delivered months ago and may be at best only a few hours long is not my cup of tea. I have been holding off on writing this review, but as time passed I ended up feeling disappointed and angry as The Long Dark seemed to be traveling down a never-ending road of Early Access, sadly like so many other games.

This is the first Hinterland product I have purchased, and it will also be my last. I've uninstalled the game, and it will most likely remain uninstalled for the rest of eternity.

Best survival game ever made!

Very difficult, great atmosphere. 10/10 would get eaten by wolves again!

I've followed this game from late 2014 and much has happened since then. HUD has seen many changes. Gameplay tweaks have made it more fluent. New mechanics have been introduced.

Yet the game feels very empty for me. There is nothing to do or see. I have done it all. Even the challenges dont help it because most of them rely on the aspect that you dont know the lay of land.

At first I thought that Hinterland is a different studio compared to the rest of the indie developers but no. Its the same. They have showed that they have 0 (ZERO) interest in making the story mode and finally making the game complete.

All they want to do is keep to the game in EA and keep milking the cash from "Major updates" that they produce (read; tiny gameplay changes and small mechanics that dont serve the game e.g smithing). Story mode was promised to us in Spring and I can understand that sometimes you might need more time to make it. But things get a bit hypocrite when you still keep developing sandbox.

Wish I could get my money back from this fraud.

The most valuable advise I can give:
"Do not try to take with you everything you see".