Published on September 26th, 2014 | by Dan

First Look: Dan vs. Wild in The Long Dark

On Monday night, I took to the northern wilderness to see if I could survive. I couldn’t. Not for very long anyway. My longest tenure in The Long Dark is above, lasting a little over a day in game time before succumbing to a terrifying combo of cold, hunger, thirst and exhaustion. You can watch me stumble through the wilderness, scavenging clothes, food, water and most importantly avoiding wolves in the video above.

As it stands right now, The Long Dark is incredibly brutal and difficult. The hunger mechanic is a broken mess with the need to eat food being nearly constant. You can seriously never eat enough or be full for any length of reasonable time. Hopefully this is fixed soon as it would make the game that much more enjoyable. Dehydration is less of a threat than hunger, which for a realistic sim is the opposite of how it works in real life. Exhaustion and cold are about right in their calibrations. The additions of a snow shelter, crafting and more should alleviate some of this. You also can’t wield a hunting knife or crowbar as a weapon, which you definitely could in reality.

We will definitely head back into the wilderness soon, but I’m waiting for a major patch to address some of the issues outlined above. You can still try it now on Steam for $19.99 and if you are into survival games, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed despite the problems.