Review of The Long Dark - Walkthrough and system requirements. The Long Dark: game review The long dark review
How to intrigue correctly
Despite the fact that the full release games The Long Dark took place only relatively recently; it was presented to a wide audience during the time of the mammoths in 2014. Then the game was nothing more than another clone, about a children's sandbox and survival in it. It would seem, what might be of interest to her?! In fact, the game offered virtually nothing new. Almost...
Still, in one way the game was clearly different from its colleagues - the developers chose a very unusual setting. At that time, the theme of survival had not yet had time to rot to the core, but it was already beginning to give off a scent and therefore The Long Dark looked like something truly new. Even the standard problem of eternal early access could not cool the interest of potential buyers.
Steeplechase - Canadian version
The guys from Canada immediately took the right path: you need to learn from the mistakes of your predecessors, and not from your own. They didn’t add any cannibal zombie monsters to the game. Instead, our protagonist's main enemy is nature. Severe northern nature, which does not tolerate weaklings, which we can see every now and then stumbling upon the corpses of unlucky survivors during the game.
They also decided to make the beginning of everything that was happening unique: an inexplicable geomagnetic storm died down in the world of the game, which, inexplicably, changed the weather conditions and disabled all the electronics, and our hero, being a pilot, felt its consequences. Having crashed somewhere over the north of Canada, we are forced to survive, simultaneously trying not to freeze and looking for ourselves female for mating food and a roof over your head. The game also features wild animals, which, like in real world, wander around here and there, hunt each other and, more importantly, react appropriately to the main character. After all, in real life the same wolves extremely rarely attack a person first, because the instinct of self-preservation prevails in most living organisms. In other words, the AI of the game creators was a great success.
"Aw, Drake got in the eye"
Well, what’s a game review without good old Grafon Grafonych?! In this case, however, the graphics are a moot point: on the one hand, the style of the game (to be honest, it’s very pleasant) dictates certain limitations, on the other hand, angularity and even a certain cubism in the picture does not really explain this (although in the release version everything is more -less decent). However, the creators of the game, even in the very early stages of development, made it clear that the main thing in their game is the atmosphere. And really, how can you not be inspired by such views? 
The game isn't that great modern technologies, however, this does not make it any worse. The developers' motives for making the game dark are immediately apparent. So dark as to evoke a feeling of fear. But more on that later.
"Pa-ram-pam-pa-pam"
There's not much to say about The Long Dark's soundtrack. There is practically none here. The main motive of the game is howling. Everything howls here - the wind, wolves, grafodcher mountain peaks, and sometimes silence howls, reminding you of your hopelessness. The hero himself, it seems, sometimes does not mind howling from cold and hunger. However, sometimes out of the corner of your ear you can hear a subtle ambient sound, which seems to hint that you are not welcome here.
"Three shells out of order!"
It’s not for nothing that I spent the entire review spouting reverent exclamations about something incomprehensible. The whole beauty of the game is not in such conventions as the picture, and certainly not in its sound (although they are undoubtedly important). These are only two planes. They do not have a "spine". This very “spine” here is the atmosphere. This is where I will focus my attention.
As I wrote above, the main charm of The Long Dark is its atmosphere. The people who worked on its creation clearly knew a lot about their business. Few games these days can boast the same degree of immersion. gameplay. The game looks extremely dark. She really wants the player to feel with every fiber what the protagonist is forced to experience. All that pain and suffering, all those trials, all those difficulties. In higher circles this is called immersiveness. This is what makes The Long Dark worth playing. These are the deep sensations that no other game will give you. This is the feeling of fear when a bear is running after you, the feeling of guilt when you rob corpses, the feeling of sadness when you could not survive. It's a feeling of victory. Victory over nature. Victory over yourself...
To sum it all up, I want to say the following - there has not been, is not and there will never be another game that would immerse you in yourself so much and in which such elusive sadness and fear will hold you back until the last. For me, this is the determining factor that once and for all convinces me that the game is worth the candle!
The Long Dark was released on August 1st. But many players have been familiar with it for several years. The fact is that since 2015, game owners have had the opportunity to survive in an unlimited sandbox. And all this time, “stalkers” and “uninvited guests,” with hundreds of hours of play behind them, were waiting for the release of the story campaign, on which they had high hopes.
Finally, the first two episodes of the campaign have opened. They brought joy... and disappointment.
Here they are, the conditions, here it is, Wednesday!
Let us explain the basic mechanics of survival in The Long Dark for beginners: in our sandbox, in order not to die, the hero must eat, drink, sleep and warm himself by the fire from time to time. This is the basics and minimum, and then there are tons of nuances.
So, in the wind, the accumulated reserve of heat evaporates faster, and sweet soda not only quenches thirst, but also satisfies a little. Sleep relieves some health problems, such as sprains and bruises, but even during sleep, calories are consumed, so if you jump into a sleeping bag on an empty stomach, you may well not wake up.
And if, when entering a room, you undress naked, then the clothes will last longer: after all, everything here wears out, breaks, tears, deteriorates and becomes unusable.
Built-in medical reference: headband, painkiller for arm. The main thing is not to mix it up, otherwise you will have to start the game over again!
Elements of strategic planning are brought into play by the limitation on the total weight of property, and this also includes clothing. So, on short trips for supplies, it’s better to run around in your underpants. But when exploring new territories, you should dress according to the rules: waterproof and windproof on top, warm on the body.
At the beginning of the game in survival mode, we select a map and then appear on it in a random place. Also by chance, a set of trophies appears in cabinets and chests scattered throughout the area: from old newspapers to an ultra-rare gun with cartridges. The task is simple: survive as long as possible.
At simple difficulty levels, you can walk through the Canadian taiga endlessly: predatory animals are not aggressive, and immunity to infections and food poisoning is high. The peak of the nightmare comes at the level "Uninvited Guest": surviving on it for a week is already an achievement.
A couple of years ago, maps had to be drawn by hand. Since then the game has become more user friendly
For the past time The Long Dark has changed a lot, and first of all externally: the interface has become clear and convenient, even a map of the area has appeared. True, it is also realistic: the main objects are visible on it, but one can only guess about the location of the player himself. There are new plants that can be collected, and many new territories have opened up. So if you once started, but haven’t gone looking for bunkers and fishing for a long time, then the release should be taken as a reason to return to survival mode.
Why not in story campaign? Let's explain now.
Due to weather conditions, sometimes you have to stay indoors all day. Fortunately, when visiting survivors you don't have to worry about firewood
Mine, miners, mine
The world, they say, needs heroes. But still more to the world we need a plot. Setting survival records in the icy taiga, we could not help but notice that a sudden atmospheric cataclysm did not explain the degree of surrounding desolation. Where did the pile of snow-covered ruins come from at every step? Why are they destroyed not only outside, but also inside? Where have the people who used them gone?
In theory, local crazed wolves can answer the last question: they are methodically clearing the area of everything that consists of flesh and blood. But to general devastation material base Forest orderlies are definitely not involved. All this needs to be explained.
Who slept on this mattress before the establishment finally closed? Watchman?
Hinterland apparently shared the same opinion. And the world had a prehistory, and devastation (or even so: Devastation) became a period alternative history modern Canada.
The banking crisis led to an unprecedented economic downturn. Dollars began to cost less than the paper they were printed on, and all payments switched to yuan and bitcoins. And while the United States was still fluttering around, Canada instantly slipped under the protectorate of its southern neighbor, becoming a modern colony. And she was quickly convinced that any colony is a resource that the metropolis will quickly suck out to the last drop.
Pieces of other people's lives. There could be a lot more of them, but most of the abandoned houses are completely faceless
The local economic infrastructure has already been curtailed, only large industries and big cities. The fictional island of the Great Bear, on which we find ourselves, turned out to be away from the surviving trade routes, and gradually industry and resource extraction on it completely stopped. The bulk of the population left for the mainland in search of a better life, leaving only the elderly and the most stubborn patriots.
Most of them were dealt with by natural disasters and crazy animals.
The ATMs have run out of cash. All the dollars went to kindling, because there is no point in them anymore. But at Milton's bank we will have several opportunities to practice cracking safes. It's pretty simple
An old lady plus a hatchet?
The process of the death of the Great Bear was long and not so unknown to the rest of the world. No wonder the red-nosed pilot William Mackenzie is not eager to fly into the wilderness: if something happens, there is nowhere to wait for help. But Dr. Astrid Greenwood is persistent and knows what to push: after all, they used to be... intimately acquainted. And, judging by the hints, the acquaintance may well go into the second round. You just need to first find the energetic doctor who, after the plane crash, rushed off to God knows where, leaving her suitcase behind.
The plot of the story: the doctor rushes to the patient, and, fortunately, she has a pilot acquaintance. This is where the happiness ends. In subsequent episodes, we have yet to find out what became of Dr. Astrid. And what's in her locked suitcase?
Will seems determined to catch up, search and rescue, but first he needs to recover and go through the process of learning the basics. To do this, players will be locked in a small area with a renewing supply of firewood. When the newcomers learn how to make a fire and make tea, they will be released a little further away.
With the arrival of the half-naked pilot, the population of the town of survivors will exactly double, and the old woman with a rifle will teach us how to stock up, run from wolves and sew rabbit mittens. And in the second episode, William will fall into the tenacious hands of a wounded trapper, who will provide him with a gun and bless him to fight a man-eating bear. Spoiler? Completely, there is nothing to spoil in the local plot at all!
Everything Will learns on his journey is recorded in a journal. Sometimes you can find valuable advice there
No, of course, we will learn a couple of stories and background stories, watch a dozen videos and even find a few letters and notes. But in general, both the Gray Mother and the bearded Jeremy are perceived not as long-awaited surviving brothers in the icy desert, but as annoying stumps in the plot clearing.
In the end, of course, it turns out that their whims were important for moving forward in the plot. But, having chosen the “catch up and save” approach, the scriptwriters did not quite hit the notes, which is why Will’s journey received a controversial validity: while completing the quests, Dr. Astrid could easily have run to the Canadian border even with a broken leg.
Dead people are not scary. They lie there quietly, and sometimes they keep something valuable in their pockets
And after the free, open and unpredictable world of the sandbox, the narrative locked in a corridor does not provide any incentive to immerse yourself in history or create it with your own hands. After all, it would seem that there is an old woman, there is a hatchet. If he doesn’t want to help, let’s use the hatchet! No, not like the old lady, we don’t have Fallout. We just pick the locks, search the house and find out for ourselves what the owner was trying to hide.
Yes, trust cannot be gained this way, which means we will be left without rabbit mittens. In survival mode, this could be a tragedy... but not here. Here Will, with a light heart, says to himself: “Well, God be with them, because there are plenty of branches, firewood, fuel and matches at every step!”
The cute rabbit just wants to be stroked and released. But... food! Fishing lines! Mittens!
Give me my ear!
A protracted “training”, on which a series of quests are somehow strung together, will disappoint experienced “stalkers” and “uninvited guests” who do not need to be taught how to collect firewood and wring the necks of bears. Green newcomers should treat it much more favorably. But will this kindergarten experience help you cope with the challenging levels of the roguelike sandbox?
After his first attempt, Will will not soon pick up a gun again. And in general, you need to save cartridges; you can’t make them on a workbench
The existing survival mode has four difficulty levels: from “a walk in the park” to “an unbearable nightmare.” But in the story episodes the complexity is balanced strangely. Wolves here not only attack, but are capable of tearing clothes into shreds and tearing them out of hands and backpack valuable items. True, there is no point in repairing trousers: in the surrounding boxes there is enough junk for ten people. An infection from a bite doesn’t even need to be treated: just sleep and it will go away. But just by jumping off the steps, Mackenzie will get a sprained leg and a torn scarf! And due to the nature of saving, dying in the wrong place can make the game unplayable.
Wherever Will goes, he leaves behind a trail of discarded or left-behind finds. The plot is generous with trophies
And here we come to the most annoying part: the technical side. In the first days after the release, the developers released four patches, but the situation was never completely corrected. The game switches between gameplay and story cutscenes with the grace of an overloaded barge: yours truly, for example, could not complete a part of the path for two hours, during which Will suddenly decided to speak out loud. But the most annoying punishment was given to the players by the bear, the “boss” of the second episode.
Mountaineering is another source technical problems. If the weight of the backpack is even one hundred grams above the limit, you will see amazing special effects
A multi-stage battle may well end with the disappearance of the bear after the death of the player, but even a skillfully driven and completely rested predator sometimes simply refuses to give up the quest ear. And this puts an end to the passage: start the episode over again or wait for patches! Although the most fun is probably for those who, after two years of playing The Long Dark, simply stopped launching due to installing a release update.
Well hello. It's me, your most unpleasant encounter
The creators of Firewatch managed to tell an extremely simple story in such a way that we listened. Yes, Firewatch is not a survival game. Then let's remember This War of Mine, in which stories emerged right before our eyes. Just like in a local sandbox, where there are enough unexpected situations for a whole library of stories. But Hinterland decided to make another, separate one - and it turned out that being stuck in a plotless “survival” was much more interesting.
So, having made a circle of a couple of years, we return to the roots.
Interesting fact: both an airplane and a fire burn the same way. But the fire warms, but the plane does not!
Even if subsequent episodes do not improve the situation with the campaign, The Long Dark will still remain one of the best simulators survival and perhaps the only truly realistic one. Over the years in Early Access, simple, logical mechanics have acquired a finally smoothed out and completed look.
The last minutes of the second episode give a shaky hope that everything will still “spin” in an interesting and unpredictable way. But even if this happens, not everyone will make it through the long path along the corridor of the banal plot of the first two episodes.
Verdict
First episodes story mode We were not impressed by anything. But in the end, The Long Dark got along just fine without him, and will continue to do just fine. 5 for the story campaign, 8 for the sandbox.
Final score: 6.5 points out of 10. Review of The Long Dark
Well, we know firsthand what cold is. Double glazed windows are commonplace for us, but for some, the cold is something extraordinary. In our country, -40 is not terrifying, it only makes you a little surprised. Warm coat, hot food, thick walls and we no longer know what cold is. Oh yes, and of course the housing and communal services that heat the radiators as if they were expecting the arrival of the ice age in half with... “Winter is coming.” We practically don’t know what cold is while the car is running, but if the engine stalls, it’s scary to find yourself somewhere far from society. This is not the case in The long dark.
What happened? Where am I? Why is it so cold (however, this question is easy to answer, it’s winter)? Is there a forest all around? Apparently it's time to look for the death pit. Unfortunately, this is the case, if you get lost in the forest in winter, at a temperature of -30, this is the most optimal plan of action. However, let’s not be sad, this is just a game, we’ll probably take ten steps now and find ourselves warm, full and feeling like Robinson. True, first you need to not die from the cold, and you’re hungry... I think I heard a howl?
We see sandbox survival in a winter post-apocalyptic world. What will we need to do? Survive. How, think for yourself. The authors of The long dark were guided by a cruel policy of survival, so no one will explain anything to you. Collect branches, look for matches, maybe you will find a chocolate bar. Study the world, figure it out.
The atmosphere of The long dark is simply unforgettable. Snow, cold, wind, winter forest, abandoned houses. You can feel the coolness from just the sight, and when you see a wolf, the thought “well, fuck it” pops up. The graphics are quite good high level, however, some elements may be confusing. For example, the absence of hands when carrying a rifle. Let's make do with the expression " early access", maybe they will correct it, maybe not, but this small drawback becomes completely unnoticeable compared to the advantages.
So, what will the game hook us with? The long dark captivates with its atmosphere, challenge, hardcore circumstances, desire to explore the world and survive. In it you will enjoy a nice long scarf that you can wrap around your entire head, a can of beans, and finding a bottle opener is truly a pleasure. Opening a tin can on a stone is honestly not cool. If this is what interests you, you can easily spend 8-15 hours playing the game until you are confident that you can survive in the winter forest with one match and one sock.
If you are interested in it, then there are a few tips that will help you get all the emotions out of the game, because the desire to simplify it can appear almost immediately. Or at least after the first two or three deaths from hunger and cold. Hang in there, the "challenge" is a very exciting part of the game.
SNOR“...We think of Hell as fire, supervised
by a cackling sadist in a red union suit.
Fyrine IV taught me this much: Hell is
loneliness, hunger, and endless cold."
Barry B. Longyear"Enemy Mine"
A fictional island located somewhere in northern Canada has become a kind of arena where civilization clashes violently with wildlife. The first round was left to the people: there are paved roads, tourist centers, mines, fishing settlements and small towns, one of the rivers was even blocked with an impressive dam... But the economic crisis began, and big business ceased to be interested in the distant piece of land. Earthquakes destroyed the carefully built infrastructure, the unpleasant climate scared away the inhabitants, and an inexplicable cataclysm finally completed the defeat. Now the local open spaces resemble a post-apocalyptic wasteland - devastation is all around, abandoned cars are rusting on the highway, in abandoned populated areas Empty houses creak in the icy wind. Winter, although not nuclear, is in full swing, and instead of predatory mutants, eternally hungry and unnaturally aggressive wolves and bears are prowling around.
Unlike the similar one, it does not create its own island randomly at the beginning of each “race” - we have to wander around the same map. However, it is difficult to call this a real problem. The authors managed to compensate for the lack of “random”: games can be very long, the world is big, we choose the starting point ourselves, and the “loot” is moved to new places every time, so you won’t get bored walking here soon. The advantages of this approach are obvious: hand-made terrain is more interesting, more convincing and prettier than generator crafts. By the way, the appearance of the game is in order - the peculiar stylized graphics do not shine with detail, but beautiful landscapes often appear on the monitor.
True, there is usually no time to leisurely view spectacular sunsets, sunrises and northern lights. The cold penetrates to the bones, the stomach is aching from hunger and thirst, a familiar melancholy howl is heard not far away, there are only three cartridges left in the precious hunting rifle. No, it doesn’t force you to run back and forth as if scalded, trying to keep up with the rapidly running clock, like many other representatives of the genre - the speed of the passage of time is adequate and does not cause bewilderment. But winter is merciless, and in order to survive it, you need to hunt hares and deer, fish, repair and make equipment, chop wood for a saving fire... And, of course, explore this terrible, frozen land cut off from civilization in search of clothing and useful items and suitable shelters - after all, the most ordinary blizzard can be much more dangerous than a whole pack of wolves if you don’t have a thick down jacket on your shoulders.
The juice, as we know, is hidden in the details, and with their abundance, the creation is capable of squeezing a stingy stalker’s tear out of the harsh virtual “survivors.” For example, freezing is affected not only by air temperature, but also by wind, and you can hide from it behind rocks and thick tree trunks to light a fire and catch your breath. In snowfall, clothing gets wet, impairing heat retention, and then stiffens, making movement difficult. The blizzard is gradually tearing it apart, and if you are left without the same mittens, you will no longer get away with general hypothermia - the hero (or heroine) will easily freeze his hands. Of course, it is advisable to dress your character wisely, combining warm and windproof things in the most favorable proportions. And such nuances are a dime a dozen.
A wise stalker regularly goes through his backpack, dooming himself to the agony of choice, because the 30 kg limit cannot be increased with any additional bag, and overweight leads to overwork. You need to think about almost every action - even quickly preparing brushwood in the cold destroys precious calories, not to mention carefully cutting up a deer carcass. It’s important to look around carefully - you can make a disinfecting compress from that moss, it’s better to avoid wolves, these circling crows point to someone’s corpse, and no one has canceled the rummaging of ruins. However, throwing yourself headlong into research, forgetting about time, is dangerous: the cold at night is almost unbearable, and it is wiser to save signal light bombs for attacks by predators - they scare away crazy animals no worse than fire. It also forces you to extricate yourself from seemingly hopeless situations - bad luck and mistakes are completely inevitable, so sooner or later you will definitely find yourself in a hellish blizzard, fall through the ice at -35 ° C, get lost in the fog or grapple with an angry bear.
Yes, the world could have been a little more rich, and the tedious QTE battles with wolves that replaced melee combat should have been thrown into the trash altogether, but overall it turned out to be a cool “sandbox” capable of creating the right atmosphere and exciting adventures without the intervention of the screenwriter. But the attempt to tie it into the plot completely failed - Wintermute looks like a hastily sewn on add-on, even less exciting than the boring missions from the Challenges section, offering to run away from the bear and stock up on supplies before a monstrous storm.
Like the unnamed character from Survival, Will McKenzie is a pilot who makes an emergency landing when a strange anomaly causes his engine to fail. Only he was not flying alone, but with his ex-wife, a doctor named Astrid, who urgently needed to get to Great Bear, despite the night and disgusting weather. Dr. Astrid's case seems to be of truly critical importance - to such an extent that she left the wounded Will and disappeared into the forest, abandoning her mysterious suitcase with combination lock. Now we need to find her without dying in the process.
The search is supposed to follow a linear route - the passages to “unnecessary” locations are neatly blocked, and even in the necessary ones it is almost pointless to explore the area, since the pilot will most likely be sent to all more or less interesting places according to the plot. A couple of characters (a blind old woman with a gun in the first episode and a hunter mauled by a bear in the second) selflessly throw out idiotic “grind” tasks like “bring 5 kg of fish and 10 kg of meat,” promising in return to tell them where Astrid went and refuse them, of course. by yourself, you can’t. It is clear that the inhabitants of the island are extremely concerned about their food, but Mackenzie seems to be rushing to the aid of a beautiful lady... Add a pinch of “bugs” and shortcomings, unimportant dialogues, an absurd “boss” bear - and the unpleasant picture will appear before you in its entirety dubious beauty.
* * *
Perhaps one of the best “survival simulators”. Just don't run Wintermute - save your nerves.
Andrey Miroshnichenko
The Long Dark