A Video Game: The Long Dark

I don't normally play video games. I really like them, but I don't play them. My personality tends towards escapism in the form of writing, reading or videos. They occupy me a lot and I can lose myself in the last one very easily. More so than usual, I've been watching and now playing, probably due to the fact that I'm suffering from job dissatisfaction.

The regular maker of my demise.... courtesy of  Game Informer

While I've advocated my love for my job, it is very draining and when things go wrong, they go very wrong. I struggle still to emotionally detach myself from things that are not meant to be personal but the worries build up and I often get the feeling that there's no one there to go to for help. Just a voice and a wallet, sometimes not even that.

So my game came about on two days off. With the new release of Mortal Kombat, Will was looking forwards to the Brutalities of tearing someone in two. I've liked Mortal Kobat, but its not something I feel I gain anything from, and I certainly can't seem to lose myself in any sort of Combat game, with a C or a K. After a long while of playing it, he took a break and tried a demo on the Xbox.

The Long Dark.

I could see why Wolves can be seen as villainous. But their just hungry, like me.

What started from Kickstarter by a Canadian production company is a Survival game, but not just any survival game! A Zombie free one.

Yes that's right, no zombies. They have been done to death for me and they freak me out still, more so, I'm sure, in a game format.

Set during winter, in Northern Canada, a survivor of choice crash lands in the woods and is quickly forced to survive the situation before them by scavenging, hunting, and learning to face the harsh and lonely world before them. Intermittent with haunting music that forces the player to wonder if something is about to strike, but instead leaves them with only their thoughts. Its not completely lonely. Like any Canadian wilderness its littered with wolves, bears, rabbits, deer and even fish in the lakes. And these creatures, like their live counter parts will hunt and eat you if given the chance. Wolves more than bears do this, but if your healthy enough or have a weapon on you, you can defend your self. If you do survive  then your left to contend with freezing temperatures, dwindling light, water and food. The art work is beautiful and the colour pallet really well chosen.

Night in my favourite hide away. Courtesy of the Steam Page you can download it at.

I've died countless times in the game, yet I find it tantalizing just to try and beat the sucker, try and get a little further and see what I get to start off with.

Above all, the death sequence lets me appreciate the game even more. Initially I thought "The Long Dark" refereed to winter, which can be long dark. But it is referring to a much longer dark. Death. Ah death, my most interesting companion.

It haunts the fringes of the character, even when you're stats are at their highest, a missed shot at a deer, or a surprise wolf attack, or even a miss understanding of the initial game play can result in death, slow or fast. And there's no going back to your last save. When your dead, you saves vanish and you enter the Long Dark.

For me the game harkens back to the beautiful brutality of life in North American Wilderness, something I find dead and gone in Scotland, with only ghostly echo over the moors. Cold and fridged winters, the weariness of the woods and reality of death if you make a mistake. The fact that no one person can be master of it leaves me hopeful and even homesick. Which is why this game has engrossed me so much. Not like the Sims where you escape to the material, but the game were you escape to the reality of the world beyond your front door, or even this Island.

Of course you can start again! I'd like to post a video of the play through but me thinks.

+ I've seen some pretty Killer Maps for the Mystic Lake region.
++Have you heard the new Of Monsters and Men album???? Do this.