The Long Dark

We’ve been battered by wave after wave of survival romps since Minecraft popularised the genre, with its deadly nights and groaning zombies, almost a decade ago. In its wake, we've been introduced to a cavalcade of punishing, persistent environments intent on putting us in an early grave. The masochistic impulse to put ourselves through the wringer for entertainment has spread to RPGs, management games, cosmic…

Tagged with best games, feature, Ark: Survival Evolved, Astroneer, Darkwood, DayZ, Don't Starve, Don't Starve Together, Frostpunk, Neo Scavenger, Project Zomboid, RimWorld, Rust, Starbound, State of Decay, Subnautica, Sunless Sea, Terraria, The Forest, The Long Dark, This War of Mine.

The thing I thought I wanted most from The Long Dark proved to be the thing I wanted least. For the many years I've been returning to this truly brilliant and most brutal of survival sims, I so wanted them to deliver on the Story Mode the title screen would always promise. To have a narrative motivation to persist against the odds and the elements…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, review, survival, The Long Dark.

As the Steam Charts slowly attempt to reassemble themselves after last week's complete collapse under the weight of Far Cry 5, think of this week's compilation as the moment the thought-destroyed terrifying monster is halfway through its grotesque reforming. Witness as its undulating viscera twists through recongealing flesh, a bleak but ghoulish moan emanating from deep within its darkest soul.

Tagged with feature, Steam Charts, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Far Cry 5, Grand Theft Auto V, PixArk, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, The Long Dark, Warhammer: Vermintide 2.

The blizzards of Siberia have gone on holiday to the United Kingdom this week. But the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, doesn’t do snow days. The pod squad have trekked hard through the whiteout (from their bedrooms to their computers) to gather on their respective microphones. To what end? Well, to talk about the weather. Blizzards, thunderclouds, sandstorms and, er, night-time? In videogames, it…

Tagged with feature, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, All Walls Must Fall, Assassin's Creed Origins, Northgard, Sailaway, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, The Long Dark, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.

No. Let's not be ridiculous. But there are so many examples of bad survival games that it’s important to remember the good ones. So that’s what we are doing on the latest RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. We're breaking stones over the heads of rubbish survival games, but cooking, salting and eating the delicious ones. Adam wraps himself up in The Long Dark but…

Tagged with charlie cleveland, feature, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Celeste, Dead State, Dying Light, Frostpunk, I Am Alive, Project Zomboid, Rain World, Slay the Spire, Subnautica, The Forest, The Long Dark, The Red Strings Club, The Solus Project, UnReal World.

Toss another podcast episode upon the fire, stranger. The cold is closing in but the Electronic Wireless Show will keep us warm. Pip, Alice and Adam gather round the podfire this week to talk about the lies (Adam tells) at Gamescom, the icy reception to The Long Dark's story mode, the cleansing rain of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and the deadly climates of No Man's Sky. We…

Tagged with feature, Gamescom 2017, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Deadly Premonition, Gamescom, No Man's Sky, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, The Long Dark.

The coloured lights flaring across the night sky in the frozen Canadian wilderness were one of the most anticipated elements of Hinterland's survival game, The Long Dark [official site]. Since the Kickstarter we've known they would do more than brighten the night, playing a key part in the game's episodic story mode, but now they're in the game I find myself braving the uptick in…

Tagged with Art, feature, Hinterland Studio, interview, Raphael van Lierop, State of the Art, The Long Dark.

After a save game mishap I've tagged in for the WIT of The Long Dark's [official site] second story mode episode. Don't worry – the save game thing was a review build issue, not a thing for regular game owners to fret over! But it's meant I've needed to try to marshal my frustrations and pleasures with the game into something approaching coherence. Stay with…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, review, The Long Dark: Wintermute, The Long Dark.

Hello person reading this on the Steam update page for their favourite game! You can only read this paragraph introducing the Steam Charts right now, but I promise if you only click through to the full article you will read insights into this game of the sorts you could never believe! People, it's the mother-stuffing Steam Charts.

Tagged with Citadel: Forged With Fire, feature, Steam Charts, Car Mechanic Simulator 2018, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dark and Light, Foxhole, Grand Theft Auto V, H1Z1: King of the Kill, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, The Long Dark, Total War: Warhammer II.

You look tired, traveller. Come in, sit by the fire and listen to the RPS podcast with us, the Electronic Wireless Show. It's about comfort gaming this week - the things we play when we feel down in the dumps or ill with the flu or just a little cold and tired. Here, drink it all up with your ears, like a nourishing audio broth.…

Tagged with Aetheric Games, feature, Fullbright, Hinterland Studio, Kitfox Games, Podcast, The Fullbright Company, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Bonbon, Final Fantasy IX, Tacoma, The Long Dark, The Shrouded Isle.

While playing the sandbox survival mode of The Long Dark [official site] I often feel the urge to share the beauty of the in-game sky and weather effects, or just the really lovely sense of time passing. Screenshots conveyed some of the magic, but not really the desolation or the subtle shifts so instead I've opted for videos. They're from different times of day and…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, video, The Long Dark.

The Long Dark's [official site] story mode, Wintermute, is finally with us. Well, the first two fifths are, of what developers Hinterland are calling the first season. Due to review code only showing up yesterday, I've been able to complete the first ("Do Not Go Gentle") of the two eps before launch, so below am reviewing that episode on its own. I'll be back with…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, review, The Long Dark: Wintermute, wot i think, The Long Dark.

The Steam summer sale is in full blaze. For a while it even blazed so hot that the servers went on fire and all the price stickers peeled off the games. Either that or the store just got swamped with cheapskates looking for the best bargains. Cheapskates like you! Well, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some recommendations - both general tips and some newly added…

Tagged with Abyss: Wraiths of Eden, Brigador: Up-Armored Edition, Civ 6, Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition, else Heart Break, Empress of the Deep 2: Song of the Blue Whalke, GTA 5, Left 4 Dead 2, Metro Redux Bundle, Morphopolis, Nightmares from the Deep, Resident Evil VII, Samorost 2, Sokobond, State Of Decay, State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition, Steam, Steam Summer Sale 2017, Valve, Void & Meddler, Abzu, Blood Bowl 2, Broforce, Darkest Dungeon, Dead Cells, Deadly Premonition, Devil Daggers, Dishonored 2, Door Kickers, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Dying Light, Endless Legend, Football Manager 2017, Fran Bow, Grand Theft Auto V, Hitman, Hyper Light Drifter, Just Cause 3, Life Is Strange, Machinarium, Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Mountain, NieR: Automata, No Man's Sky, Northgard, Ori and the Blind Forest, Prey, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, SOMA, Stellaris, Subnautica, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, The Long Dark, The Room, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, This War of Mine, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Transistor, Tyranny, Viscera Cleanup Detail, Watch Dogs 2, Wolfenstein: The New Order, XCOM 2.

Below, a thin crevice carved into the rock. Above, the stars. I wasn't quite at the roof of the world but I was definitely in some sort of grim penthouse. The cold didn't bother me anymore, frostbite having chewed the nerves out of my extremities, and the cold wouldn't claim me. Nor would the wolves that seemed determined to keep me on the mountainside. I'd…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, The Long Dark.

If I could, I'd attach their heads to spikes and mark out the perimeter of my territory with their blood. The frozen fields are already littered with carcasses, and I'm wrapped in a stinking hide, but it's not enough to keep the wolves at bay. They are wary of me, but their hunger for my flesh is stronger than their fear. I've been living at…

Tagged with feature, Hinterland Studio, The Long Dark.