The Long Dark

If you’ve ever read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road then you know how depressing, painful, and hopeless it is.  Now imagine The Road took place in a snow choked forest deep inside Canada.  Makes you shudder to even think about it, doesn’t it?  That brings us to The Long Dark, from Hinterland Games.

You play the manly William Mackenzie, bush pilot, who gets stranded in the middle of nowhere after his plane crashes during a mysterious event.  Stranded alone in the wilderness with not a razor nor Instagram account for miles William must do whatever it takes to survive.

Gameplay in The Long Dark is described as a “…first person survival simulation…” that sounds like someone threw every Fallout survival mod into a sandbox game.  Not only do you need to stealthily avoid enemies and natural hazards, you also have to be careful all sorts of other real world problems.  There’s the time of day to consider, because it gets frigidly cold at night and you have to stay warm.  There’s not just food to worry about, but the calories you’ve burned versus your intake, and you won’t have a Fitbit to help you!  And don’t forget to drink some liquids with your meal, lest you end up like Graham on the 8th screen in one of his quests.

The Long Dark is being put together by the team at Hinterland Games, a new studio that’s comprised of some impressively experienced team members.  Their games history looks like your Steam Summer Sale fantasy.  Check out their Kickstarter page for more information, and be sure to keep an eye on the updates, they’ve already posted a number of items of interest.  Time runs out on October 16th.