The Long Dark

The Quiet Apocalypse isn’t without problems, but Hinterland's commitment to adding new content, while refining the experience over the years, has positioned The Long Dark at the top of the survival genre’s pecking order. The Long Dark is a must-play for anyone who is even remotely intrigued by it.

The Long Dark is a title that successfully uses the classic plot device of man vs. nature. With so much detail put into the gameplay, it can be easy to feel as cold as your player in this freezing Canadian wilderness. The endlessly entertaining survival mode lets you explore Great Bear Island to your heart’s desire.

In the end, The Long Dark won me over through the same war of attrition it demanded of me during playing. What starts as an oppressive wilderness and battle of the elements eventually unfolds into a gratifying progression as I learned how to survive efficiently through trial and error. They say that adversity builds character, and if you can grow some thicker skin, there’s a lot of character in The Long Dark to discover.

Even though the port has extremely clunky controls and horrendously optimized graphics, The Long Dark’s survival and challenge modes offer hours of unhinged fun trying to cope and survive in the harsh Canadian wilderness. The campaign, while unfinished and episodic, offers a wholly divergent approach from typical post-apocalyptic genre norms.

The Long Dark is an onerous experience, but a memorably and powerfully atmospheric one. Its Survival mode stands out as something of a singular achievement on the Switch – and one we'd urge you to try if you don't mind freezing to death more than a few times before you've got a grip on how to last a couple of nights. It's difficult to call it outright fun given its sheer hostility, but it's certainly absorbing and at times downright terrifying game.

It’s about survival, not taking in the view, even though it can be sublime. And the story provides enough information without offering superfluous content. It’s a great balancing act. And that’s what you have to do as the player in order to keep alive: balance your resources and your time.