This... could have been rubbish. A game where you're doing nothing but staving off hunger and fatigue until you eventually die? Where's the fun in that?

But surprisingly enough... it's brilliant. What seems to make the difference is the amazingly immersive nature of the environment. People might look at the screenshots and say "Huh? But it looks like a cartoon!" Somehow, that doesn't matter. It's almost the trick of giving you the outline and letting you fill in the blanks yourself with your imagination. The somewhat simplistic visuals allow the developers to put in a huge amount of detail in every location, making every part of the world feel unique. The world of the Long Dark feels real,,, and due to the almost complete absence of other people, it has a feeling of terrible isolation and loneliness about it that reminds me of the rather ancient PC game Midwinter. Also, the visuals really come in to their own when you have a good view, the environment is gorgeous.

A lot of this I have to say is due to the sound design. While there is plent of sound in the game... the source for nearly 90% of it is your character. The crunching of your boots on snow. The clanking of items in your over-full pack. Hell, just having a drink of water. All of it serves to remind you that it's just you against nature. There's no-one to talk to, no-one is coming to help, and you just have to keep going. Even sighting an animal is a significant event.

Balance has improved significantly since early access. When I first started playing, survival felt much more random than it is now. Encountering a wolf was a near-guaranteed death if you couldn't get indoors, and the ability to actually hunt for food was sorely limited if you weren't lucky in finding the right equipment. Now, however, the developers have added a multitude of different ways to hunt and survive, which makes the game more interesting. This makes the game slightly easier overalll... but really it's main purpose is to cut down on the number of "Gotcha!" deaths where the player simply couldn't have done anything to survive a bad bit of luck. Luck is still a factor, but it's much easier to recover from unfortunate events if you know what you're doing.

The story mode is interesting so far. I was somewhat concerned that the introduction of NPCs would ruin the experience, but it doesn't, and there's a definite mystery building here. It adds quests to be completed (that mainly involve using your survival skills) for those who need a bit more direction, but the rest of the mechanics work much the same.

All in all, a hearty recommendation. The Long Dark is a great game to get away from it all, to me. Play it on a dark night with the wind howlign outside for the full experience. If you enjoy watching Alone, you'll love this.