This game is awful

[PaulTheCarman]

EDIT: Okay fine, maybe it's not awful. You'll have to forgive me for being frustrated with a game that is purposefully frustrating.

Even on the easiest difficulty, this game gives you no direction. There's no instruction on where to get food, where to get health, where to get water. I spent my first 30 minutes dying over and over again by starving to death, wandering around in the cold wondering where I was supposed to go. Then the game wants you to utilize the worst throwing mechanic I have ever seen in a video game to kill some rabbits - the game's only food source. After a dozen tries, I finally was able to land one, and then I spent another ten minutes figuring out that I had to harvest it before I cooked it for some reason. And after all that work, it only filled up my hunger by like a third. Immediate uninstall.

I don't get what people see in this game, and it's not because "game hard" either. A good difficult game needs to give you the tools you need to overcome the obstacles placed in front of you. This game doesn't have the courtesy to do that - it just places a giant obstacle and expects you to figure core game mechanics out.

I've read the devs take on why they've done this - to try to capture the feeling of really surviving. But I don't play a game to feel deep down in my soul "Yup, this is surviving. This is truly difficult, very survival yum yum." I play a game to have FUN. And this game is simply not fun.

[nautofon]

It seems that you forgot to read the game's store page, which explicitly states:

NO HAND HOLDING
The game challenges players to think for themselves by providing the information but never the answers. You have to earn the right to survive.

The store page also names several other food sources. Since you evidently didn't read any of that, it seems doubtful that you would have read additional instructions for how to survive if the game had offered them.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/

This game is not for you. But just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's "awful".

[nautofon]

Yeah, you could be right about that. The game mechanics really aren't too difficult to get.

I was probably a bit rash with saying "it's not for the OP".

[IFIYGD]

Another thread that is a copy-pasta of a negative review left after a short amount of playtime. Just long enough to drop Trading Cards.
Shocking.
Though, it won't affect the game's review score, since it was a CD key redemption.

If this was a honest bit of feedback, and not a copy-pasta of a negative review the OP left prior to copying it here, I might try to help and give some tips and pointers. But TBH, to me, it doesn't seem like the OP really wants advice- they just want to get their review text out for more people to see, possibly hoping to farm Steam (Jester) awards on the review and the thread, from the fans in the community.

I could be wrong- we'll see if the OP comes back and actually asks for and accepts tips and advice from long-time players or not.

[PaulTheCarman]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

One thing about Wintermute is to avoid save-scumming (i.e., using saves to get yourself a little farther). If you’re not doing well, learn from that, restart the game, and do better.

I think I will actually do that. I really want to like this game, because I love survival-crafting type games, like Subnautica or the Forest, and I love a good story. This game is just very unhelpful with its tutorials. In fact, following them, I think actually put me at a bad start. At the very beginning, for example - the tutorial says for me to rest in bed, but doesn't tell me I should build up the fire, so it went out overnight and left me freezing, thirsty, hungry once the night passed.

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

With practice, rabbits are easy to hit with a stone, and you can get lots of food by placing a bunch of snares.

You can make snares??? How do you do that? That would make this so much easier. Also, after some Googling, I eventually figured out you could melt snow to get water, instead of relying on those orange soda things. So if I can get food, water, and my temperature up, I think this game might actually be possible lol.

Also, to the big brains who cannot fathom the concept that my immediate response after having a bad time with a game was to complain about the game - please attempt head removal surgery from your rectum.

[nautofon]

Originally posted by PaulTheCarman:

How do you do that?
...
please attempt head removal surgery from your rectum.

Interesting way to ask for help.

Anyway, good luck out there I suppose.

[OhNoes]

Originally posted by nautofon:

NO HAND HOLDING
The game challenges players to think for themselves by providing the information but never the answers. You have to earn the right to survive.

Yes also you need to learn that certain things in game are scripted to piss you of on purpose. Here is one such example: press aim with any weapon at timbermaw wolves and they flee. Why? Well you see devs made it this way so to give hard core player base a way to survive using flares or torches. What a joke! If you shoot one wolf, whole pack morale drops below half or maybe even vanishes...but try to aim when animals flee on your aim rmb press, since rmb is code triggered to flee animation.

Yes EARN your right to survive... LOL
Earn your right to ridicule the game design and urge devs to make it better.
Oh yes ...these wolves can bite you through solid objects too. Walls, fences...really realistic....

Cant wait for a mod with a flame thrower with infinite fuel. Or rail gun so you can shoot through walls. That would be fair i suppose.

[OhNoes]

Rabbits you can...stun...with rock then run to it and either let it go or break its neck. flare gun, revolver, rifle , bow and arrow kill an animal. If you hit them in the head its insta kill, not sure for flare gun tho since the usage is horrible.
Strangly game has no suicide option...kinda like your HP condition goes very low..everything blurs out and player blows his brains out. Theres a scene in episode 4 in one of the houses like this.
Rabbit can be caught with snares which you have to learn first. Crafting various armor you have to learn through quest or various actions in challenge modes.
Personally loved the game when first 2 episodes were playable. Now its just unrecognizable mess.
Bit of spoiler and history lesson : in episode two you will have to kill a bear. Before changes you literally had to travel the land and fing bear on 3 locations, fight him..well shoot at it, survive the conflict and on third time it would die. NOW, you have to find some ancient spear...reforge it, and fight the bear. Yes...with a spear. Since its immune to bullets ...
So like the other guy said ...its realistic survival ahahahaa....w/e really xd

[rhwilson1953]

Originally posted by OhNoes:

< snip >
Strangly game has no suicide option...kinda like your HP condition goes very low..everything blurs out and player blows his brains out.
< snip >

There is the option to run off the nearest cliff. Kinda like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esR_uxKC27o

[PaulTheCarman]

Well, since this thread has magically been bumped again. I'll just take the opportunity to say despite the rough start, I have ended up enjoying this game. I've been a little distracted by other games lately, but at the very least, I don't hate it, and I will probably come back to it.

[PaulTheCarman]

I ended up taking your advice and restarting from the beginning, being much more careful about managing my statuses. I also looked up some gameplay of how to best handle the first night. You more or less have to ignore what the tutorial is telling you to do because if you do that, you get off to a bad start and die endlessly. For example, the game never told me that fires ran out while you sleep. So on my first night after crashing, despite the tutorial telling you to just go to sleep, you have to go to the fire, load it up so it doesn't burn out, and then go to sleep. Realistic? Sure. Annoying? Very.

Once I figured out that detail, I figured out you can get water from snow, and water turned into the easiest resource to manage. The biggest obstacle is consistently having food - because landing those rocks on the rabbits is still a major pain. It doesn't help that the game is very unintuitive about the process of even picking up the rabbit. I've lost countless rabbits because I didn't spam H to put my rock away before running to the rabbit.

But, after I figured all that out, the game is not that hard. I made it to the town, talked to the old lady, she gave me a fetch quest for a bunch of supplies, and that's where I'm at. I've been exploring the town, finding supplies. The game is a lot more fun when you actually know the game mechanics.

[PaulTheCarman]

Yeah, waiting until they're coming towards you is the consistent way for me too. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had a bad first experience with this game lol

[OhNoes]

Originally posted by rhwilson1953:

Originally posted by OhNoes:

< snip >
Strangly game has no suicide option...kinda like your HP condition goes very low..everything blurs out and player blows his brains out.
< snip >

There is the option to run off the nearest cliff. Kinda like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esR_uxKC27o

ahahahaha good one