91% rated survival game classic The Long Dark explodes on Steam after big update

91% rated survival game classic The Long Dark explodes on Steam after big update



Between Rust, The Forest, Sons of the Forests, and dozens of others, I’ve played a lot of survival games in recent years. But The Long Dark sticks in my memory the most vividly. Hinterland has created something that truly combines brutality and beauty. As much as it’s a cruel, often violent battle to stay alive, The Long Dark can be peaceful, meditative and serene – the small moments where you’re finally safe in a cabin somewhere, sipping on the remnants of your stove-brewed cup of coffee, have more power because you’ve had to earn them and fight for them. First released all the way back in 2014, The Long Dark has come a long way, and now it’s blowing up on Steam thanks to a transformative new update.

There’s something authentically humanist about The Long Dark. It’s still a survival game, but unlike a lot of its contemporaries, it frames survival as a process of learning, reconciliation, and adapting to your surroundings – it’s not about killing, fighting, and ‘doing what’s necessary.’ Particularly in the story mode, everything you do is to help other people, while trying to preserve the wildlife around you. It’s also deeply tactile. The simple act of getting out of bed, putting on your warmest clothes, and fixing breakfast is somehow infinitely more rewarding than constructing a huge farmstead or customizing a new weapon.

If you haven’t played The Long Dark so far, or you’ve been waiting for a reason to go back, the new update gives you two big reasons. Firstly, it introduces a lot of changes to the paid Tales from the Far Territory DLC. The fearsome cougar that roams the Canadian wilderness now has much more advanced behaviors. If you wander towards its territory, you will begin to see warning signs like scratches on trees and mutilated carcasses. Push on, and you might come face to face with the feline predator itself.

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If you back away (and you should) the cougar will follow you until you either leave its territory or break line of sight for a while by, for example, hiding indoors. If you foolishly decide to take it on, a bullet from your rifle might weaken it so that its attacks only glance over you. Suffer its unimpeded wrath, however, and the cougar will tear you to bits.

If you own the DLC, you can also find a new instant camera. It comes with multiple types of film – color, black and white, and sepia – and you can hang the photographs on the walls of your safehouse (more on that later). DLC owners also have access to the meat-curing box now, which lets you combine salt with any fish or animal flesh you’ve collected and preserve them for later ingestion.

The Long Dark Steam update: A man in a red jacket from Steam survival game The Long Dark

The biggest change, however, comes in the form of Sutherland, a new character who will contact you during the aurora. If you happen to be near an emergency radio when the electrical storm fizzes overhead, you’re likely to catch Sutherland’s broadcasts. He lives offshore in a small boat and won’t come onto the mainland. However, he needs some supplies and will trade you for an array of rare items. Keep dealing with him and you might earn his trust enough that he’ll tell you his story.

But even if you don’t have the Tales from the Far Territory DLC, The Long Dark just got some vital free updates, too. The placement of wildlife has been refreshed, so you might find deer, wolves, and other creatures in areas where you haven’t encountered them before. More significantly, however, you can now find, claim, and customize safehouses. Over 100 interior locations in The Long Dark can be turned into safehouses, including log cabins and watch towers.

You can use the new woodworking tools and workbenches to craft certain decorative and functional items and can either move furniture around or destroy it completely. You can also make minor repairs like fixing broken cabinet doors, but what I like about The Long Dark’s approach to building is that it’s still grounded. You can’t, for example, get rid of large items like ovens, bathtubs, and toilets. You also can’t build new doors and windows. The idea is that you’re adapting interiors to suit your fundamental needs, not constructing a homestead for yourself.

The Long Dark Steam update: A woodland at sunset in Steam survival game The Long Dark

Following the latest update, The Long Dark is enjoying a resurgence on Steam. From a peak of 3,059 concurrent players in November, it recently hit 7,364, the highest number since October 2021. Reviews are still incredibly strong, too – over its lifetime and some 93,000 responses from players, The Long Dark has accumulated a supremely impressive 91% positive rating on Valve’s store.

If you want to give it a go, The Long Dark is also on sale right now and available for $11.99 / £9.59. Just head here.

Otherwise, you might want to try some of the other best single-player games, or maybe the best FPS games available on PC.

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