The Long Dark - Sandbox Launch Game Review
Hey all.
Today I am reviewing The Long Dark Sandbox Launch. This is a first person survival game where you explore the map to find food tools shelter and if your lucky a gun. There are no monsters to fight or other people to kill, you just need to fight off the cold, hunger and the occasional wolf.
From the main menu you can choose to be male or female and then go on to choose one of two maps "Mystery Lake" or "Coastal Highway". The story starts of with "A mysterious geomagnetic storm has brought your plane crashing down into the Northern Canadian wilderness." from here on in you are on your own. The "Mystery Lake" map is centered around a large frozen lake with log cabins around the lake as well as on small islands in the lake, as well as the occasional fisherman's hut.
The "Coastal Highway" I found to be very similar but as both maps are quite large it is hard to say. When playing "Coastal Highway" I found that I was spawning more near the lake, where as when I was playing "Mystery Lake" I was in the forest a lot more, both maps were equally enjoyable for me. During the game you will spend most of your time moving from building to building in the urge to find more loot. Whilst you are moving from place to place you are able to find small loot spots such as dead animals such as rabbits or deer where you can collect skins and meat. You can also come across dead bodies. When I first came across one of these bodies it was covered in snow flat on its front or back I couldn't tell. My first impression of this was great something to loot but it had nothing on it, the next one I came across was exactly the same at which point my head dropped as I thought they had just put is a basic dead body character with nothing ever on them as a extra visual with in the snowing landscape. As I continued to play on though I started to find birds circling the same spot and went over to check it out and this time I found a body resting against a tree as if it had all become to much to go on and sat down for his final rest. This body also had loot on him so I became much happier when I found these bodies onward as I never know what position they would be in or what they would have on them, whether it is a hunting knife or an energy bar.
The looting system is like most survival games, where you enter a house and search through cupboards and draws. In the houses if there is a fridge you can also loot that as well as any weapon holders around the house. You can also take water from the toilet ready to drink if you don't have any canned liquids already. There are five categories to what types of loot you can find, clothing, food and drink, first aid, tools and materials all of which can be found just about anywhere items to have a weight and condition value. The condition value decreases the usefulness of the item such as a pair of working boots with 100% condition with have better warmth bonus and windproof bonus then if it had only 65% condition. So this is something that should be kept an eye on so when you do come across an item of clothing that has a better condition it may be worth changing over the clothes but make sure you drop or put away the other clothes other wise you will end up having overloaded your self as you can only carry up to 30kg. I found that when I went over this value I couldn't run for anywhere near as long, even after I had dropped all my unwanted clothes though I was still packing to much, turns out I had to much food. So I thought I should set up a base camp, I then went around all the cabins I could find to see which one was most suitable, a cabin with a fridge, bed and wood burner. I then when on and stored all my gear other then basic food and drink along with first aid. and was able to carry on exploring and return at night to eat drink warm back up and sleep, as well as store my new goodies.
Now for the evaluation of the game, lets start with the positives. The sounds in this game really stood out for me as every foot step as in sink and matched what I was running on as I changed from wood to snow to concrete. The breathing, wind, animal sounds were all great and I could tell a lot of time was spent on developing each sound and making sure they were in sink with the game itself. One of the biggest parts of what people look for in a game is graphics, has realistic is it?, well it isn't realistic, It looks a bit like The Walking Dead graphics if you have ever played that, it is all drawn but it has a sort of video game realism to it as it is all so consistent and honestly looks great whilst playing it. The AI with in the game, the wolves, rabbits and deer all interact very well with each other and the player.The only criticisms I have are with regards to the buildings, mainly the lighting. Almost every building requires a loading screen to load the building, which I know doesn't take very long and is great that I can get in and out of houses with very little delay. I wouldn't mind having to wait another 30 seconds on the first loading screen or how ever long it took for everything in the game to load and play fluently. The windows on the builds don't allow you to look in or out of them. The first time I heard a blizzard I had no idea what was going on out side and had to go out side to find out where I would have rather just looked out of the window to check. Before leaving the house I would also like to check to see if there are any wolves near by as I had one experience where I walked out side and had to go straight back in because a wolf has just noticed me and started to chase me down.. The last criticism I have is the lighting inside the buildings as sometimes it doesn't work quite right as you can see below. The lighting whilst outside though I found was great.
I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes survival games, I don't think is this would convert someone that hates survival games to like them but it is certainly very good and am looking forward to further updates including the campaign section which is currently on the main menu but cant be played. At this stage I think pay around £7 is a good price to pay for it, you wouldn't find me playing around £15 unless big things were promised. So if you are looking for the next great survival game I think this may be it, with a bit of work this game has very high hopes.
Hope you enjoyed and continue gaming!
