The Long Dark: Wintermute - Review

Fluffy · Aug 27, 2017

Disk art cover for Xbox 1 And PS4

The Long Dark: Wintermute is a survival game, you play in the world of north Canada in a northern wilderness setting. There is only one goal in the game and that is to survive The goals change depending on Survival Mode, Wintermute (Storymode) And challenges, the example I was stating was for Survival mode. The Long Dark is rated 12. The game itself sets yourself as one of two survivors (Female or Male players preference) and explains that your plane has crashed and you have to survive

Survivor mode

There are three modes In the long dark, Survival mode where the end goal is to survive for as long as possible, but the end result will always be death, you survive as long as possible in any way possible (That is allowed in the game) When you first start up a Survival save up, you will have settings that will alter the games experience for you. There are 4 modes: Pilgrim, Voyageur, Stalker, And interloper. These represent Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert Here are them explained a bit better

Pilgrim is the poetry version of the game, the game is not hard and certain elements of the game are altered to make the game easier for the player (Better items spawn) Wildlife wont attack you unless provoked (Bears, Wolves) You can have up to 4 feat (We will explain that later) - This is represented by a deer For Beginners or someone who wants to explore the world

Voyageur is a step up from Pilgrim, Wildlife wont attack you for 24 hours, (They don't spawn) Item spawn is less than Pilgrim and the elements have more effects on you (Weather) - This is represented by an owl
For beginners who still want to explore the world, but are pushed

Stalker is hard, but not easy. Rare spawns will be less frequent and your Weapons will be your best friend for defence. From when you spawn into the game, Wildlife can attack you. Afflictions like Parasites and Cabin Fever are enabled (First Aid will be later) - This is represented by a Wolf
For Advanced players who want to be tested, the challenge is realistic feeling

Interloper is the impossible. When you spawn, you spawn with the basic of clothes (Clothing will be talked about later) and that is it. It will be impossible to find a Rifle or a bow an arrow (Weapons will be talked about later) And you will have to craft everything (Crafting will be later) Its Human VS Mother Nature. As you go through the days, Mother nature gets tougher and tougher - This is represented by a crow on a skull
For Advanced players who want to prove themselves to the impossible

after that, you have to pick feats, these are achivements which help you when you do enough things in Survival mode. These can be enabled to give you an advantage, for example, if you craft 1,000 fires, you can enable the feat that allows you to start with fire crafting lvl 3 skill (We talk about skills later)

You then choose what location you want to go to (These are referred as regions, depending on what region you choose will be different difficulty because the one with the most loot may be the one with bad weather. When you chose the Region you want to start in you then pick your survivor, Male or Female, there are no benefits on being a male or a female, only that when they speak, they will have 2 different voice actors for when they talk. After you picked your survivor, name your save, and you can now begin

While you wait for the game to load, you have a quick reminder of what happened and that you have to survive, then you have a survival quote (They are not made up)

This survivor has been treated to spawn in a good spawn in Mysterly Lake, but is away from other buildings
The Beginning

When you first spawn, you may be spawned inside a building, or be in the wilderness. Its a good idea to check the controls, these can be changed. When you first play the game and have no knowledge, your first idea would to explore the world to find shelter, which is correct. You need to find shelter or make a fire to stay warm, warmth is a factor in the game, as part of 4 factors that affect your overall condition, these are: Sleep, Temperature, Hunger and Thirst. If one of these are at 0, you will lose condition (Health) But if there all up, you will gain Condition. To raise temperature, you need to stand in a building with a wind temperature above 0 and the temperature above 0, the best way to be warm is by starting a fire, you will need a fuel, tinder and a source of fire, an accelerant is optional, but only speeds up the fire. When you make a fire, depending on what fuel and tinder you use will depend on the success rate of the fire, fires take time to start with no accelerant and often fail, as you create more fires, your fire starting skill will raise, and fire making will be easier. To improve Sleep, you need to sleep in an area where its warm enough for you to sleep, your bed roll or bed will have extra warmth depending on what type of bed it is, to regain hunger, you need to eat food that is cooked (To prevent Food Poisoning) and that is above 50% condition (Otherwise you have a chance to get food Poisoning) To regain Thirst, you need to drink clean water or food that contain water in it. Dirty Water wont work and you may get ill from it.

Getting food and water - Natural source

As you explore the world, you will get hungry and thirsty. While you search buildings, there will be loot such as food and water that you can use, but eventually, you will have to go to another region to find new food, which may be dangerous because you may start to die. Get water from melting and boiling snow and food from animals by killing them with a rifle or a Bow

Weapons - From Tools to firearms

As you explore the world, you will come across tools, such as knifes, hatchets, hammers, and more. These all have specific roles and can be used in a wolf struggle. Depending on what weapon you use depends on what will do. Do you want the wolf to bleed to death so you don't have to risk dying, or do you use your axe the wolf so it dies, but then risk the wolf getting away, or do you use a hammer to scare the Wolf. Eventually you will find a Bow or a Rifle. A Bow can be crafted, but a Rifle cant. Rifles are better than Bows because you can crouch and have a steady aim. Bows are renewable

First Aid - What to do

When you do something wrong in the game, you may get an affliction that may prevent you from doing something, for example, a sprained ankle means you cannot sprint, a sprained wrist means you cannot use a weapon. There are a lot more and can be healed by first aid. (Antibiotics, Painkillers, Bandages, Antiseptic) which are used for curing them. Some first aid requires sleep and you can force sleep to heal the affliction (Normally when your fully rested, you cannot sleep)

There are a few features in the Survival mode, it does test you in different areas and expects you to use general knowledge. The mode is learning from your mistakes and surviving for as long as possible

Wintermute - The Story

The story itself is not 100% complete and is only 2 episodes in. The Story mode is completely different to Survival mode, for example, you have quests and other survivors who you meet in the story. You play as Will Mackenzie (A bush Piolot) and Astrid Greenwood (A doctor) Who have crashed from a mysterious geomagnetic storm which is identified as the Aurora.

The Active Aurora, can range of different colours

Episode 1

In Episode one, the episode is focused on the view of Will Mackenzie, and not much on Astrid. The first 2 episodes focus on Wills view. The story starts with you have to survive from the plane crash and try and get out of the ravine. Flash backs that explain how the crash happens Will is sitting down working, Astrid comes into the room, Will is surprised, its been 2 years, Astrid Wants to save someone which is dangerous, Will says that something bad has happened to the place, and says the weather is bad, he asks whats in the case, but Astrid refuses. He says that the weather iss bad and asks is that's what she means, Astrid Says yes. Regardless, he flys her in his Bush plane, in the second cutscene, Astrid and Will are in the plane, Will Wants to admit something to her, but she tells him to be quiet, then she tells him to shut up and tells him to look outside, the aurora is active and they crash (Click the italic text for video, watch first 2 cutscenes)

The game moves on from you going to an abandoned town called Milton, where you meet a woman, you help her and then she helps you get to the other region.

In Episode 2 you help a Hermit who has been attacked by a bear, he then tells you to repair his rifle, you repair his rifle and get another rifle. You are told that you don't know how to survive and have to prove to him that you can survive by giving him stuff. When you done this, you have to kill the bear. After you killed the bear, you go back and go to an area and the episode ends

Thoughts and feelings - The Review itself

I think that the game is amazing and really fun. I like the fact that it keeps on updating and that I am challenged, it feels like my actions will have consequences and I can discover the history of the region.

Important info

Violence - There are first person wolf attacks and bear attacks which you can heal yourself from, theres no human PVP, the game is PVE

Thank you for reading my review