The Long Dark Reviews
Despite some graphical concessions, The Long Dark on Nintendo Switch is an excellent port of a very good survival game
A good survival experience that could have been even better with a little more polish on its console versions.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Quiet Apocalypse isn't without problems, but Hinterland's commitment to adding new content, while refining the experience over the years, has positioned The Long Dark at the top of the survival genre's pecking order. The Long Dark is a must-play for anyone who is even remotely intrigued by it.
I really, really, wanted to love The Long Dark, but a myriad of poor design choices and bugs teamed with a complete lack of instruction made it one of the most frustrating games I have ever played. You can pick some objects up, but not others, you can smash a crate to bits for firewood, but not a table, and none of this makes any sense. If you were freezing death, you'd burn the frigging table! Survival mode is by far the best way to experience the game offering some gorgeous views and real sense of achievement when you make things nice and cosy, it's just a shame that Story mode is so poorly thought out.
While the story mode leaves something to be desired, the survival mechanics of The Long Dark's sandbox make it worthwhile. We have three more episodes of Will's journey to weave a wider story throughout the alternately unforgiving and inviting Canadian terrain. In the meantime, I'll be sitting back with my coffee mug, reflecting on my own small stories within The Long Dark.
Bugs and a rough story weaken what is, at its core, a great survival game.
The wilderness is satisfyingly unforgiving. The world is fun to explore, but story mode offers a lackluster narrative
A pleasingly complex and realistic survival simulator, accompanied by a story mode that so far fails to be anywhere near as compelling.
Deep, brutal, and hauntingly atmospheric, The Long Dark is a survival game done right.