The Long Dark Reminds Us That Existence Is An Accomplishment
The Long Dark is one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played. For a Pacific Northwest girl such as myself, it’s less of a game and more of an exercise in anxiety. While I’ve always lived in the slightly milder climates of Washington state, nonetheless I’m familiar with the survival rundown that comes every winter before the mountain passes freeze over. Stock emergency supplies in your car, always wear waterproof and weather appropriate clothing, and never go anywhere without tire chains. The horror stories circulate on social media and the news every year, tales of folks who wandered into a snow storm and never came back. Up in the North, it’s an accepted fate: if you aren’t safe, you will be sorry.
There’s a long history of quantifying the concept of personal growth and progress through game mechanics. Character stats, hit points, skill trees, leveling up: the foundation of “character building” is built into so many games that by now, we barely even notice. It’s a numbers system that doesn’t perfectly parallel our real life experiences, but it’s close enough. It makes sense to us.
The Long Dark is, in some ways, the natural conclusion to this way of designing games. While other games use methods like health, mana and stamina bars to indicate player health and mobility, The Long Dark is pure realism. Players consume food to bulk up their calorie reserves, a unit of energy that must be carefully managed and negotiated with every action, even sleep. Thirst is also measured, and both hunger and dehydration can quickly turn fatal. Injuries and illnesses must be attended to with specific remedies, most of which are scarce or difficult to procure. Body temperature, wind chill and the exact effect of each and every piece of clothing and how it buffers the cold are monitored closely, with hypothermia and exposure a constant risk. At every point the game stresses multiple dangers with every attempt to survive. The objective (especially in the story-free sandbox mode) is merely to keep existing.
I’ve been one of the game’s biggest cheerleaders and strongest supporters, as I believe it is the most authentic survival game to have come out yet. But The Long Dark is brutal. There are times, when running from wolves while starving and suffering from hypothermia, that I feel as winded as if I were doing it in real life. At certain points, when death seems imminent, I’ve run out of resources, and I’m cornered by danger, I find myself asking, why am I playing this, again? This is pointless. I’m always exhausted and hungry and about to die. It’s too hard and it’s not fun.
