10 years of loyalty, support, after all the positive posts, achievements, praise I was banned due to Irony.

Warning For: Disrespectful Post
"In the decade I've played and followed this game the simple answer is we get it when we get it and don't bother asking they are very sensitive to any form of critique."

Warning For: Disrespectful Post
"Warning For: Disrespectful Post" Literally proved my point.

You have been banned from The Long Dark Community

Broke my heart TLD, It's over : (
*The game is pretty good

The video game equivalent of the oxygen torture chamber from deadpool.


back in 2021, I was in love with the survival genre and couldn't get enough. I played the forrest and subnautica and love them very much. I was searching for more. Something new. I came across TLD and it caught my attention with it's more enhanced survival mechanics that go beyond simple food and water stats like the rest of survival games. This game has a story mode and a survival mode. Im gonna talk about both of them in this review since they were shipped together when I bought the game. I bought it for the story. Survival is the sandbox mode you play after your done with the story. atleast, thats what I thought.



Survival Mechanics:
I like the survival Mechanics. You've got the obvious food and water stat but you also got Fatigue and warmth. The more tired you get, the slower you run and you can't carry much more gear until you take a nap. When you get cold, you get damage but you also start to shake when aiming a gun. There are also afflictions which are temporary debuffs like food poisoning when eating spoiled food or blood loss after getting attacked by a wolf. There are tons of afflictions. Some are small and some kill you if you don't treat them quickly. This is the games main core IMO. Your body is your temple. You have to keep it in top shape.

Artstyle:
I like the artstyle. It looks unique and you just need to see one random screenshot to find out, it's TLD. I like how Houses look, their interior and the items you pick up.

Story:
Your ex wife wants you to fly her and her mysterious suitcase to this place called great bear. You crash (what a surprise) and your wife goes missing. It's a decent opening to a survival game. The story mode acts like a tutorial and shows you how to do basic things. I was kinda interessted in the story. I want to know how this ends. The story falls off the longer you play. This is sadly the end of the positive.



Gameplay:
Absolute torture. It's a walking sim with survival stats. The gameplay around the survival mechanics is ass. The story wants you to get something thats two maps appart. You walk slower than a guy with no legs and no prosthetics. While you are walking, nothing happens. You look around. Drink a can of soda. You walk. A wolf comes near you. You scare it off with the flare gun. You walk. You sleep in a cave till it is morning. You walk. It's like being in that oxygen torture chamber from deadpool. You have fun exploring and finding loot (you get oxygen). You have to walk 5 minutes in a straight line to the level transistion trigger (oxygen gets taken away and im feeling like im suffocating in boredom). Sometimes I closed my eyes, put a finger on W and opened my eyes again when I hear a wolf. I kept on playing cause I wondered how the story might end. Lots of people quit just after couple of hours. According to the achievement completion rates: only 20% completed episode 1. Im not surprised. The gameplay is ass. This game should be made illegal because it contains content that tortures its players. Im joking of course but it's real.

Episodes:
Episode 1 was cool since everything was fresh but the episode had boring fetching quests. In hindsight, it was foreshadowing what was to come in later episodes. Episode 2 Had hellish long walking distances which you had to go back and forth. You are constantly out of stamina and hella slow. It gets tiring really fast. Episode 3 has you rescuing plane crash victims which are scattered around the map. You have to carry them to the local community center. While you carry them, you can't run. You have to WALK across the map to the center. You don't do this once or twice. No. FOUR TIMES. WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH THE DEVS HEADS?!? Is this a game they would play themselves in their free time? Zero fun just super tedious. Episode 4 gets a bit better in the second half when you need to solve a puzzle with steam pipes. Episode 5 is still not out while I write this review.

Hinterland:
Worst indie devs I've ever seen. They Kickstarted this game back in 2014 and promised a survival sim with a story mode. The story mode was released in episodes that were released over the last 10 years. Episode 5 still isn't out and if you ask me: Thats not a big deal, as long as they don't do something stupid like lets say...announce a sequel...Yeah...Imagine that. I forgot about this game till I saw the trailer for TLD 2. I was like "♥♥♥♥, I missed the episode 5 release". Yeah, I didn't miss ♥♥♥♥. It's still not out. I played this game for like 3 hours in 2021 and in 2025 after that announcement, I gave it a second chance. In that time of playing, I was catching up what I missed. In 2022 they released a DLC for survival mode called "Tales from the far territory" which is a DLC that was released in 6 parts. The last part was released back in 2024. So yeah. They ditched story mode not only to work on tales (another project that was released in episodes and actually got finished) but to work on a sequel. Why is this a big deal you ask? People donated money back in 2014 for a story mode they have yet to receive after 10 years and they are already announcing a sequel. PLS finish your first decade old project. Giving the backers what they backed for is top priority. "Don't ask questions, just CONSUME product and then get excited for NEXT PRODUCT". And if that wasn't enough. People who donated for physical rewards like OST CD still haven't received them. Im not pulling this out of my ass. Go visit the Kickstarter page of TLD and check the comments. After some more digging I found out that Hinterland is a politicaly left leaning studio. They supported the stupid anti-white BLM back in 2020 and just this year, 16 days after Trumps inauguration and Elons so called "Nazi Salute" they left X because and I quote: "We do not support the billionaire who owns this platform. As a result, please note that Hinterland will no longer post here about any of our work". This studio is full of leftist ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, playing around with money like they are the USAID. I've seen way better studios. I love ghost ship's deep rock galactic published by coffe stain (the guys that made satisfactory). Those are reputable devs that take criticism and create a good game out of it.

TLD Community:
Bootlickers. I've seen many people complain about The Hinterland forum which only accepts yes man and any criticism gets banned and deleted. Even some superbacker on the TLD Kickstarter comments page says he got banned asking why they work on some DLC instead of the stuff he backed alot of money for. The fans use the common excuse: "They are a small passionate indie studio with limitied resouces, You have to be patient".



I've read in a review on steam that this game is more like a rougelike with survival mechanics rather than a real survival game. This really changed my perspective on how I viewed the game. It made me realize what the main gameplay loop is. You spawn. You collect loot. You eat and drink. You walk around in an empty map. You die. Thats it. You do it all over again. Why did no review video mention how shallow this game is. They have converted story mode it into a DLC. Even thought It's the games tutorial. I've talked to fans on reddit about this. They say the game is finished since surivival is done. I told them that cutting off an unfishinshed part of the main game doesn't mean it's finished. The fans are delusional and are cleary happy with the slop they get. This is the one and only game in my steam account I regret spending money on.

The informations in this review was gathered by playing the game, checking the wiki and talking to fans and dissapointed people like me. Thank you for reading if you got to the end.

This game saved my life. I'm serious.