Why It Excites – The Long Dark

Hey there, hold on a minute – Why It Excites? What kind of thing is that?

Well, I sure am glad you asked – Why It Excites is my attempt to not only talk about games that I’ve played already, but also about upcoming games and why they seem exciting. But also if they could face some problems along their way to release.

So let’s get to it.

(If you’re not really a HUGE fan of reading, scroll to the bottom for a few reasons about why this excites. Psst! There is also gonna be gameplay!)

Why It Excites – The Long Dark

Canadian Hinterland Games, a mixed stew of experienced veterans of the video game industry, has just managed to reach their kickstarter goal of $200.000 for The Long Dark. And after taking a quick look at the first gameplay of the game, it is hard to question the 200.000 being lobbed in the studio’s way.

Because The Long Dark certainly looks like a game that I’ve wanted to play for quite a while now. The idea of being on your own, taking care of food and shelter completely by yourself has always been appealing to me, to say the least. As crashed pilot, William Mackenzie, you will have to manage hunger, body temperature, thirst and fatigue in order to survive in a post-everything-electronic-has-stopped-functioning North American wilderness – In short it looks like a combination between Day Z and Don’t Starve, but in first person and without the zombies. And I must admit, even though they can be cool and all – and scary – I am tired of zombies.

When playing, you’ll be able to stumble into other survivors, but as Hinterland say themselves, this is about survival and not combat. And as far as I know, this is strictly a singeplayer game – so no malicious dudes running around the terrain, holding a grudge against everything and everybody.

It’s really a breath of fresh air, that I can’t wait to play. I’ll be sure to throw some money their way, when I get paid in the end of the month, and I think you should too. A $20 donation will get you the game for free, when it comes out – or you could also empty your bank account and enrich their lives with $5000, which will grant you a mountain of cool stuff – but in the end, $20 would still be helping a lot.

The visual style of the game looks simplistic and amazing in a Borderlands-esque kind of way. And with that said, there’s really not a lot more to say about that. Take a look at some gameplay in the bottom of this post – but first a few reasons of why this excites!

Why The Long Dark excites!

Because it’s a survival game in its fullest
Because managing a calorie burn in-game is a lot more fun than real life
Because you’ll be on your own and not hunted by angry survivors all the time
Because weather and time of day will change in-game – who needs to go outside now?
Because it’ll feature an estimated 5-6 hour singleplayer campaign + a survival sandbox mode
Because with 20 dollars, you’ll support a newly founded developer, independent of all the big guys. And you’ll get the game for free!

Does Why It Excites excite you? What about The Long Dark? If not, let me know. If yes, let me know as well.

As promised, a bit of prototype gameplay for The Long Dark