We’re excited to share some details about our 21st update to The Long Dark’s Sandbox. Our newest region, Pleasant Valley, is nearly 10 square kilometres of rural mountain valley featuring abandoned fields, farms, caves, surrounded by a vast wilderness.
Between Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway, and Pleasant Valley, the Sandbox is now nearly 20 square kilometres of playable space.
In addition to the new region and Mystery Wildlife (details to be updated once the first sightings are reported), this update adds Harvestable Plants (so players can produce their own first aid items), Torch Brandishing gameplay (used to scare off Wolves), improved Wildlife AI, and an entirely new Inventory interface!
Details in the Changelist Below!
Accessing Pleasant Valley & Region Unlocking
Pleasant Valley is accessed through the Coastal Highway region. Please note that for existing players, Pleasant Valley will only be unlocked in the Sandbox Menu after it has been discovered in the game. New players will first need to discover Coastal Highway before they can find Pleasant Valley.
Super fun game, but definitely not worth a significant investment of time yet, unless you have plenty of time and patience. For example, the game controls all saves, which in theory could be fine except that this includes automatically overwriting the only save you have immediately after an ankle sprain.
We’re really excited to introduce a new region in this update, Desolation Point, a stretch of coastal highway pockmarked with the abandoned remnants of a formerly thriving whaling industry. You can find Desolation Point by going to the end of the Coastal Highway, passing through the Commuter’s Lament, and continuing onward. Good luck finding the way!
Players in Story Mode will alternate playing as pilot Will Mackenzie and Dr. Astrid Greenwood in their quest to survive in the aftermath of the “First Flare” event. “After keeping our community in the dark about our plans for Story Mode, we’re thrilled to finally be able to reveal some details of what we’ve been working on alongside the over 75 updates we’ve made to Sandbox Mode over the last year,” said Hinterland founder and creative director Raphael van Lierop. “Our success on Early Access proved there’s an audience for a more thoughtful survival experience, and the resources we’ve been able to invest in the game will help us pursue our ambitions around storytelling as we continue to expand this world. We see a bright future for The Long Dark, and are committed to a long*term relationship with our players.”
According to Hinterland, approximately 25%-30% of Story Mode will take place in entirely new areas. Furthermore, the Sandbox Mode’s permadeath will be replaced by a checkpoint save system in Story Mode. Furthermore, the December update for Sandbox adds a new region called Timberwolf Mountain, rope-climbing gameplay, a survival log, a stats screen, and other fixes.
What an incredible trailer - Just like the game, it has a thick atmosphere of despair, that is just so well done. I’ve already put in about 20 hours to the game, but can’t wait for the full game to release.
This has been sitting in my backlog for a long time. I have plans, though. Excellent plans. It’s winter here. At some point, we’ll sure have a few weeks of frozen hell, the kind where you stock up on milk, protein bars and bourbon beforehand. I will do that, wait for a very cold evening, then begin playing this game.
Its pretty great yes. Just be aware, that the major foes here are enviromental, as in cold, hunger, thirst and finding shelter and things to slate your basic needs. Its a lonely game, but its also pretty damn awesome for what it does.
I found it too hard. I just couldn’t find enough resources at the beginning after the tower for fire and food. I was set for water after that first tower, but food is too scarce, and same with fire.
A lot of the resoruces are randomized, which can lead to bad starts. The game HAS gotten a lot of workovers though in the last 6 months, so if its some time ago you played last, Rock8man, you might find it easier to survive now.
I love this game. I’ve gone back to it several times. It is a very immersive experience. You can almost feel the cold, when you are panicking and wondering if you are going to make it back to shelter when you are caught in an unexpected blizzard.
I like so many things about this game. The soundscape is awesome. It’s a very quiet game but every sound you hear means something. Bear footpads, wind noises, creaks of nearby unseen buildings. It’s great.
The storms, shelter and wind cover systems all work very well to reinforce the true enemy of the game which is the climate.
Recently some mechanics have been added that I’m not a fan of (The forge… really?!? a forge?) But they are very small complaint.
Also recently there have been several maps added that range in difficulty. Difficulty is introduced by changing the frequency of shelter, caches and beasts.
When you finally have a run through where you just know “I’m going to make it. I am going to survive” It’s a great win.
The game is not an action packed adrenaline experience. It is a slow burn, a methodical plan to survive a very harsh environment where nothing is taken for granted.
My wife Sarah is good at The Long Dark and is streaming it right now on https://www.twitch.tv/jvmcmaster and would be happy to answer any questions. If you just want to see her footage, she’s on day 78 right now and her playlist has everything up til that point (more to be added as it happens) Check it out
I… like this. The crafting isn’t terribly ornery. Playing in munchkin mode keeps the animals away, which really is more ‘realistic’, 'cause honestly. But there’s no goal so i get really, really bored. Let me tell you, if i’m crash landed in the Yukon, i’m making my way south ASAP. This wandering around in circles thing just annoys the hell out of me. I’ve been hiking too much for that sort of mentality. So hopefully the campaign, if/when it’s done, will provide some direction.
The original plan was to launch a 2-hour episode and then continue to expand on it. But you can’t launch a 2-hour game in this competitive, Steam-refund, Youtube-orientated marketplace. So, instead, we’ll be launching Story Mode with the first 2 episodes of our 5-episode Season One, amounting to between 4-6 hours of Story gameplay.
The original plan was to play the story of Will Mackenzie. Instead, you’ll be playing the story from two points of view — Mackenzie’s, and Dr. Astrid Greenwood. Why add another playable character? Two reasons. The first reason is that it’ll let us tell a better story, the story we really want to tell. The second reason is because it’s 2016 and I have a daughter and she should be able to grow up in a world where she has strong female characters to play and look up to.
“But you can’t launch a 2-hour game in this competitive, Steam-refund, Youtube-orientated marketplace.”
Seems poorly reasoned given the game has already sold like hotcakes just with a beta version of the survival mode (Approx 550,000 according to Steamspy) which, you would think, would be something that would keep people beyond a 2 hour bite-sized episode. And as for watching it on Youtube the best defense would be having a replayable/non-linear game. Survival mode already (Mostly) covers that, and if there’s any branching in the story mode that would help there too.
78 days seems pretty good! I haven’t played beyond 20-30 days I think but it’s been a while, though I was still alive and doing well when I finally just stopped playing. I’d love to see how she’s doing but … SPOILERS!
I’ve made it to day 60 or so, but I struggle at that point, because I’m basically just playing each day until I run out of ammo/arrows/etc. Once you have made your Bear sleeper and all your deer stuff, there isn’t much more to do other then enjoy the scenery… It is very peaceful to just float around in the wilderness still…
