The Long Dark
The Long Dark is an early-access survival game for PC that has just absolutely captivated me. A friend of mine bought it for me after recommending it and originally I wasn't very enthusiastic; thinking it would just be like your average survival game of which there are hundreds. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.
In The Long Dark you need to take care of four main needs: hunger, thirst, sleep and our body temperature. This is common amongst survival games, however this game spices it up with something new: calories. These are bound to your needs and they constantly change accordingly. You regain them by eating, lose them by sleeping, they also decrease faster if you are out in the cold, and every action that you perform will cost calories.
But that's not all, there is also a tab where we can check the current temperature and how it affects us, the percentage of windchill, and bonus we get against cold depending on the clothes that we are wearing, among others. And then we have the Condition/Affliction tabs, and they will change if we get hurt or ill, from food poisoning or hypothermia to name a few.
What it does really well is create a grim atmosphere of vulnerability. By paying attention to small details such as the sounds of your surroundings the developers have really aced this. Think hiding in a cave while hearing the wind howling outside, starving in the middle of nowhere, falling off a cliff and spraining your ankle; only to here a pack of wolves howling in the distant. That and the constant feeling of desolation. The art style adds to this and is unique to the genre. I absolutely adore it.
Anyone here that has tried it?