The Long Dark: Episode One and Two - Review

I know what you're thinking, how the hell does he have another game review out so soon?  Well, I have been sitting on this was for some time, I had finished episode one and two at the start of the year, but was holding off writing a review because I thought episode three, four and five would be out by now.  Unfortunately, the remaining episodes have not yet been released, Hinterland Studios announced yesterday that episode three would be released in December 2018, meaning it could be mid to late 2019 before all five episodes are released.  There are a number of reasons for the delay, while there was a lot of praise for the game there was also backlash over the story and the repetitive fetch quests, the studio wanted to address some of these concerns and continue to improve the overall game including adding in new game modes.  So I thought before the next episodes were released it might be interesting to review what I had played so far.


Porridge.  It can be tough to eat, almost a slog, but it can taste good and you are left with your stomach feeling full and warm.  There are ways to spice it up, for example, a little sugar, fruit, jam or maybe some honey, I usually go for a small amount of sugar.  There are occasions where I have eaten too much porridge and felt terrible afterward, which is not fun let me tell you.  Playing The Long Dark I found myself was this a tough, satisfying bowl of porridge, or had I overindulged and felt like my stomach was filled with warm rocks?

Story


The game has you play as Will MacKenzie (not the guy from the Inbetweeners), who operates a small business flying a plane.  One night as your playing a little solitaire a woman, by the name of Astrid Greenwood comes seeking your help.  It's quickly apparent that the two were an item at one point and that she would not be there unless it was a real emergency.  Astrid is looking for you to fly her to the small town of Milton up in the Canadian Wilderness, but won't give much detail as to why, of course, you being awesome agree to help her out.  Unfortunately, this ends up being a bad idea as the plane crashes and the two of you are separated.


The first episode begins as a tutorial, that then progresses into you searching for Astrid.  The journey will be long and one of the few people you come across is a blind lady called Grey Mother.  She is pretty unhelpful for the most part and she has you act as her goofer, which was highly annoying.  Once this is finished it's onto episode two.  There is little story content to episode one which was a little disappointing.


Episode two has you meet Jeremiah, who has just been attacked by a big ass bear.  Even though he is badly wounded he offers you guidance and provides you with a gun, of course, this is mostly done so you can help him take revenge on the bear who mauled him.  The story was still lacking but certainly more engaging than episode one.


Overall the story isn't bad but it isn't great either, and I hope that the story is improved upon with the episodes to follow.

Visuals


The game is set in the beautiful Canadian wilderness, nothing but snow, mountains, woods and glacial waterfalls.  There are animals including wolves, bears, rabbits, and deer, the latter being my favorite as they looked so lifelike.  The design of Will is unusual and goes for an almost minimalist cartoonish style, this is also shown used the cut sequences, which was I found to be quite a contrast.


Overall it looks beautiful, I have found in a number of survival style games they can look a little bleak and dull, but I never found this to be the case with The Long Dark.



Music


There are times where the music for a game just doesn't work and feels out of place, The Long Dark is not one of those games.  It perfectly sums up the constant struggle you face in the game and features somber tones created through heavy use of stringed instruments and piano.  The creators of the soundtrack are America composer Cris Velasco and German composer Sascha Dikiciyan.  Their work includes scores for games such as; Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Bloodborne, Mass Effect 3, God Of War 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Prototype, Borderlands, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.


The score runs a little over ninety minutes and features some really great tracks, my favorites include, 'The Long Dark Main Theme', 'There's Something I Have To Say', 'Keep You Alive', 'Passing Of An Age', and 'Memories'.


Overall a great soundtrack, that to me not only suited the game perfectly but also one of the best things about The Long Dark.

Gameplay


The Long Dark is a first-person survival game, it's can be tough sometimes, really tough in fact.  There is a quite a lot to keep an eye on and be aware, all of it is important and failing to pay attention will have you dead in no time. 

One of the biggest obstacles you will encounter is keeping warm, fire is one of the ways to avoid turning into a popsicle, however depending on the conditions lighting a fire may not always work.  Wearing layers of clothing is an option, which is great unless you get them wet if this happens your body temperature can drop quickly and you risk getting hypothermia.  The next big challenge is eating enough, you burn through calories doing everything including sleeping.  There will be some food scattered around, but hunting will be your best source for it.  The best way to get the most out of food is by cooking it on a fire, eating it raw carries certain risks.  Carrying raw meat can attract animals to you, in particular wolves which you don't want.  I found the key is to have just enough to survive, too much or too little is equally bad.


Sometimes you will kill animals for food other times for survival.  Each of them offers their own challenge, deer could be tough as shooting them in the heart was an almost instant kill but involved you getting close, being very quiet, compensating for wind and then hoping your shot would pay off.  Wolves are a pain in the ass and they have no qualms about chasing you down.  At one point I only had a flare gun for protection, I shot one in the head and killed it outright which made me laugh, not as much though as when it gets stuck in their body and they run away scared.


While there was lots of good stuff to the gameplay there were also bad points.  The fetch quests were annoying particularly the ones for Grey Mother.  Outside of some safe areas you can store your excess gear, which was really handy, however, in one case it physically disappeared! It came back later but unfortunately, all my stuff was gone.  The constant difficulty made the game a slog at times and it almost felt like I was there with MacKenzie.


Overall there was some great and tough gameplay, with a few relatively minor issues.  If you like survival games and want a real challenge The Long Dark is for you.





Final Thoughts


So after twenty plus hour playing how did I feel?  Not bad.  The story was lacking, and I would have preferred a bit more focus on the main two characters.  The visuals and music were impressive and really added to the depth of the game.  The gameplay was pretty good but occasionally felt a little too tough and fetch quests soured me a little bit.  Overall it was an interesting experience and am curious to see what Hinterland do with the remaining episodes.  The game almost got a higher score but just missed the mark a little, I give this one 3 out of 5

Bloodborne - Review

Well, it's been a while since I last did a review, this is due to a few reasons; I have been sick for over a week, visited London and made some new friends (shoutout to Katie and Ger), and have been slowly working my way through Bloodborne.  Anyone who plays a lot of games knows that it can be quite expensive.  I would love to buy all my games brand new, the moment they are released, but unless you have a ton of loose cash it's just not possible.  What's a gamer to do?  You need to be smart, buy second hand, share games between friends, or even go halves on a game, this is exactly what Siniša, and I decided to do with Bloodborne.


I'm not a big breakfast person, but every now and then I fancy something like a bacon sandwich, mini breakfast, or even some cereal.  On occasion, I even feel like having porridge.  The thing about porridge is that it is hard to eat, even a small amount fills you quickly, and can rest heavily on your stomach.  It's doesn't look very appealing either, dress it up any way you like it's still not going to look very enticing.  Finishing a bowl, while challenging can be quite nice, and there is a feeling of fulfilment.  Playing Bloodborne I found myself asking was I really in the mood for porridge, and did I feel fulfilled?

Story


What's the one thing none of us want to wake up to?  A creepy old guy in a wheelchair looking at you?  That's pretty bad, but imagine you are on a less than clean medical table, you are having a blood transfusion, and you are seeing demons.  It's clearly time to stop drinking and get off the drugs. It turns out you are now a demon hunter of sorts and need to, well, kill demons.


The story is really hidden, you are given small tit bits, here and there but nothing major.  According to the writer this was purposefully done, and all the answers are in the game you just need to piece it together.  I needed to check a few forums, and got the answers I was looking for, it sounded quite interesting.  Now don't get me wrong I don't need my hand held through a story but the way it was told in Bloodborne just felt lazy.  Some people seemed to really like the way it was hidden and cryptic,  but it didn't do it for me, which is a shame because after checking online it seemed that story itself was quite interesting.

Visuals


The visuals in the game are amazing and are really where it shines.  The town of Yarhnam is bleak, and devoid of all hope, the enemies are terrifying and are straight out of a horror movie.  There are of course your crazy townsfolk, but for me something that constantly freaked me out were the carrion crows.  They are really large crows, that look like they have been bitten in half, and often only make their presence know once you step on them.  There are some really great looking bosses, two of my favourites with Mergo's Wet Nurse, and Vicar Amelie.  Mergo's Wet Nurse looked liked the Grimm Reaper, but with multiple arms each with scythes in them. Vicar Amelie looks like a beast, but unlike the others it looks like she is pain, huge amounts of hair, and horns on her head.  While almost everything is dark there was one area of serenity, the Hunter's Dream.  It is your home base, and is a beautiful garden/graveyard.  The picture above shows the Messengers who you can buy weapons, and items from.


There are number of complaints I had with this game, but when it comes to the design, and overall look of it I had nothing but praise for it.


Music


The soundtrack suits the game perfectly, it is dark, eerie, and there is a real unsettling feeling throughout.  There is harsh uses of stringed instruments, and there is a choir who are featured heavily, especially during boss battles.  The score was crafted by a slew of artists including:

Ryan Amon, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, he has worked on;  Assassins Creed Unity, Elysium, and Blackhat.

Tsukasa Saitoh, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who has worked on a number of titles including; the Armored Core Series, Eternal Ring, and Kings Field IV.

Yuka Kitamura, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who's works include; DarkSouls II and III, and Armored Core: Verdict Day.

Nobuyoshi Suzuki, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who worked on; Super Mario Oddessy, and Dark Souls III.

Cris Velasco,  an American Composer, who worked on a number of big titles including;  Overwatch, Injustice: Gods Among Us, God of War, Borderlands 1 and 2, and lots more.

Michael Wandmacher, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, who has a really varied background, his works include; Underworld: Blood Wars, Ben 10: Alien Swarm, Tokyo Pig, Twisted Metal.

The original soundtrack runs at just over ninety minutes, it a great score with many chilling pieces, my favourites included: 'Omen', 'Bloodstained Beast', 'Hail The Nightmare', and 'Darkbeast'.

Gameplay


Onto the blood chunks that is the gameplay!  The game starts with you designing your character, there are quite a lot of options which is really fun, in the end I settled on a professor look, and called him Professor Tim.  There are different back stories you can choose for your character, which all effect your initial stats, my favourite was called 'waste of skin', the description was 'you should never have been born'.


Bloodborne had one of the best save areas in a game, the Hunter's Dream was a nice tranquil place, despite all the graves.  It has a storage area which was really great, anytime you collect too many excess items they automatically get transferred there.  When you are in the Hunter's Dream you can purchase items, weapons, and armor, along with levelling up.  The currency in the game is blood echoes, they are used for everything, at times this can be tough as you need to sacrifice levelling up to ensure you have enough healing vials, or other items.


The are a multitude of weapons in the game, but being honest I only found a few that were worthwhile, most notably the Axe, which I found to be Axe-tastic!  It has two modes, one handed (close range), and two handed (long range), and could be changed at a moments notice depending on the enemy you had to take on.  The combat as a whole is similar to Dark Souls, roll, roll, roll some more, and occasionally hit an enemy.  The targeting had a lot to be desired, and I found on a number of occasions my weapon did not make contact.  The armor was very underwhelming in the game, and did not get much better which was a little disappointing.


The gameplay focuses on you working your way to the next boss, some were okay, others were bordering on the ridiculous.  The two most straight forward to me were, The One Reborn and Amelia, mostly due to the fact that by careful dodging, and not being afraid to hack at an enemy they were easily beatable.  Then you had bosses like Blood Starved Beast, everything would be going fine, dodging out the way, taking cover, using antidotes, and then all of sudden you just can't get away from him, the difficulty kept spiking like crazy.  Being honest the bosses in the game nearly made me walk away from it a few times, sometimes it felt like you won due to skill, other times luck.


The gameplay for the most part was good enough, but some poor weapons, and armor, some frustrating boss fights, and poor targeting stopped it being all it could be.




Final Thoughts

So after forty hours plus how did I feel? Conflicted.  The visuals and music were impressive, the story was valed for the most part, the gameplay, and difficulty spiking varried between fun, and frustrating.  So many reviewers game it ten out of ten, and being honest I really can't see why because it has multiple issues.  I struggled scoring this game, but in the end, I can only give it 3 out of 5