There's a lot that The Long Dark does right - it's a beautiful game with a gorgeous art direction, it's incredibly immersive and really does give the feel of putting the player into a harsh winter environment that they have to survive in. But then there are moments that take the player right out of that.

I still feel that the developer has deliberately introduced some more "gamey" elements to The Long Dark, to make the game difficult simply for the sake of making the game difficult. At this point, clothes fall apart within a matter of days and sturdy metal tools break after a few uses - these are some of the things need to be addressed soon or will subtract from a game trying to be a survival simulator.

Having said that, Hinterland has been very active in address a lot of the community's complaints about the game. The speed and frequency of their updates (at least up to this point) have been excellent. This has contributed greatly towards my evaluation of the game from my initial impression.

I will now change my recommendation from a tentative Not Recommended to a tentative Recommended, having seen Hinterland address some of the issues I had with the game prior (please keep up the good work and don't let me down). I feel there is now enough in the game to make it an enjoyable experience.

I still strongly feel that The Long Dark has the potential to be the best survival sim in the entire saturated genre. I can only expect the game to improve over time as more features are added.

There's a lot that The Long Dark does right - it's a beautiful game with a gorgeous art direction, it's incredibly immersive and really does give the feel of putting the player into a harsh winter environment that they have to survive in. But then there are moments that take the player right out of that. I still feel that the developer has deliberately introduced some more "gamey" elements to The Long Dark, to make the game difficult simply for the sake of making the game difficult. At this point, clothes fall apart within a matter of days and sturdy metal tools break after a few uses - these are some of the things need to be addressed soon or will subtract from a game trying to be a survival simulator. Having said that, Hinterland has been very active in address a lot of the community's complaints about the game. The speed and frequency of their updates (at least up to this point) have been excellent. This has contributed greatly towards my evaluation of the game from my initial impression. I will now change my recommendation from a tentative Not Recommended to a tentative Recommended, having seen Hinterland address some of the issues I had with the game prior (please keep up the good work and don't let me down). I feel there is now enough in the game to make it an enjoyable experience. I still strongly feel that The Long Dark has the potential to be the best survival sim in the entire saturated genre. I can only expect the game to improve over time as more features are added.