Recent reviews by Red Ratchet

This "No" comes with the caveat that this is good for what it is, but it is mostly overpriced for what it is. I was definitely expecting more from it than what I got out of it. I bought it for $0.99 on sale, so I am not too upset, but if I had paid full price, I would probably be asking for a refund right now. The Lonesome Fog is very visually and aesthetically appealing, the music and sound effects are nice, and the 3D effect given to the pages when you click and drag makes the illustrations pop a little more.

However, the story is less than 10 minutes in length, and that's *if* you take the time to click and drag around on each page to see the 3D effect. As such, the story itself feels a little under-developed, and I felt the conclusion was unsatisfying because of it. Even another 3-5 pages of character development, introspection, exposition or *something* would make the story feel more fleshed out. For me, it felt like it was "missing something." I thought, perhaps, that the book might have interactives on each page in the sense that, if you click on an animal in a scene, the fish might jump, or a bird might flutter and flap its wings, etc. The only interactive I can see is the click and drag aspect, and that's it.

It would be good for those with kids, because no doubt the young ones would want to read and re-read the story, clicking around to see the effects, since they are generally more entertained by such dynamics, and don't really care about the finer points of literary analysis. So, I would definitely recommend for anyone with children, but for those of us without, this might be a disappointment.

Hands down, The Long Dark is my favorite survival game out there, even if it's only an alpha sandbox at the time of this writing.

Why? Unlike other survival games, the only threat to the character is Mother Nature herself. No zombies, no dinosaurs, no super crafting, no nonsense. Just you, and the Canadian north. People often take their creature comforts very much for granted, and this game drives home just how much we frail humans are at the mercy of Mother Nature. With details like weak ice collapsing beneath your feet; intestinal parasites; tripping and spraining a wrist or ankle when walking down steep inclines; losing condition permanently to frostbite on various extremities; the struggle to repeatedly build a fire only to watch it sputter out and die; predatory animals smelling your fresh food and stalking you; or calculating blizzard strength, wind speed, wind chill factor, wind direction, and even wind breaks in the terrain you can shelter behind, all in order to determine just how cold you really are, The Long Dark involves a lot of complex variables that make it immersive and challenging. You'll spend a great deal of time starving, freezing to death, or getting eaten by bears. Or all three at once. You never know when you'll get stuck out in the middle of a blizzard, stumble upon a bear cave and meet your doom.

In addition to being a challenging survival experience, it is also a thoughtful exploration game. A good chunk of the game is devoted to nomadically wandering in search of resources, which rewards the player with a plethora of of man-made and natural locations to discover, each with their own story to tell: abandoned cars, derailed trains, empty houses, and wide open spaces where very few creatures, especially humans, dwell at all. One nuance I especially appreciate is how The Long Dark encourages the player to look for clues to read their environment, such as subtle changes in the lay of the land that might indicate shelter or resources, or watching the direction that birds travel to find animal carcasses to harvest, or even determine if a storm is coming. Despite the age of the engine, it's still a very visually stunning game and the player is provided with several expansive, interconnecting maps to explore. The game also has randomized loot and resource distribution amongst a pool of possible sites, so each game provides a somewhat unique experience.

Since it's still in development, I expect even greater things to come, however slowly. To those folks complaining that it "hasn't changed in years," they should look again-- many changes have been made, but until the developers refine the actual mechanics and environment, the story would be poorly implemented. Though it could definitely use some tweaking as far as performance goes-- It's not the most refined in that regard and can be sluggish even on perfectly capable machines. Frame rate suffers whether the graphics are cranked or low.

I'd recommend it to any of my friends, but it's not for the easily frustrated.

Be prepared to die. A lot.