Prepping doesn’t always have to be dreary and serious. Sometimes we can engage in our interests in a dreary and fun way! In this case, it’s with a survival video game that takes a more realistic look at the struggle of surviving in a SHTF scenario. Introducing The Long Dark.
The Long Dark is a first-person survival video game released in 2014. Developed and published by Hinterland Studio, it drops the player into a cold, harsh boreal forest of Canada. The player was a pilot, whose plane crashed in the abandoned landscape they find themselves in. A global catastrophe (geomagnetic storm) has ruined all local technology and caused your plane to crash. Winter is in full effect, and they have little to no supplies. In order to survive, the player has to find food, shelter, and a means to stay warm. Can they find a way to reliably gather food, while also staying warm enough at night and avoiding the dangerous wildlife?
The game features aspects like warmth, hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Equipment such as clothing can be used to help the struggle, or broken down into base components to repair the gear you already have. It also features a number of survival aspects, such as ice fishing, gathering firewood, and boiling snow into something safe to drink.
I’ve played The Long Dark for a few hours now. And I gotta say, this is one of the most true-to-life renditions of what it would be like to survive in the wilderness. If you’re a fan of video games and off-the-grid prepping, I recommend giving this one a look. It’s available on Steam for PC, The Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4. For more information, visit the game’s official website.