The Quonset Manager Reviews The Wintermute Redux

[TheEldritchGod]

In a year that I expected to go down in the Chinese calendar as The Year Of The Dumpster Fire, the Video gaming industry has basically done everything in its' power to destroy itself and offend as many customers as possible. I had nothing but dread in my heart, when I heard that HLG was postponing Episode 3. I assumed, given the track record this year, that this was going to be the end of HLG. They were going to take the long dark and gut it like a fish, leaving its corpse out on the side of the road for the crows to pick.

I have never been happier to be so wrong.

The Long Dark may have been released officially in 2017, but I consider that a Beta Test, because The Long Dark has finally, truly arrived in 2018.

I say this without a single hint of irony, if there is only ONE GAME you buy that you are allowed to play for all of 2019, let that game be The Long Dark. Maybe in any other year, I would have said that The Long Dark was merely Excellent. Maybe I would have put it in the top ten. But fortunately for The Long Dark, the 1.43 version release that updated Wintermute came out in 2018.

And in 2018, there is no competition, what so ever.

I mean it. This is the game of the year. This is number one. No other game comes close.

Up until this release, I would have said the survival mode was amazing and fun to play, but the story mode was... the tutorial. Just something there to screw around with. I played it once, and had no intention of going back to play it, ever again. I rushed through it to get it over with.

Now that we have the Wintermute Redux (Ep 1&2), I rushed through it, but that was so I get get to posting my review of the game as quickly as possible. I have every intention of playing story mode several more times. There are at least three other choices I'd like to make. There are a number of side quests I blew past that I am eager to go explore and see what was done with them.

The storyline before was... rough... to be charitable. Now? Now it is sublime. The acting is vastly improved. The quality of the cut scenes is top notch. The return to a more traditional Story structure really pays off in this revamping of the rough draft that was the previous incarnation of the Wintermute story.

The NPCs that you meet that are your allies, you feel sympathy for. The NPCs that are your enemies, you feel rage against. There are so many subtle details added in. If you just want to run through the main plot, you aren't doing yourself any service. There are many subtle subplots lurking beneath the surface. If you look for them, they can be found to be enjoyed, and yet, they do not distract from the main quest. There is so much attention to detail. So many stories told without a word. So much meaning behind a trail of blood through the sparkling snow.

The tightening up of the time table to play the story mode also does it justice. It concentrates the good parts so that the story doesn't drag and keeps the heat on, making you feel like there is urgency and keeps you driving forward. The interactions with many NPCs have also been vastly improved. In the previous version, I wanted to shoot the old lady in the face, she ticked me off so much. But now? I genuinely feel a pang of regret at having to leave her. There are moral dilemmas that put your situation into sharp relief, which I will not spoil here, but such simple choices have sparked great debates on the forums.

The recurring character of Methuselah is also a welcome addition to the story, for he serves as an excellent framing device. Before he had but a minor part. Now he fits into the unfolding drama so well, I can't imagine him not having been serving in this capacity before. Dare I say it? I actually LIKE the characters now. And my questions are answered! The Plot holes are filled in! The continuity is top notch! There was one note I found that, well, to explain it would spoil it, but the dread at finding that particular note in that particular location was a palatable thing. I don't know if you understand the meaning of the term, "Fridge Horror", but it means that when watching a story, some time later it sinks in exactly what happened, and that's when the horror blooms.

It was beautiful in its' terrifying implications.

The newly redone Jeremiah is a joy to behold. The voice work is amazing, the animations truly bring him to life. I assume they hired a professional actor and did motion capture, because that's the only way they could have picked up the subtle nuance that makes this character so facinating.

And the main plot line... not to give too much away, but the old bear... oh... that old bear... Before that old bear was a major annoyance. Defeating the bear in the previous incarnation was a grind. The current finale, oh ho! Perfect. THAT is what I expect in a final boss battle. I expect to barely cross the finish line after slugging it out against impossible odds. When I stumbled back to Jeremiah, I felt I had EARNED that victory. And the backstory of that bear, the lamp shading, the myths and realities... oh... So good. Just so good.

And that's just the improvements to the story mode.

The survival game has had a large number of improvements given to it as well. The addition of new items have, in my opinion, breathed new life into the Broken Railroad map. The addition of radio towers to the Forlorn Muskeg map serve both a purpose in the Story mode, as well as drawing attention to areas that previously many players would have missed.

The addition of the Rabbit hat means that finally we can craft a hat after wolf and bear attacks have shredded our head gear. This means every surface that could be subject to frostbite can now be covered with crafted clothing.

The new Well Fed mechanic is an, and I don't use the word lightly, ELEGANT solution to the problem of players hoarding too much food in the mid to late stage. This sort of outside the box thinking towards game balance is exactly the sort of thing I want to see.

In sort, with the 1.43 update, I can say without fear of contradiction, that The Long Dark is the best game I have seen in a long... long time. A LONG TIME. I mean, dear god I could go on for hours about the train wrecks most of these "So-Called" AAA-class game companies have produced this past year.

The real story here is to see that HLG has finally managed to make the Story Mode about the STORY and the Survival mode about SURVIVAL. I didn't think they were ever going to get it done. I wasn't sure it was possible. I thought, given the type of game, story mode was just always going to be the red-headed stepchild of The Long Dark.

To see the Wintermute storyline finally come into its own is a joy. A ray of hope in an otherwise gloomy, dismal year of disappointment and the lingering stench of failure and rotting loot boxes.

Raphael, the designer of The Long Dark, has restored my faith in humanity. It is still possible for beautiful, fun games to be created that are designed to be... fun. Just Fun. Nothing else. A game that is fun and exciting and interesting and gets you to care, just for the sake of being fun. There are many game designers who could learn a thing or a hundred twenty eight from Raphael.

He has knocked it out of the park. He has taken a mid court 3-point shot and hit nothing but net. Whatever sports metaphor you prefer, this was a complete, and utter success on ever level.

Is it "perfect"? No. However, the few quibbling concerns I have are more a personal preference, then any slam against the story or game design. The people who play the long dark are a diverse lot, so some of us are going to like certain things, and others will hate said things. This is the nature of game design. No game can be all things to all people. But DAMN did it come as close as humanly possible!

I could go into many details about what exactly it is that I like about this latest version of The Long Dark, but at this point I have to get into spoilers and I'd prefer to keep this as free of that as much as possible.

Instead I will just state that the level of detail, care, and effort that has gone into this revision of the game is astounding. This was a labor of love and it shows. Someone BLED red and crimson to make this. You do not get this level of craftsmanship and storytelling without tearing out your own heart. It is clear that talent didn't just go into this redux, but pain as well. Nothing of this quality is made without it.

And I thank the ones who suffered for this art, because this was just phenomenal. Slow clap. Standing ovation. Drop balloons. Ignite fireworks. Take a bow.

You earned it, Hinterland Games.

You. Earned. It.

[MueckE]

I could go more into detail what has changed that made Redux so good as it is, but it would be walls of text Beside the story, the writing, storytelling .......... there are so many small things, i don't even know where to start. So i just can reply, yes - i think exactly the same about Redux. Well done Hinterland!

[Khan_Drichthyes]

10 hours ago, TheEldritchGod said:

The storyline before was... rough... to be charitable. Now? Now it is sublime. The acting is vastly improved. The quality of the cut scenes is top notch.

I finished Grey Mother's 1st quest to retrieve wood and food.  In our subsequent conversation, she displayed trust by setting down her rifle.  I loved that touch.  No numerical indicator or graphical gauge of her trust level:  She just puts her gun down.

I'm also liking the brochures laying around that tell the Town's history. 

[fauxjargon]

I was seriously disappointed with Episode 1 and 2 on their first release (I didn't care, survival mode is my game anyway!), but although I have mostly soured on single-player narrative driven games (either not worth my time, too little value for money, or both), Hinterland killed it with this one.  Obviously Hinterland is not an AAA studio yet - there was lots of little details that annoyed me, like Gray Mother's hands clipping through her rifle to an absurd degree) and I felt that the story mode deserved a 4th difficulty mode that is actually challenging.

For instance I would have been liked to be forced to shoot a few deer if I wanted to be able to keep that Well Fed buff on the whole game, and I'm pretty sure the only time, except maybe at the start, when I took cold damage was when I walked from Trapper's to Maintenance Yard in one day with nothing but a couple cold coffees and some crackers to keep body and soul together.

[TheEldritchGod]

On 12/22/2018 at 2:23 PM, fauxjargon said:

Obviously Hinterland is not an AAA studio yet - there was lots of little details that annoyed me, like Gray Mother's hands clipping through her rifle to an absurd degree) and I felt that the story mode deserved a 4th difficulty mode that is actually challenging.

Yes, I have seen some glitches. Nothing game breaking, just cosmetic in nature. Truth be told, I'm sick and tired of game with pure beauty backdrops and nothing to the story. Fallout 76, visually stunning. Ground breaking graphics. The game is utter crap.

Star wars TLJ, nobody can saw it is not visually one of the most amazing looking movies ever. Regardless, the story is utter crap.

I will forgive a few graphical errors in exchange for a beautiful story. I usually play with all the graphics turned off anyways.

 

As for the difficulty mode, I cannot agree more. I get that HLG has to appeal to the whole fan base, so I forgive them for not setting the bar too high. But yes, I would like a 4th game mode called "Brutal" that is just a hair short of Deadman. There are a large number of suggestions and improvements I would like. However, what i want to do is ADD to the game, not offer up something that the game NEEDS. It's fine as is, but my personal preferences aren't the same as everyone else. I can put aside my personal foibles and look at it from the point of view of the company. I see WHY they have done it this way.