Your best experience with the game?

[Dancewithknives]

This is kind of a feels good thread.  What was that moment, just a simple point in time that sticks out to you that you enjoyed TLD or it kind if just clicked for you.

 

here’s mine:

to summarize, I am amazed in games when something can happen organically, something that you experience that wasn’t completely scripted or arranged that you happen to notice. (IE, the opposite of cutscenes). Well, on my first time playing the game, I log in to Wintermute and begin episode 1. I have a bit of a stint trying to understand the controls, and how all the different aspects work, but i begin to understand how to play the game. 
 

shortly after meeting Greymother, I wait till morning, and decide to go investigate the truck side mission. I leave Milton proper as a blizzard begins to pick up, i see a car and jump in the passenger seat and begin to search for supplies. I didn’t find anything, until i get the idea to check the visor. 
 

i look up, flip it down and HA! Found some pain pills. I grab my prize, flip the visor back down, and right outside the car I see a wolf, stalking through the blizzard on the prowl. 
 

i just remember dropping the controller and holding my breath as the wolf slinks away and disappears into the snow.   

[theisaactrain]

One day I was laying in my bed, with nothing to concern me. I started listening to the song 'Let Go' by Ark Patrol, linked below, now this sounds super cliche, but this song legitimately scares me. For me, it incompasses dread, loneliness, and desolation. Whenever that beat drops, the only thing I can think about is stinking Great Bear Island. The abandonment, the collapse. Jeez, it seems so lame, but this song, and the game just make me feel some kind of way. Right when this happened, it solidified in my mind that even though I don't play The Long Dark all that much, it has still somehow put this effect into my mind, and without a doubt is my favorite game, ever.

 

[Catlover]

I like this thread and thought that I would contribute with a story of my own that I class as one of my favourites.

It was my first time on stalker and I was in ML, heading towards the logging trailers. I got into a wolf struggle and, bleeding, I dragged my unfortunate survivor to the tram thing on the tracks. After fixing myself up, I hear the sound of snarling, a lot of snarling, and open the door to see four or five wolves awaiting my departure. I found this pretty funny, and lit a flare, my last flare, I should add, and tossed it at the pack. Most fled though one remained, keeping a wary distance, and, hurrying towards the flare, I began backwards walking towards the trailers with an angry wolf on my tail. 

I manage to get into the trailer, alive, somehow and come morning, the wolf was nowhere to be found.  It was then that I realised that stalker, for me, is 100% better that Voyager. The adrenaline and frantic escape were what made me re-get back into the game that I love

Edited March 13, 2021 by Catlover

[xAnAngelOfDeathx]

On 3/11/2021 at 9:07 PM, Dancewithknives said:

 I didn’t find anything, until i get the idea to check the visor. 

 

i look up, flip it down and HA! Found some pain pills. I grab my prize, flip the visor back down, and right outside the car I see a wolf, stalking through the blizzard on the prowl.

You actually found something behind a visor!?
I thought the visors were like the fuel doors in that nothing is ever found behind them?

[Dancewithknives]

7 hours ago, xAnAngelOfDeathx said:

You actually found something behind a visor!?
I thought the visors were like the fuel doors in that nothing is ever found behind them?

It was mainly in wintermute, but i think i found a key once, mittens, and pain pills

[ManicManiac]

I think that my best experiences with the game has been each time I've created my own personal challenges for my survival runs, and managing to successfully complete them.  Adding my own extra rules and provisos, and being able to survive and thrive while trying to meet various self-set goals (for me) feels very rewarding.

Honestly, I love all aspects of the game: story mode, challenges, special events, and the survival sandbox.  However, I do think I have the most fun and rewarding experiences in the survival sandbox.  I really like that once I've gotten proficient with all my survival tasks, the onus is on me to find creative ways to just live on Great Bear on my own terms... and for how long.

I also really love that the story I get to experience in survival is the one that I create through my own gameplay, and the choices I make along the way.  I also think it's wonderful that the game is not afraid to just let us live with (or die with) the consequences of our mistakes, and will sometimes even throw a lot of misfortune our way (so we can see if we have what it takes to overcome that adversity). 

Edited March 14, 2021 by ManicManiac

[Catlover]

31 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

I also really love that the story I get to experience in survival is the one that I create through my own gameplay, and the choices I make along the way.  I also think it's wonderful that the game is not afraid to just let us live with (or die with) the consequences of our mistakes, and will sometimes even throw a lot of misfortune our way (so we can see if we have what it takes to overcome that adversity). 

I completely agree! I really like how unlike most games, it has a perma-death feature. It's far more enjoyable to test the limits and learn things by facing the consequences instead of hand-holding and the ability to simply reload the save file. It truly feels like survival at times, especially when you begin to get fond of a particular run.

[Dancewithknives]

53 minutes ago, Catlover said:

really like how unlike most games, it has a perma-death feature.

Although there are times I just want to save and retry in Survival, it does make the game much more interesting 

[Pillock]

I think the moments I've enjoyed the most are when you are very close to death, but you manage to pull through - either by your own ingenuity or by sheer luck. In fact, the lucky escapes are possibly the most fun.

For example, when I first set foot in Pleasant Valley after making the journey through the Winding River for the first time: I was lost (obviously, being my first time on the map), it was evening and a blizzard was starting up (obviously, being Pleasant Valley, though I didn't know that yet). I kept my character awake for an entire night on a hillside, tending a fire stick by stick because the wind wouldn't allow the fire-duration to go above 9 minutes. When dawn broke I was exhausted and starving, but my fire had kept me from freezing to death, and the storm was easing. I came out from behind my rock and looked out over the valley - there in front of me, just down the hill, was the Farmhouse. I think I let out an audible cheer, and just ran straight for it. Once inside, I immediately set about smashing chairs for firewood, got a blazing fire going in the living room, and gorged myself on the contents of the voyageur-stocked kitchen! It was a great moment. The feeling of relief, of being saved, was immense.

I've never played another game that made me feel that, I don't think. 

[Dancewithknives]

23 hours ago, Pillock said:

think the moments I've enjoyed the most are when you are very close to death, b

I’ve had a lot of stupid deaths, but i will recall some really intense moments while playing that stick with me. 
 

I died shortly after, but i was just starting survival and was going from Broken Railroad to Spence family homestead, trying to stay away from wolves, when I get near the last island and I walk up on a GD bear! I had 7 shots in my rifle and I blow its head off. I started gutting it, because I only had a low quality knife, and I soon realized my quick trek to the homestead was impossible in the dark and a light snow set in. I spent all night nursing a fire to stay warm and survive till morning.

[Hotzn]

First time I experienced the aurora.

Went down in Mystery Lake.