DLC review- Stalker- Spoilers

[RegentRelic]

This a continuation of a run where I reviewed the free update. It's over in the survival mode sub-form if you're interested. The setup is that I am going to the Branch Line on day twenty-nine with all the tools and weapons (except a flairgun) I want. I have a bear coat, rabbit hat, deer boots, improvised crampons, and mostly high-quality clothing items. The only thing I am missing is a moose hide satchel. I also have level three in Butchin' and cookin'. As well as level two in most of the relevant skills. I'm not using any feats.

       The Branch line was long and ominous with the lack of wolves really letting you just slow down and travel which is something that game has drifted away from over the years in some ways. Some people might say that the trip is boring, but I think it would have been a drag if I had to fight a wolf or bear every five minutes. I liked how Hinterland managed to give some options on how to approach a few parts of the region despite it being it a transition zone. All the caves keep you from freezing without telling you to stop which is perfect. (in this run cold isn't issue for me though) I can also see people running out of light at some point and having to Panick through the dark. I'm glad in a game called The Long Dark the dark is at least occasionally an issue. Perfect 10/10. Best transition zone as a transition zone. I don't have any issues with any of the transition zones though. 

        When I saw the water tower in Transfer Pass I was field with anticipation. A key area that is field with hostile wildlife. A choice between going around and dealing with the wildlife. Nothing though completely empty. Did I just get lucky? There's a timber wolf in the trailer and wolf on the loading screen? It's not like I just missed them as I did stop to harvest the cattails and didn't hear any howling. At this point I've traveled a similar distance as from the Maintenance Yard and Carter. I've taken every turn if come across and I've seen one wolf, two deer and three or four sets of rabbits. At this point the world was feeling a bit empty and I don't mean that in the way that the world of The Long Dark is supposed to be empty. Maybe it is. Like Part of the world is missing. Maybe by taking a way mechanics Hinterland has achieved what one of the core feelings the game is meant to invoke. Or there will be a mountain lion or two around here. I am going to assume that's the case because Forsaken airfield a achieves the feeling of a lingering stillness, heavy on the air much better. 7/10 Boring but, I love the sign posting though.

 

      I think the best way to describe Forsaken Airfield is that its pleasant valley with ash canyon rapped around it, but bigger. Following the roads will take to most of the shelters, but, you will miss the lots of cool stuff following it.

 

A little way into the region you start hearing wolves and you don't stop hearing them.

The wolves are pretty far out of the way but, you can always hear them. Reminding you that they are there. This is how the long dark is at it's best. Not when It's throwing Timber Wolves or ambush Bears at you, but when you can pensively plan your next move, debate your routes with yourself, wonder how a world that feels like this could come to be. Think of the cold, think of the hinterlands. Shed a tear for home maybe. But they remind you they are there. Waiting for you to slip up. Crows of the ground. Men if men were animals. Whatever you call them. Most people call them wolves. The wolves in Forsaken airfield are a lot scarier than usual the area is so flat they can't be cheesed and i've never seen a pack of less than three. Like I said they aren't in the way most of the time and it takes along to get to them. Those things combined with the fact you can see them from aways away is all building to when you are carrying to much raw meat or turn the wrong way in the thick fog or heavy wind that's so, common in this region and find yourself put upon by half a dozen of them. You question the choices you made. Feel angry at the risks you took. When you realize your ability to live is less then it's opposition. For A brief moment when your put upon by these packs of wolves is the closest thing that video games can make you feal to realizing you're in an actual survival situation. It's a slow panic.

           

            The airfield its self only has a few issues. You can tell that hinterland spent alot of time figuring exactly how far apart everything can be. Same with the whole region on that front. Everything seems so, far away, but doesn't feel like the game is wasting your time (a feeling I get alot in games). I like the underground work bench as it adds another layer of difficulty and forces the players to make interesting decisions every time, they want to use it. In some other regions the lack of easily excisable work benches would be an issue, but as most people who buy the DLC are going to be veteran players I think it was a great decision. I did find a fresh fish in the main hanger on day 32 which was a bit weird.

I found a short cut back to Transfer Pass behind the airfield that I'm glad exists even if was hard to get back in a blizzard since there is a one-way that I decided to take. Hinterland Seems to be falling in love with one-ways lately. Which isn't an issue especially since they give a little tutorial one at the Depot. I hand an aurora the next night, but didn't find anything which was really surprising since hinterland kept stressing that there were secrets that would be revealed by the aurora. The last thing I have to say about the airfield is that you should be able to go up the hatch at the top of the control tower because it looks like you could. At first I thought that it would open up during the aurora and there would be some aurora only loot hidden up there, but I was mistaken as it turned out to be nothing.

 

      I went to the burnt down cabin and then the to the crashed helicopter. Shot a bear to repair my coat and camped out at the chopper for the night. When I was on my way back from the bear, the wolves near the cabin caught my sent and started in my direction they didn't catch but, it was a little scary and the fact that they waited around The Final Approach for a while was something I wish they did more often. As for the helicopter it's self I found an empty flair gun case which hyperbolically tragic.

A blizzard picked up but, luckily, I was still able to cook my meat since the helicopter is not an interior. 

It's a blessing and a curse since it meant I couldn't cure my goods, it was really cold and whatever I dropped disappeared into the floor. Still, it's a good place to treat cabin fever with all the nearby wildlife, as long as you bring enough wood. I had an aurora that night and there was again nothing to find.

 

        I visited what I think are the rest of key locations and they all had something going that's worth talking about, but they are going to have to be speed rounds. Shoulder lake has approximately infinite cattails and the plane crash was a bit weird that it perfectly hit the one island. I think it was a missed and would have cooler if it was half buried in the ice. Both cabins are an exhalant part of the "the whole region is your base in the late game" mentality and look great, but the guy that built a snow shelter twenty yards from a cabin was stupid. What I mean by that is that every part of what you want in a late game base is spread out in roughly evenly across the map. I'm not going to say whether this is good or bad since I haven't seen how it feels to play. I'm glad hinterland tried it in such a deliberate and straight forward manner though.

 

      In Short: Everything regarding the mid game crafting has an extra layer of difficulty to it which is great. Everything from shelters to wildlife is perfectly spaced and placed to create what I think of when I think of as the core Long Dark experience. Not the original Long Dark experience. It's not the old days of Silent Hunter. It's what those days seemed to want to deliver, but couldn't be. Is it worth Twenty Dollars? For me, yes. These are the regions that I've been hoping for, for years and I refused to let myself get excited for the new mechanics. I can see why people feel skunked though if they were more excited about the new mechanics, they thought they were getting, and the game being broken on launch will never be totally forgiven. I am also fairly rich (live in the United States) so, twenty dollars doesn't sound like hardly anything for something I am going to thoroughly enjoy for dozens of hours. It's already one of my favorite regions in one of my favorite games and I can't wait for the rest of the TFTFT updates!