My Obsession - Thank You Hinterland

[gapshot11]

First let me thank Hinterland for putting out the best game I have ever played. I am an avid strategy gamer, I don't get big into fantasy or zombies, preferring Civilization and SimCity type games. I appreciate realism and love a game that lasts longer than 2 hours.

All that said, I never thought I would find a game that would eclipse my devotion to Civilization but, alas, I have not played Civ since I purchased the Early Access of TLD. According to Steam I have played TLD for 176 hours since I installed it. In reality I have played it so much more as even when I am not on my laptop I am thinking about what I am going to do next, or how I can improve my survival chances inside the game.

Thank you for putting out such an amazing game. It is clear that Hinterland is committed to excellence through not only the wonderful game concepts and mechanics, but also the artwork, sounds, music, and atmosphere. I will forever long to go back to that first day of playing TLD, when everything was new and fresh in Mystery Lake. When 3 hours of survival was cool and finding Tomato Soup and a can opener got me excited.

It is partly that experience of newness that has me stuck in my current obsession. I have rarely gone anywhere but Mystery Lake. Partly because I had my best run there, lasting for 50 days. Of I have started a few games in CH but none have ever lasted too long. I'm not sure how much of that map I have discovered but I continue to find myself restarting a new game in Mystery Lake before I have died in CH. I did one Random start, which put me in PV....I died fairly quickly so that map is yet to be tainted.

Is it my fear that the new maps will one day become known with mindless movement and memorized deposits like ML? I still enjoy playing ML as I continue going back to it. I tell myself that it makes more sense to start as if crashing in the wilderness as opposed to a village area.

Is it because I want to recreate my best run, starting in ML and conquering the area before moving on? This is another excuse I tell myself to justify going back. Couldn't I just as easily conquer another zone and move to ML?

In reality I think its a combination of all these. In reality there is no "Right" way to play through the maps. Yet my obsession continues as I am about to abandon a game I just started today in CH to begin anew in ML. I need help, I know.

Thank you Hinterland for your dedication and commitment to this game and it's players. The updates have been awesome, the maps great. I have never played no imagine will ever play a game like this one, that totally dominates my thoughts from dawn to dusk. Please continue to improve upon what you have created here. This truly is a rare gem of a game like no other.

I'm not sure when or if I will ever get to the other maps, but I love knowing they are there. I gear up to begin again in ML, hoping to survive long enouth to touch all maps including TWM. My one wish would be that you go back to making the maps only accessible if you find the route to them. I think that adds a level of strategy and reward to the game, and it would also take away some of my pain of knowing I could go to them now if I wanted.

[Patrick Carlson]

Thanks for sharing this with us, gapshot11. You're absolutely right, there is no "right" way to play. I know it makes the team happy to see the variety of approaches to the world they've created.

Best of luck in your adventures!

--Patrick

[Wasteland Watcher]

gapshot11 thank you for posting this because I feel exactly the same and could not have worded it better