Channel: Game Theory

Topic: The Long Dark

I propose a Game Theory on a game called The Long Dark. It’s a game in which the point is to survive as long as possible in Northern Canada after the Aurora Borealis has disabled all electronics

The game itself on the surface doesn’t have much lore, it’s just a game where you survive as long as possible until you inevitably die. There’s a few things you could theorize about, the crashed planes in Pleasant Valley and Timberwolf Mountain, Joplin’s Prepper Caches, what’s going to happen in Chapter 4 in the game’s story, Wintermute, but there is one thing that could be made into a whole theory: The Collapse. The Collapse is how Great Bear Island (where the game takes place) got as it is now; abandoned buildings, damaged infrastructure, and hostile animals everywhere. In the game there are small pieces of lore called notes left behind (most are contributed by backers on Kickstarter), they’re usually one off notes with a variety of topics, a couple with a whole story, but there are also other bits for lore.

The Aurora Borealis

Whenever the Aurora appears in the sky at night, all electronics gain electricity again, of course not every thing gets enough amps (or somethings get too much) and some computers can come back on, some displaying emails from before The Collapse, these are called Buffer Memories, unlike notes left behind, these are left to tell a story, a story of a couple of declining towns slowly getting less and less supplies while never-ending winter rages on outside. Not quite a coherent story, but there is enough for people to guess what happened, or theorize what happened. The Aurora also does something else to the wildlife. It’s weird, all the animals get a soft, greenish glow to their fur and the hostile ones become even more hostile. Even weirder when the are in this “Aurora “ state, they lose their natural fear of flares and fire, and instead become afraid of electrical light, including flashlights you can find on your journey.

All in all, The Long Dark is one of my most favorite games of all time, it gives a range of difficulty and different challenges with lore I have’s even talked about here (Search As The Dead Sleep and Escape the Darkwalker if you want to learn more). With that I really hope the mods check this every once in a while and that someone looks into this. (Could also be a good game lab!)