First of all, I know, it's a game but it fit better here than any other forum because of the subject matter...
I've been playing this on and off since they were in early access a year or so ago.
The premise is you are a bush pilot flying through the Canadian Northwest territory and some kind of EMP event happens.
EDIT: You crash.
You start in the Canadian wilderness with only the things you have on you. Cold is a huge factor, as is wind, clothes, calories, wildlife and weather.
In 'sandbox' mode the whole point of the game is to not die. If you do, it's 'forever'. No saved games. You start over from scratch.
There's a bunch of fairly large, interconnected maps to explore and scavenge resources from. There are no other people, although you will run into frozen corpses.
There are rabbits, fish, deer, wolves and bears but their behavior ranges from skittish to aggressive (and I'm not talking about the rabbits).
The game is kind of 'low res'... it's a fairly simple game engine with about 2000-ish graphics, but the weather, sound and lighting effects are outstanding. It's very easy to feel that you are truly lost and struggling in the arctic wilderness.
It was written by a Canadian company (Hinterland) and it has more practical arctic survival information embedded in it than anything I've ever seen. More importantly, it really makes you think before each step you take.
It's no shoot-em-up, I don't think I've ever had more than 10 rounds for the rusty old Enfield that's the games only firearm. Instead you end up taking a chance of hunting a deer during a white-out blizzard so you can sneak up close enough to dispatch it with a single round.... you know it may be days before you find another.
Anyway, I know it's not real-world, and it will frustrate the gear-o-holics because it's all about making do, but it's an amazing game and an interesting taste of what it might be like to try and survive in a harsh environment like the Canadian arctic.
BTW, there's also a 'story mode' that uses the same environment but hangs a plot line off it. That's OK but not the games strong point. If you can get up to 100 (in game) days or so in the sandbox mode without dying, that's the real accomplishment.
I've been playing this on and off since they were in early access a year or so ago.
The premise is you are a bush pilot flying through the Canadian Northwest territory and some kind of EMP event happens.
EDIT: You crash.
You start in the Canadian wilderness with only the things you have on you. Cold is a huge factor, as is wind, clothes, calories, wildlife and weather.
In 'sandbox' mode the whole point of the game is to not die. If you do, it's 'forever'. No saved games. You start over from scratch.
There's a bunch of fairly large, interconnected maps to explore and scavenge resources from. There are no other people, although you will run into frozen corpses.
There are rabbits, fish, deer, wolves and bears but their behavior ranges from skittish to aggressive (and I'm not talking about the rabbits).
The game is kind of 'low res'... it's a fairly simple game engine with about 2000-ish graphics, but the weather, sound and lighting effects are outstanding. It's very easy to feel that you are truly lost and struggling in the arctic wilderness.
It was written by a Canadian company (Hinterland) and it has more practical arctic survival information embedded in it than anything I've ever seen. More importantly, it really makes you think before each step you take.
It's no shoot-em-up, I don't think I've ever had more than 10 rounds for the rusty old Enfield that's the games only firearm. Instead you end up taking a chance of hunting a deer during a white-out blizzard so you can sneak up close enough to dispatch it with a single round.... you know it may be days before you find another.
Anyway, I know it's not real-world, and it will frustrate the gear-o-holics because it's all about making do, but it's an amazing game and an interesting taste of what it might be like to try and survive in a harsh environment like the Canadian arctic.
BTW, there's also a 'story mode' that uses the same environment but hangs a plot line off it. That's OK but not the games strong point. If you can get up to 100 (in game) days or so in the sandbox mode without dying, that's the real accomplishment.