The Long Dark: I Survived 100 Days in a Frozen Canadian Wilderness – Here’s My Story
Day 1 in The Long Dark, I nearly froze finding an abandoned cabin. By day 30, I was a seasoned survivor, hunting deer with a salvaged rifle, mending clothes by firelight. Day 60 brought a fierce blizzard that trapped me for a week, rationing my last can of peaches. Reaching day 100 felt monumental. I’d mapped Pleasant Valley, faced down wolves, and learned the rhythms of the quiet apocalypse. It wasn’t about winning; it was about enduring, each sunrise a small victory against the relentless cold and my own dwindling hope.
Infra: The Urban Exploration Game That Made Me Fear Crumbling Concrete
As a structural analyst in Infra, my job was to inspect failing infrastructure. I started in a seemingly stable dam, flashlight cutting through the gloom. Then, a distant groan of stressed concrete. A sudden tremor. I navigated crumbling tunnels, documented cracked supports, and solved environmental puzzles to escape collapsing buildings and flooded metro lines. The game instilled a genuine fear of unstable structures, making every creak and crack a potential sign of imminent disaster. It was a chillingly realistic exploration of urban decay.
Abiotic Factor: Half-Life Meets SCP in This Co-op Survival Crafting Gem
My friends and I awoke in the GATE research facility during a containment breach – Abiotic Factor was pure chaos from the start. We were nerdy scientists, not soldiers, so we crafted makeshift spears from brooms and battled interdimensional creatures reminiscent of SCP horrors and Half-Life aliens. We barricaded ourselves in a cafeteria, set up a “research” station (a whiteboard and some beakers), and ventured into portal worlds for resources. It’s a brilliant blend of nerdy humor, tense survival, and cooperative crafting that had us laughing and screaming in equal measure.
Dredge: The Cozy Fishing Game That Hides a Terrifying Lovecraftian Secret
I set out in Dredge as a simple fisherman, eager to pay off my debt by catching cod and mackerel in a remote archipelago. The daytime fishing was peaceful, the islanders quirky. Then night fell. Strange lights appeared on the water, my sanity frayed, and the fish I pulled up were… wrong. Grotesque, mutated. The cozy fishing sim slowly peeled back its layers to reveal a chilling Lovecraftian mystery. That dawning realization, that something ancient and terrible lurked beneath the waves, transformed my relaxing fishing trips into a descent into maritime madness.
The Long Dark: The Quiet Apocalypse – Finding Beauty in Desolation
The world of The Long Dark is harsh, a post-geomagnetic event wasteland. Yet, amidst the struggle for survival, there’s a profound, desolate beauty. I’d crest a hill in Timberwolf Mountain to see the aurora borealis dancing over snow-covered peaks, or watch a sunrise paint the frozen landscape of Coastal Highway in hues of orange and pink. These moments of quiet contemplation, finding beauty in a world stripped bare, offered a poignant contrast to the constant fight against hunger, cold, and predatory wildlife, making the desolation strangely captivating.
Infra: Documenting Structural Failures Before It’s Too Late (It’s Usually Too Late)
As a structural analyst in Infra, my camera was my most important tool. I meticulously photographed cracked beams, corroded pipes, and failing supports in decaying dams, power plants, and metro systems. The goal was to document these failures for my report. Often, however, my documentation became a frantic effort to understand why the floor was collapsing beneath me or how to escape a flooding tunnel. The game masterfully turned a mundane task into a tense exploration, where “too late” was a frequent, terrifying outcome of unchecked urban decay.
Abiotic Factor: Crafting Makeshift Weapons to Fight Interdimensional Horrors
In Abiotic Factor, we weren’t soldiers; we were scientists. When interdimensional creatures started pouring through portals, our first weapons were office supplies. I taped a pair of scissors to a broom handle to make a spear. My friend fashioned a crude shield from a cafeteria tray. We graduated to crafting makeshift crossbows from lab equipment and pipe shotguns. This emphasis on jury-rigged weaponry, born from desperation and scientific ingenuity (however flawed), perfectly captured the game’s blend of SCP-style horror and nerdy, resourceful survival.
Dredge: That Moment You Realize the Ocean is Staring Back
My fishing trawler in Dredge chugged along peacefully at first. I’d haul in cod, explore sunny coves. Then, one foggy night, I saw it – a colossal eye beneath the waves, watching me. My sanity plummeted. The rocks around me seemed to shift and writhe. That single, horrifying moment transformed Dredge from a quirky fishing sim into something far more sinister. The ocean wasn’t just a resource; it was an ancient, aware entity, and I was a tiny, insignificant speck trespassing in its domain. The cozy illusion shattered.
The Long Dark: Mastering Fire Starting and Shelter Building – The Core Skills
Surviving the Canadian wilderness in The Long Dark boils down to two things: warmth and shelter. I learned to painstakingly gather tinder, kindling, and precious cedar firewood. Successfully starting a fire with a single match in a blizzard felt like a monumental victory. Finding an abandoned cabin was a godsend, but often I had to make do with snow shelters or sheltered cave mouths. Mastering these core skills – efficiently creating and maintaining fire, and identifying or improvising shelter – was the absolute foundation of every successful, long-term survival attempt.
Infra: The Environmental Puzzles That Require Real-World Logic
The puzzles in Infra weren’t abstract brain-teasers; they were grounded in real-world engineering and problem-solving. To restore power to a flooded pump station, I had to trace electrical diagrams and reroute breakers. To escape a collapsing tunnel, I needed to understand load-bearing structures and find alternative supports. These puzzles required careful observation of the environment and application of logical, almost intuitive, solutions. It made me feel less like a gamer solving puzzles and more like an actual analyst trying to navigate a series of escalating structural disasters.
Abiotic Factor: Building a Secure Base in a Hostile Research Facility
Our first “base” in Abiotic Factor was a pile of desks in a breakroom. As interdimensional threats escalated, we got serious. We barricaded office cubicles, set up defensive turrets crafted from lab equipment, and established dedicated crafting stations and sleeping areas. Securing a reliable power source and clean water became paramount. Transforming a mundane section of the GATE facility into a fortified, (mostly) monster-proof sanctuary, using only scavenged materials and scientific ingenuity, was a deeply satisfying and essential part of our co-op survival.
Dredge: The Best Upgrades for Your Trawler (And Your Sanity)
My initial trawler in Dredge was slow and had limited cargo. Upgrades were vital. Investing in a more powerful engine allowed me to outrun nocturnal horrors (sometimes). Better fishing rods and nets increased my haul, earning cash faster. Crucially, improved lanterns helped stave off the sanity-draining effects of the fog and the dark. Prioritizing these upgrades – better engines for around 500 currency units, improved nets for a few hundred – wasn’t just about efficiency; it was about surviving the increasingly terrifying nights and maintaining a tenuous grip on reality.
The Long Dark: The Different Regions and Their Unique Dangers
Each region in The Long Dark presented unique challenges. Mystery Lake was a good starting point, relatively balanced. Pleasant Valley was vast and open, prone to blizzards and wolf packs. Timberwolf Mountain, with its treacherous climbs and scarce shelter, was for seasoned survivors. Coastal Highway offered abundant salvage but also aggressive wildlife along its frozen shores. Learning to navigate these diverse, interconnected regions, understanding their specific resources and dangers, was key to long-term survival and mastering the game’s unforgiving Canadian wilderness.
Infra: The Haunting Emptiness of Abandoned Infrastructure
Exploring the decaying infrastructure in Infra, I was struck by its haunting emptiness. Vast, silent turbine halls in power plants, deserted metro stations with peeling paint, and crumbling concrete tunnels – these were once bustling hubs of human activity, now succumbing to neglect and failure. The absence of people, save for the occasional ghostly echo of past conversations on a forgotten radio, amplified the sense of isolation and decay. It was a poignant reminder of the fragility of our built world, making my solo journey through it feel both eerie and profound.
Abiotic Factor: The Co-op Shenanigans of Surviving With Friends
Playing Abiotic Factor with friends is where the real magic (and chaos) happens. One friend might be meticulously organizing our scavenged junk into “scientifically labeled” piles, while another accidentally sets off an alarm attracting a horde of alien creatures. We’d argue over the best way to craft a defensive barricade (using desks or vending machines?), then band together to fight off a giant crab monster with makeshift spears and fire extinguishers. The co-op survival is a brilliant mix of strategic planning and hilarious, unpredictable shenanigans.
Dredge: The Unsettling Inhabitants of the Archipelago’s Islands
The islands in Dredge were populated by a cast of increasingly strange and unsettling characters. The Lighthouse Keeper seemed to know more than she let on. The Collector in Blackstone Isle had disturbing requests for mutated fish. The old fisherman in Little Marrow spoke in riddles about ancient evils. Each interaction, each bizarre fetch quest, pulled me deeper into the archipelago’s Lovecraftian mystery, making me question who to trust and what dark secrets these isolated communities were hiding beneath their seemingly quaint exteriors.
The Long Dark: Stalker vs. Interloper – Which Difficulty is For You?
In The Long Dark, Stalker difficulty offers a harsh but manageable survival experience, with aggressive wildlife and scarcer resources. It’s a good challenge after mastering Pilgrim or Voyager. Interloper, however, is brutal. You start with minimal clothing, no rifle, no matches, and resources are incredibly rare. Wolves are hyper-aggressive, and the cold is relentless. Interloper is for true masochists who crave an unforgiving, minimalist survival test where every decision is life or death. Stalker tests your skills; Interloper tests your will to live.
Infra: The Underlying Conspiracy You Uncover Through Exploration
While documenting structural failures in Infra, I started noticing patterns: falsified inspection reports, cut corners in construction, and hushed-up accidents. My initial mission to assess crumbling infrastructure slowly morphed into an investigation of corporate corruption and a potential city-wide conspiracy that put thousands of lives at risk. Uncovering these hidden narratives through emails on forgotten computers, audio logs, and environmental clues added a compelling layer of intrigue to the urban exploration, making my journey feel even more significant.
Abiotic Factor: The Science! (And Pseudoscience) Behind the Anomalies
Abiotic Factor leans heavily into its “scientists surviving an SCP-style breach” theme. We’d encounter bizarre interdimensional plants, creatures that defied known biology, and reality-bending artifacts. The game encourages a “scientific” approach: “researching” new items by combining them, theorizing about creature weaknesses (often hilariously wrong), and crafting equipment using a mix of actual scientific principles and pure B-movie pseudoscience. This playful embrace of both legitimate and fantastical science is a core part of its nerdy charm and humor.
Dredge: The Different Fish Species (And the Horrors They Transform Into)
Daytime fishing in Dredge yielded familiar species: cod, mackerel, flounder. But as my sanity frayed and night fell, my catches became… aberrant. The cod had too many eyes, the mackerel glowed with an unnatural light, and some fish were twisted into unrecognizable, monstrous forms. These horrifying “aberrations,” cataloged in my encyclopedia, were not only more valuable but also a chilling visual representation of the Lovecraftian corruption seeping into the world. Each new grotesque catch was both a profitable find and a step deeper into madness.
The Long Dark: The Wintermute Story Mode vs. Survival Mode
The Long Dark offers two core experiences. Survival Mode is the pure sandbox: dropped into a random region, your only goal is to endure. It’s about player-driven stories of struggle and triumph. Wintermute, the episodic story mode, follows bush pilot Will Mackenzie after a mysterious geomagnetic event. It provides a more structured narrative, with characters, objectives, and a unfolding mystery. While Survival Mode is about raw, emergent gameplay, Wintermute offers a compelling, character-driven reason to explore the quiet apocalypse and its lore.
Infra: The Photography Mechanic – More Than Just a Gimmick
In Infra, my camera wasn’t just for taking pretty pictures; it was an essential gameplay tool. Documenting structural failures – cracks, leaks, corrosion – was my primary objective. These photos served as evidence, advanced the narrative, and sometimes even provided clues for environmental puzzles. Choosing the right angle, getting clear shots in dark environments, and meticulously cataloging damage made the photography mechanic feel integral to my role as a structural analyst, adding a unique layer of immersive interaction beyond simple exploration.
Abiotic Factor: The Importance of Food, Water, and Sanity (Especially Sanity)
Surviving the GATE facility in Abiotic Factor required constant attention to basic needs. We scoured vending machines for stale snacks and questionable sodas. We jerry-rigged water purifiers. But sanity was the trickiest. Witnessing interdimensional horrors, enduring darkness, or even eating “weird glowing mushrooms” would chip away at it, leading to visual and auditory hallucinations. Managing these meters, especially keeping our collective sanity from plummeting into full-blown panic amidst a monster attack, was a constant, crucial struggle for our nerdy scientist team.
Dredge: The Moral Dilemmas of Fulfilling Strange Requests
The islanders in Dredge often had peculiar requests. The Collector wanted specific, grotesquely mutated fish. A grieving widow asked for items that seemed to blur the line between remembrance and something darker. Fulfilling these tasks offered valuable rewards – boat upgrades, unique equipment, or information – but often came with a creeping sense of unease. Was I helping these people, or was I an unwitting pawn in some ancient, malevolent scheme? These morally ambiguous choices added a compelling layer of narrative depth to my increasingly unsettling fishing expeditions.
The Long Dark: The Wildlife – Majestic, Deadly, or Both?
The wildlife in The Long Dark is a constant presence. A deer bounding through the snow is a majestic sight, and a vital source of food and hides. Rabbits offer a smaller, but crucial, meal. But then there are the wolves, their howls echoing through the frozen air, a constant threat requiring careful avoidance or a well-aimed shot. And the bears, terrifyingly powerful, capable of ending a run in seconds. This duality – wildlife as both beautiful resource and deadly predator – perfectly encapsulates the harsh, yet awe-inspiring, nature of the Canadian wilderness.
Infra: The Sense of Isolation and Discovery in Forgotten Places
Playing Infra, I felt a profound sense of isolation. As a lone structural analyst venturing into colossal, abandoned dams, power plants, and metro systems, the silence was often broken only by the drip of water or the groan of decaying concrete. There were no enemies, just the environment itself as an antagonist. Yet, this isolation also fueled a strong sense of discovery. Finding a hidden passage, uncovering a piece of forgotten lore, or simply reaching a new, awe-inspiring vista within these decaying behemoths felt like a personal triumph.
Abiotic Factor: The Portal Worlds – What Fresh Hell Awaits?
In Abiotic Factor, stabilizing and entering portals to other dimensions was key to finding rare resources and advancing our “research.” Each portal world was a gamble. One might be an arid alien desert teeming with valuable crystals but also giant sand worms. Another could be a bizarre, fleshy dimension filled with hostile organic growths. Stepping through a shimmering portal, never knowing what fresh hell or unexpected bounty awaited our team of nerdy scientists on the other side, was always a mix of trepidation and exciting anticipation.
Dredge: The Lore Hidden in Messages in Bottles and Ancient Ruins
While fishing and dredging in Dredge, I’d occasionally find messages in bottles or stumble upon crumbling, vine-covered ruins on remote islands. These fragments slowly pieced together a chilling history of the archipelago: tales of ancient rituals, lost expeditions, and the slumbering entities beneath the waves. Deciphering these cryptic clues, often hinting at the very horrors I was beginning to encounter, added a rich layer of environmental storytelling and deepened the Lovecraftian mystery surrounding my increasingly perilous fishing career.
The Long Dark: My Most Memorable Animal Encounter (Close Call!)
I was tracking a deer in Pleasant Valley in The Long Dark, rifle aimed. Suddenly, a wolf burst from a snowdrift, spooking the deer and charging me. I fumbled, fired a shot wildly, and missed. It lunged. I braced for the struggle, mashing the button to fight it off. My condition plummeted. Just as I thought it was over, the wolf yelped and ran – my stray bullet had hit it after all, or perhaps I’d fought it off just enough. Shaking, bleeding, I limped back to my cabin, that terrifyingly close call forever etched in my memory.
Infra: Is It a Walking Simulator, a Puzzle Game, or a Warning?
Infra defies easy categorization. At times, it feels like a “walking simulator,” as I explored vast, detailed environments, soaking in the atmosphere of urban decay. Other times, it’s a clever environmental puzzle game, requiring logical thinking to navigate collapsing structures and restore power. But ultimately, Infra felt like a stark warning. Its meticulous depiction of failing infrastructure and corporate neglect served as a chilling commentary on the real-world consequences of ignoring the systems that support our society. It’s all three, and more.
Abiotic Factor: The Different “Sectors” and Their Unique Threats
The GATE facility in Abiotic Factor is divided into distinct sectors, each with its own scientific focus and, consequently, unique environmental hazards and creature types. The “Biosphere” sector was overgrown with aggressive alien flora and fauna. The “Manufacturing” wing had rogue security bots and hazardous machinery. Exploring each new sector meant adapting our survival strategies, crafting different gear, and facing new, often terrifying, interdimensional threats. This variety kept our co-op adventures fresh and consistently challenging as we delved deeper into the breached facility.
Dredge: The Best Fishing Spots for Rare (And Valuable) Catches
In Dredge, knowing where to fish was key to profit and progression. The shallow volcanic vents around Gale Cliffs often yielded valuable, heat-loving species. The mangrove thickets of Twisted Strand were home to bizarre, nocturnal creatures. Certain remote oceanic trenches, only accessible with upgraded gear, held rare abyssal fish – and often, more terrifying encounters. Finding these hotspots, sometimes hinted at by cryptic maps or islander rumors, and successfully hauling in a cargo of exotic, often aberrant, fish worth thousands of credits, was a core loop of exploration and reward.
The Long Dark: The Art of Clothing Layering for Maximum Warmth
Surviving the bitter cold of The Long Dark is an art form, and clothing layering is its masterpiece. I quickly learned that a single heavy coat wasn’t enough. It was about multiple thin layers: thermal underwear, wool socks, sweaters, windbreakers, and then an outer parka and snow pants. Each item had warmth and windproof ratings. Constantly managing my clothing, repairing tears, and choosing the optimal combination for the current weather conditions became a crucial daily ritual, the difference between comfortable exploration and a swift, freezing death.
Infra: The Surprisingly Gripping Narrative Told Through Environment
Infra tells its story not through cutscenes, but through its meticulously crafted environments. Faded warning signs, forgotten emails on office computers, structural reports detailing cut corners, and audio logs of past conversations – these fragments, scattered throughout the decaying infrastructure, slowly paint a picture of corporate greed, systemic failure, and an impending city-wide disaster. Piecing together this narrative, uncovering the conspiracy through environmental clues alone, made my exploration feel like a true investigation, proving that powerful stories can be told without a single NPC.
Abiotic Factor: The “AHA!” Moment When You Craft a Key Item
Resourcefulness is paramount in Abiotic Factor. My friends and I would scavenge piles of junk, wondering how a broken keyboard and some wires could possibly help us. Then, after some “research” (i.e., banging items together in the crafting menu), we’d discover a new recipe. That “AHA!” moment, when we finally figured out how to craft a much-needed water purifier from salvaged pipes and a coffee pot, or a defensive turret from a security camera and a staple gun, was incredibly satisfying. It felt like true scientific innovation under duress.
Dredge: The Eerie Soundtrack That Perfectly Sets the Mood
Dredge’s soundtrack is a masterpiece of atmospheric tension. During the day, gentle sea shanties and calming melodies accompany your fishing. But as dusk approaches and the fog rolls in, the music shifts. Eerie, dissonant chords, unsettling ambient drones, and sudden, jarring notes perfectly capture the rising dread and your character’s fraying sanity. The soundtrack doesn’t just support the visuals; it actively enhances the Lovecraftian horror, making every nighttime voyage feel perilous and deeply unsettling, even before the monsters appear.
The Long Dark: Foraging and Hunting – Living Off The Land
In The Long Dark, the supermarket shelves are bare. Survival means learning to live off the frozen land. I’d forage for rose hips and reishi mushrooms for tea, and cattails for tinder and emergency calories. Hunting became essential: patiently tracking deer for precious meat and hides, setting snares for rabbits, or, if desperate and well-armed, facing down a wolf. This constant cycle of foraging for meager sustenance and the tense thrill of the hunt truly immersed me in the harsh realities of a post-apocalyptic survivor.
Infra: The Real-World Urban Decay That Inspired the Game
Playing Infra, I couldn’t help but feel it was inspired by real-world examples of decaying infrastructure and “urbex” (urban exploration) photography. The game’s environments – crumbling Brutalist structures, abandoned Cold War-era bunkers, neglected public utilities – felt disturbingly authentic. The developers clearly researched structural engineering failures and the aesthetics of urban decay, creating a world that, while fictional, resonated with a chilling sense of plausibility. It made the experience less like a game and more like a virtual tour through our own potential future ruins.
Abiotic Factor: The SCP Influences You Might Have Missed
Fans of the SCP Foundation will feel right at home in Abiotic Factor. The GATE facility setting, the “containment breach” premise, and many of the anomalous entities and artifacts encountered scream SCP. From creatures that react to being observed, to objects with reality-bending properties, the game lovingly incorporates themes and tropes from the collaborative fiction project. Even the nerdy, slightly panicked scientist protagonists feel like they could be Level 2 researchers caught in a Keter-class event. These influences add a fantastic layer for those in the know.
Dredge: Balancing Profit with the Ever-Increasing Dread
My fishing trips in Dredge started innocently enough: catch fish, sell them, upgrade boat. Simple profit motive. But as the Lovecraftian horrors emerged, a new calculus arose. Night fishing yielded more valuable, aberrant fish, but drastically increased my “dread” meter, leading to terrifying hallucinations and more aggressive monsters. I constantly weighed the lure of greater profit (needed for crucial upgrades and progressing the story) against the risk to my sanity and my ship. This tension between greed and self-preservation was a core, compelling conflict.
The Long Dark: The Challenge Modes – A True Test of Survival Skills
After hundreds of hours in The Long Dark’s Survival Mode, I tackled the Challenges. “Hunted” had me pursued by a relentless bear. “Whiteout” demanded I gather supplies before an apocalyptic blizzard. “Archivist” tasked me with finding lore notes across multiple regions. These weren’t open-ended survival; they were specific, grueling tests of skill with defined objectives and often punishing conditions. Completing them required mastery of all aspects of the game – navigation, resource management, combat, and sheer grit – offering a focused, intense burst of survival challenge.
Infra: The Most Dangerous (And Beautiful) Locations to Explore
Infra took me through some incredibly dangerous, yet strikingly beautiful, decaying locations. The vast, echoing interior of the Hammer Valley Dam, with water cascading through breaches, was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. Navigating the precarious, rusted walkways of the Pit Labyrinth deep underground, or exploring the abandoned, overgrown Stalburg Steel plant, felt like stepping into haunting industrial cathedrals. These places were actively trying to kill me with their structural failures, but their scale and melancholic beauty made the risk worth it.
Abiotic Factor: The Different Character “Perks” and How They Change Gameplay
Before diving into the chaos of Abiotic Factor, my friends and I chose “perks” for our scientists. One picked “Strong Stomach,” allowing them to eat questionable food. Another chose “Patho-Biologist,” gaining bonuses when “researching” alien flora. I went with “Handy,” improving my crafting speed. These perks, while seemingly small, subtly influenced our roles within the team and how we approached survival. It encouraged specialization and made each playthrough feel slightly different depending on our group’s combined scientific (and pseudo-scientific) expertise.
Dredge: The Endings Explained (And Their Implications)
Dredge offers multiple endings based on your choices, particularly concerning the mysterious Collector and the relics you gather. Pursuing his requests leads to a dark ritual, potentially unleashing an ancient evil or becoming its thrall – a classic Lovecraftian “bad” end. Alternatively, you can choose to resist, seeking a way to contain the encroaching madness, leading to a more hopeful, though still ambiguous, conclusion. These endings powerfully underscore the game’s themes of cosmic horror, inevitability, and the corrupting influence of forbidden knowledge, leaving lasting, unsettling questions.
The Long Dark: The Community Stories of Epic Survival (And Failure)
The Long Dark community is a treasure trove of shared experiences. Players recount epic 500-day Interloper runs, detailing their strategies for surviving against impossible odds. Others share hilarious tales of being outsmarted by a wolf or accidentally setting their shelter on fire. Reading about someone else’s desperate struggle to find a single match in a blizzard, or their triumphant hunt of a moose after days of stalking, creates a strong sense of camaraderie. These player-generated stories of survival and spectacular failure are a vital part of the game’s enduring appeal.
Infra: The Feeling of Being a Tiny Cog in a Huge, Failing Machine
Playing Infra, I often felt like an insignificant analyst caught in the gears of a colossal, failing bureaucratic and industrial machine. The sheer scale of the decaying infrastructure – massive dams, sprawling power plants, city-wide metro systems – dwarfed me. The evidence of cut corners, ignored warnings, and systemic negligence I uncovered pointed to problems far beyond my ability to fix. This sense of being a tiny, powerless observer witnessing an inevitable, large-scale collapse was a powerful and sobering aspect of the game’s narrative.
Abiotic Factor: The Satisfying Loop of Scavenge, Craft, Survive, Explore
Abiotic Factor nails the survival game loop. We’d scavenge office supplies and lab equipment from the GATE facility. Then, we’d retreat to our makeshift base to craft better tools, makeshift weapons, and defensive structures. Thus equipped, we’d survive the next wave of interdimensional horrors or a hazardous environmental event. This success then allowed us to explore new sectors or portal worlds, leading to more scavenging opportunities for even better gear. This satisfying cycle of incremental progress and escalating challenges kept us constantly engaged.
Dredge: Is It a Horror Game Disguised as a Fishing Sim? (Yes.)
I started Dredge expecting a relaxing fishing game. The charming art style, the simple loop of catching and selling fish – it was all very cozy. Then the fog rolled in, my sanity meter appeared, and the fish started looking… wrong. The unsettling islanders, the eerie music, the things that lurked in the dark. By the time I was actively avoiding nighttime voyages out of genuine fear, I realized Dredge wasn’t just a fishing sim; it was a brilliant Lovecraftian horror game cleverly disguised in a trawler’s unassuming hull. And yes, it’s terrifying.
The Long Dark: The Hidden Bunkers and Caches That Can Save Your Life
In The Long Dark, stumbling upon a hidden prepper bunker or a well-stocked supply cache can be the difference between life and death. After days of near starvation, finding a forgotten cellar with canned food and medical supplies, or a locked bunker (if I had the key or code from a note) filled with high-tier clothing and tools, felt like winning the lottery. These moments of unexpected bounty, often found through careful exploration or by following subtle environmental clues, provided crucial lifelines and a huge morale boost in the unforgiving wilderness.
Abiotic Factor: Why This Early Access Game is Already a Must-Play for Survival Fans
Even in Early Access, Abiotic Factor is a standout. My friends and I have already sunk hours into its unique blend of SCP-inspired co-op survival, makeshift crafting, and nerdy humor. The core gameplay loop is incredibly engaging, the atmosphere is spot-on, and the potential for future content (new sectors, creatures, portal worlds) is immense. The developers have captured a brilliant premise with solid execution. For fans of cooperative survival crafting with a quirky, slightly terrifying twist, Abiotic Factor is already a must-play, promising even greater things to come.