The Long Dark

Despite some graphical concessions, The Long Dark on Nintendo Switch is an excellent port of a very good survival game.

In the end, The Long Dark won me over through the same war of attrition it demanded of me during playing. What starts as an oppressive wilderness and battle of the elements eventually unfolds into a gratifying progression as I learned how to survive efficiently through trial and error. They say that adversity builds character, and if you can grow some thicker skin, there’s a lot of character in The Long Dark to discover.

The Long Dark is an onerous experience, but a memorably and powerfully atmospheric one. Its Survival mode stands out as something of a singular achievement on the Switch – and one we'd urge you to try if you don't mind freezing to death more than a few times before you've got a grip on how to last a couple of nights. It's difficult to call it outright fun given its sheer hostility, but it's certainly absorbing and at times downright terrifying game. Just like real life, nature is the real enemy.

Ultimately, we can easily recommend The Long Dark on Nintendo Switch. It’s one of few survival games like it on Switch, and the port is solid, barring a few visual issues caused by a drop in resolution.

The Long Dark is a survival game that does a very good job at conveying an experience mired in solitude and bitter loneliness, all while keeping a pleasant-looking art style. Even though the visual quality was a bit compromised when the game was ported over to the Nintendo Switch, fans of survival games will find many resources to work with, a healthy variety of game modes, and a plot that's truly immersing.

There is a very good game in the center of an overall experience that ends up less than the sum of its parts at first glance, but one that if you are willing to put in the struggle and slog through to the other side can reward you with one of the better survival simulations there is.

Even though the port has extremely clunky controls and horrendously optimized graphics, The Long Dark’s survival and challenge modes offer hours of unhinged fun trying to cope and survive in the harsh Canadian wilderness. The campaign, while unfinished and episodic, offers a wholly divergent approach from typical post-apocalyptic genre norms. Unfortunately, if you are the type of player who is looking for a completely fleshed out campaign, this is not the game for you. Even with its misfortunes, Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark provides Nintendo Switch owners a breath of fresh air as it is the first somewhat enjoyable, open-world, survival game on the console.