The 4 Days of Halloween event made me a better player


grrbear

Recommended Posts

I have been playing video games since I was 10 and I have never been very good.  35 years of shooters, simulations, RPGs, strategy games, and I've sucked at all of them.  I don't have great twitch reflexes, my accuracy with the mouse under pressure is embarrassing, and I absolutely hate dying.  So I'm very risk-averse.  That's another way of saying that I'm a chicken. Bawk-bawk.  I don't play online games because I am always the weakest link and that gets old real fast.  The Long Dark is the only survival game that I play because it gives you the choice of how dangerous you want it to be. Also, there are no zombies. Thank you Hinterland for no zombies.

In my 253 hours of playing the Long Dark on the first two difficulties, I was someone who wouldn't venture out from my home base if darkness was less than 5 hours away. I was constantly paranoid about getting caught outside and not able to navigate back.  I wouldn't play Stalker mode because I knew my gameplay style would result in Cabin Fever pretty quickly, and also I was afraid of dealing with extra wolves.  Hell, as soon as I had a gun and bullets I wouldn't go outside without them.

So then the 4 Days event dropped and I had a choice.  Wait four days to play again, or steel my spine and give it a shot.  24 hour darkness, scary wolves with demon eyes, how was a chicken like me going to deal?

Turned out that immersion therapy was just the thing I needed.  Roaming around Coastal Highway in the dark, realizing that most of the time if I was careful I could still spot the wolves.  Sure, it was colder, but I had never spent any significant time outdoors at night before.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was.  I even let my condition get down significantly because I was freezing, and at first I was freaking out but eventually I got used to the idea.   Laughing maniacally while a demon wolf chased me into a fishing hut, then later on, topping a rise only to find a bear waiting for me.  By day four I felt at home in the darkness, no longer afraid to venture out and see what was out there.  Got all the way to Timberwolf Mountain's summit and stared in awe at the moonlit landscape.  The wolves howled and instead of cringing I was grinning.  Bring it, furballs.

Since then I've started a Stalker sandbox, and I spend a lot of time outside in sunlight and darkness.  I only bring the rifle when I'm hunting - otherwise I leave it at my home base.  I want to survive 200 days in Stalker and then I'll give Interloper a try. I've also knocked off three of the challenges and am working up the courage to try the Hunted series.

Even though I would have preferred the ability to switch off the 4 days of night event, I'm glad I couldn't, because it made me a better, more confident player.  Now if I could just get half-decent at that damn hunting bow...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must say that like you i found myself more daring and exploring to a greater degree as well and it's interesting to see that it's brushed off on my post 4 Days of Night experience as well.

My main goal was to bring both of my sandboxes out of the 4 Days of Night with almost equal amounts of playtime. And that was the case until I lost my Voyageur character (due to my own stupidity) during the transition from night to day. Speaking of which I still need to upload the last moments of night for both characters.

I will continue my Pilgrim character (Dan) but I'm currently going in a fresh Voyageur sandbox and will play that through until the end.

But yes grrbear, I feel as if I'm not as afraid anymore either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.