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The Long Dark
THE LONG DARK is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. There are no zombies -- only you, the cold, and all the threats Mother Nature can muster.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
68 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I don't do this often, hell I don't think I've ever written a review before, but I have waited years for this game to end, only for it to be pure garbage, Episode 5 was a rushed, unfinished, pile of steaming crap. Every…”
“TLDR: DO NOT buy the story mode for this game. 5 Years for this ♥♥♥♥? You should be ashamed of yourself, fire the whole story dev team. DO buy the survival component of the game. One of the best survival games ever…”
“After over 500 hours and 10 years, I'm finally going to review this game. Really it's two games, the story campaign and survival mode. I wish I could review them separately because it is two different experiences. The…”
19 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Its with sorrow I say that I cant recommend this game. I have had it for years and I loved the story. It was so good and I was invested and then Episode 5 came. It really felt like a whole different game. A worse game.…”
“As a survival game - it's awesome: great gameplay, locations, management, and crafting. But the story is something I wish I hadn’t experienced after 5 years of waiting. Especially Episode 5. Episode 5 feels like a big,…”
“Still a great game even if everyone is all upset about Episode 5. I agree that it would have been nice to have an indicator that a lot of the core survival mechanics would be unnecessary, but they also included a ton of…”
17 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“After over 500 hours and 10 years, I'm finally going to review this game. Really it's two games, the story campaign and survival mode. I wish I could review them separately because it is two different experiences. The…”
“Dude, this game got into my head and made me play it all the way through, just to uncover the mystery of the precious package you’re carrying. The cold atmosphere and isolation are portrayed excellently, and every…”
“My favorite game, that plain and simple. Labor of love, so unique in its artistic style and atmosphere. Has a great community too. Have been coming back to this gem several times a year for the last ten years.…”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I'm quite disappointed in Wintermute, but that's not what I bought the base game for, and I’ve barely touched it. I probably would if it were nearly as good as Survival, but it is not. Review bombing the main game…”
“I HATE open world sandbox type games like this one. And yet this game has such a great ambiance, setting and pacing. Tough game, but Great for quiet afternoons.”
“Beautifully made game, challenging survival, unique story, great soundtrack… Absolutely recommended!”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“The Long Dark is a really good and fun Survival game where every decision is full of dozens of micro-decisions, which can compound very quickly to determine your success or failure. A game that seems slow and boring on…”
“This is a beautiful, clever, and truly unique game. The thought and care given to designing the different playmodes - they aren't just easy, normal and hard, but a wide ranging set of complementary experiences with…”
20 of the 103 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“I don't do this often, hell I don't think I've ever written a review before, but I have waited years for this game to end, only for it to be pure garbage, Episode 5 was a rushed, unfinished, pile of steaming crap. Every…”
“This doesn't apply to the whole game-just episode 5. I rarely leave reviews, but I couldn't stay silent here. Episode 5 is awful. You just walk from one spot to another. The point of surviving or scavenging is gone. The…”
“...They made us wait ten years for THAT? I still think it would have been better if they had scrapped the whole Story Mode idea, poured all those resources into developing and improving Survival Mode, and just let the…”
14 of the 103 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“I don't do this often, hell I don't think I've ever written a review before, but I have waited years for this game to end, only for it to be pure garbage, Episode 5 was a rushed, unfinished, pile of steaming crap. Every…”
“This doesn't apply to the whole game-just episode 5. I rarely leave reviews, but I couldn't stay silent here. Episode 5 is awful. You just walk from one spot to another. The point of surviving or scavenging is gone. The…”
“TLDR: DO NOT buy the story mode for this game. 5 Years for this ♥♥♥♥? You should be ashamed of yourself, fire the whole story dev team. DO buy the survival component of the game. One of the best survival games ever…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“...They made us wait ten years for THAT? I still think it would have been better if they had scrapped the whole Story Mode idea, poured all those resources into developing and improving Survival Mode, and just let the…”
“The devs not only don't care about player feedback, they actively censor anything even remotely critical. Therefore, it's a not recommended for me even apart from any issues with the game itself.”
“TLDR: DO NOT buy the story mode for this game. 5 Years for this ♥♥♥♥? You should be ashamed of yourself, fire the whole story dev team. DO buy the survival component of the game. One of the best survival games ever…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“pretty good but not hard at all when im flying around the map with 217 rounds of british 303 ammunition. killed approximately 500 wolves, had nothing left to do. thanks”
“Very disappointing last episode, especially because it's missing the survival aspect. Been playing this game since it was in early access in 2015 or so.I played this last episode on hardest difficulty and never had to…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 90.5% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“i think it is a safe, and great time to write this review. i have been playing this game since i believe 2016. it is absolutely one of my favorites. i waited 9 years to touch the story. i wanted to wait for it to be complete before i started it. (i did stop playing survival a…”
— a player, Steam review · 620 hrs played“I've played thousands of hours, there is just so much to this game with the main story, and challenges, or you could just play survival mode. I'm 60 this year and still can't enough of The long Dark.”
— a player, Steam review · 1,364 hrs played“That’ a nice anti-AI disclaimer you got there, Hinterland, it nice to know people are still able to produce ♥♥♥♥♥♥ writing on their own I have been a supporter of The Long Dark since the early access days, back when I was a wee little highschooler. I know Mystery Lake like the…”
— a player, Steam review · 134 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 12:13 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Music for The Long Dark, Volume 3, Now Available!
Dear players,We’re happy to announce the availability of Volume 3 of “Music for The Long Dark”. This volume includes all the music from WINTERMUTE Episode Four: Fury, Then Silence, Episode Five: The L
The Long Dark WINTERMUTE Updated to version 2.24 -- Episode Five version 2.54
Hello players,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.55 181032Episode Five: 2.54 181117WINTERMUTE: 2.24 181038 This is a Hotfix for THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, addressing bugs introduced wi
The Long Dark WINTERMUTE Updated to version 2.23
Hello players,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.54 180535Episode Five: 2.23 180559WINTERMUTE: 2.53 180603 This is a Hotfix for THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, addressing bugs introduced wi
EPISODE FIVE, Post-Launch Update
An Episode Five post-launch status update from our founder and creative director.Hello players! We’re about 48 hours after the release of Episode Five, and I just wanted to give you a quick update on
The Long Dark Updated to version 2.52
Hello Community,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.52 179852Episode Five: 2.52 180269WINTERMUTE: 2.22 180167 This is a Major Update to THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, introducing Episode Fi
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Adventure, Indie, Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | Survival · Open World Survival Craft · Open World · Exploration · Atmospheric · Singleplayer · First-Person · Adventure · Crafting · Sandbox · Simulation · Post-apocalyptic (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Cloud · Remote Play on TV · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , German, Russian, French, Spanish - Spain, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese - Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Portuguese - Brazil, Dutch, Italian, Polish, U… |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 87 |
| Estimated owners | 2,000,000 – 5,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://www.thelongdark.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 8 Processor: Dual-Core Intel i5 CPU @ 2GHz+ Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Intel 4xxx Series w/ 512MB VRAM or better Storage: 7 GB available space Sound Card: Any on-board chip will work.