DISCLAIMER: Minor spoilers below.
After a long delay caused by the naughty virus, the fourth episode of The Long Dark's story mode is finally here. Before we have a closer look at it, let's start with a short recap.
In the beginning, there was a group of vidya industry veterans forming their own studio to make something new without the oversight of their megacorp bosses. Their first child was The Long Dark, a first-person survival game set in a remote frozen region of Canada called the Bear Island. The player has to learn and handle rather complex mechanics, fighting against deadly frost, wildlife, and the danger of starvation. To stave off death, it's necessary to scavenge for tools and supplies, hunt, mend your clothes, and do everything to protect your character from the murderous cold. For years after the alpha version was released in 2014, the game offered only a sandbox open-world mode without any story or defined characters. After several major updates, however, a single-player story mode was announced and eventually released. First, it was just two episodes, then another one, and after three years of turbulent development, we are about to face Fury, Then Silence.
Meet Will Mackenzie, a licensed pilot. One gloomy night, he was surprised by a visit from his ex-wife, Astrid, who asked him for a favour: to fly her into the backwater community of the Bear Island and help her deliver a mysterious suitcase, supposedly containing a solution for a crisis that had erupted there. While the couple was about to reach their destination, they encountered a mysterious storm that simply fried the electronics in their plane. Separated by the crash, they both found themselves forced to survive in the wilderness. After reaching a nearby town, Will quickly learned that electric power disappeared from the world due to an unspecified disaster and, what's worse, most inhabitants fled after being attacked by escaped prison convicts. Still carrying his partner's precious package, Will further explored the island until he reached a hydroelectric power plant. There, he learned that hungry wolves and blizzards are not the worst things that could happen to him.
The fourth episode starts with Will being tied up and dragged on a sled by a trio of former prison inmates. Their boss, Mathis, sees our pilot as a precious asset in a future attempt to escape the island. Being himself, Mckenzie makes an attempt to escape when the group is attacked by wolves but is quickly caught. After they reach the prison, it turns out that the entire security staff has been murdered except one person: the chief warden. Mathis needs him because his son sits in a tightly secured solitary and it's impossible to get him out when the power system isn't working. Since the head villain has stolen Astrid's suitcase and has a bunch of murderous thugs at his command, Mackenzie is forced to become his errand boy and scout outside the prison walls in order to find means to open the solitary.
This is where the proper game begins. First, you'll have to break into the medical wing of the prison, surrounded by wolves, and recover some medicine. Then, you'll be ordered to explore more distant locations. Things get more complicated, and hopeful, when a new player enters the stage. A mysterious woman contacts you through a landline phone and tells you that she's trying to stop Mathis. While she is able to mess with the prison's internal systems from her hideout, she's unable to do the legwork and you become a double agent, pretending to work for the prisoners but quietly sabotaging them.
The first problem you encounter is the lack of resources. The criminals took almost everything from you, leaving you with nothing but some pieces of clothing, so you're starting from scratch just like in Episode One. The priority is to find decent clothes, basic tools, food and medicine, but also weapons. You will need the firepower because the area around the prison is crawling with wolves. Not just solitary ones, but entire timberwolf packs, too, already known from the previous episode. They are harder to get rid of than lone wolves due to the pack morale mechanics. When you encounter them, a blue bar appears at the bottom of the screen, indicating how scared they are. You can make them run away by shooting a gun or lighting a special (and rare) Marine Flare, but the newest episode gives you another way to avoid getting eaten. With some gunpowder and an empty can, it's possible to make homebrewed flashbang grenades. If your aim is good enough, two should be enough to finish the job, saving your precious ammo.
Except for makeshift explosives, there's little new in terms of gameplay mechanics or equipment. At a few times, you'll have to deal with toxic fumes or smoke when exploring interiors, forcing you to run and frantically look for pockets of clean air unless you want to suffocate. Your mileage may vary, but for me, it was a welcome change of pace. Besides that, there's one stealth section when you have to hide in darkness and avoid searchlights, otherwise, poor Will gets an instant bullet in the head.
At one point you have to solve a puzzle to get further. Exploring a complex system of underground tunnels, you have to redirect steam pipes to open frozen doors and reach the heart of the facility. While it's quite interesting and not too hard to solve, the task is a bit slow, requiring you to crawl through cramped tunnels, so my guess is that not everyone will like it.
The story itself is decently written, captivating, and filled with constant tension. Mathis makes a great villain. On the one hand, he shows to be intelligent, capable of long term-planning and even has a kind of dark charisma. On the other hand, he's still a sadistic criminal who is barely capable to hold his temper. The voice actor does a great job here and the way the game engine depicts his wild grinning is genuinely scary. Jace is an interesting character, too, a believable strong woman type determined to stop the bad guys. The two minor criminals you have to deal with when Matis isn't around are little more than extras, but at least they provide some comical relief.
Fury, Then Silence didn't bring any revolutionary changes to the basic gameplay, but that wasn't its purpose. The new update has always been meant to continue the story, and it delivered. Moreover, the ending of Episode 4 looks very promising and I can't wait to see what happens in the finale. Sadly, it seems that we won't see it soon, as the dev team is occupied with releasing a major hotfix and adapting the new map to the sandbox mode. Not that it's a problem for me or the majority of The Long Dark fans since you have to be very patient to play this game in the first place.