Hinterland’s beautiful survival game The Long Dark released on PlayStation 4 earlier this week, and as noted in our review, it’s having a pretty rough start. There’s a ton of technical issues from crashes to items disappearing. Some of these have now been addressed in the game’s latest patch, Version 1.03. Creative Director Raphael van Lierop said that the team is “continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can,” and thanked players for their patience.
Here’s the full patch notes via Hinterland’s forums:
* Added missing translations for Trust dialogue
* Fixed issue with some books disappearing when dropped
* Improvements to checkpointing to help avoid getting into a low-Condition death spiral
* Buffed the Condition-restoration boost when player reloads after Death
* Added a Bedroll to the Cave after the Crash Site in “Survival of the Fittest”. This can be used to Save your Game.
* Removed requirement to drink Rosehip Tea in Survival Bowl; it is now an optional objective
* Fixed issue with Rifle Cleaning Kit disappearing after reloading a save
* Fixed issue with environment geo near the Climbing Park section in Milton
* Fixed various cases where audio could cut out
* Fixed locked controls when throwing a stone and picking up a rabbit at the same time
* Fixed floating necklace when speaking with Grey Mother
* General cinematics polish
* Fixed scrollbar issue when transferring items to NPCs
* Fixed place object shader so objects tint correctly over decals
* Fixed issue with radios playing music when aurora isn’t present
* Fixed save/restore issue that could result in missing loot in scenes when reloading from a checkpoint. This bug was preventing some quests from being completable after reload.
* Fixed issue that could cause player to spawn on top of a campfire in “Survival of the Fittest”. It should now be impossible to place a fire and then spawn on it the following day.
* Memory optimizations to reduce chance of crashing
* Added some more tools in Milton.
* Fixed issue with Wolf AI not fleeing correctly when the player throws a lit Flare, Torch, or Stone at it.
* Fixed issues that preventing the WINTERMUTE soundtrack from playing correctly; you should now hear more music as you explore the world.
* Modified Fire objective on Day 3 of “Survival of the Fittest” to track how long fire has been burning, vs how long it will burn.
* Fixed issue where unlocked Crafting Blueprints could carry over to a New game.
* Fixed issue with Condition tutorial triggering after every death. It will now only trigger once.
* Add some missing subtitles.
* Fixed issue with Map Marker not clearing after retrieving Distress Pistol in “Light Up the Night”.
* Fixed issue with “Echoes of Astrid” objective marker appearing during Grey Mother mission set
* Fixed floating campfire in Milton.
* Fixed issue where looping Wolf “feeding” sounds remained even when the Wolf AI was absent.
* Fixed issue where feeding Wolves could face the player while still playing feeding animation.
* Fixed issue where Wolves would sometimes not go into their Hold Ground AI state when approached with a Flare or Torch.
* Fixed issue with map icon showing up for some Stone spawn regions.
* Fixed issue where player could get stuck on geometry in Milton.* Added missing audio for picking up Astrid’s Hardcase on Day 4.
* Added additional checkpointing in Ep1 and Ep2.
* Tuned Antiseptic so that one dose is sufficient to treat Infection Risk.
If there’s a bright side it’s that The Long Dark is so good that it’s worth putting up with the issues. Here’s what Ken Barnes had to say in PlayStation LifeStyle’s review of the game:
If it sounds as if I’m overly frustrated with The Long Dark, it’s because I am. The sheer number of times that it hints at being a special game that entirely dominates every single survival-based title that has come before it is staggering. But for every one of those times, there’s another time where it’s broken, bugged, or just plain poorly thought-out. If the development team patches up those bugs and tweaks things here and there, it’s no exaggeration to say that this could be a must buy that reaches the top end of the scoresheet. The fact that it gets the score that it gets stands as testament as to just how enjoyable the game can be and often is in the face of a veritable snowstorm of issues and imperfections.
The Long Dark is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
(Source: Hinterland)
