Frustration, freezing, joylessness: "The Long Dark" played

First of all, perhaps this: I love the "permadeath" mode in games. If it exists, I switch it on. Why? Because the suspense of whether I will survive the next corner is the salt in the soup for me. And "The Long Dark" offers enough suspense. And you can't switch off the permadeath mode here. In short, "The Long Dark" is one of the recently popular survival games.

The graphics are unlikely to knock anyone's socks off, but the sparse, minimalist visual language with lots of rough edges fits the setting perfectly. And it goes like this: A geomagnetic catastrophe triggered by the sun has destroyed all electronic installations worldwide. Including that of the aeroplane that crashed with the player on board in the far north of Canada.

Play me the song of death

The game begins by being dropped off at one of several spawn points. Equipped with next to nothing, the player is forced to scramble immediately to find shelter, food and drink. The game forces you to be active, because standing still is penalised. The food you have found is soon used up and you have to venture out into the cold despite the onset of darkness in order not to starve to death.

A propos starving to death, dying is possible in many other ways:

• Freeze to death
• Dying of thirst
• Infection
• Disease
• Unarmed encounter with a wolf or bear
• misstep

"The Long Dark" offers four different difficulty levels. I choose the second one. It's quite a challenge if, like me, you don't know the map inside out. Depending on the difficulty level, you will find more or fewer materials that you need to survive. The wildlife, which is still disinterested in the easiest mode, becomes a deadly opponent in the higher difficulty levels.

Not yet the finished game

Not only the animals, but also the weather can become a dreaded adversary. Fog, snowstorms and blizzards make orientation difficult or even impossible. Especially as there is neither a compass nor a map. You have to draw them yourself with a piece of charcoal on a scrap of paper. After you have found a piece of coal and burnt it down.

The game is available on Steam & Co. as "Early Access". This means that it is not yet finished and only the "Sandbox Alpha" is playable. So far there are six different maps, some of which are interconnected. The story mode for the retail version does not yet exist. Nevertheless, the game is very popular and the Community eagerly awaits every update and updates maps.

Tip: You shouldn't use the maps, at least not at first. You'll ruin the excitement and therefore the fun of the game. If you can't leave it alone, then try a "spoiler free" map to start with, which simply shows the rough points of reference and helps with orientation.

The final game for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One is due to be released on 1 August.