izigame.me

I'll start by acknowledging that the Long Dark is a rather good game on it's own, with a good potential for replayability, depending on how interested in the slow, contemplative nature of the experience you are.
It is also rather old and aging in terms of survival games, and it shows as many of the features we now expect and like from other survival games are often times either in a clunky state, or outright absent. As of this review, there is no base building whatsoever for instance.
Now on to the bad.
- Despite it's very long dev life, the game still features significant bugs, such as but not limited to: flying fauna, hovering fauna, breaking fauna, out of bounds falling, etc.
- The game has a 5 part espisodic story mode DLC that has been unfinished for the past 11y since it's first announcement. It is set to be finished "late 2024", with a caveat.
- The game has a standard DLC called "Tales of the far territory" That similarly is missing 2 out of 5 parts, set to release this year, but i would caution against buying anything from Hinterland that is currently in an unfinished state, as they have a proven track record of not being able to follow their self imposed deadlines (see wiki article for the long dark for more on the topic, it's absolutely mind-boggling.)
- The developing studio has a clear attitude problem towards their consumers; They will not hesitate to ban your account from their forums, or from their steam Hub should you dare to ask questions about the discrepancy between deadlines they announce and the results they provide, or for similar lines of legitimate enquiries. They are very thin-skinned and absolutely not fond of work. This makes for a rather unreliable mix when it comes to trusting a company to deliver on episodic releases. After ghosting their community for 5 months, they caught feelings about their consumers requesting updates on why they were late (yet again) and what updates, if any, they could share.... So they recently nuked a thread asking about the status of their announced deadlines on Steam from 150+ messages to 67 messages, arbitrarily deleting and banning dozens of Steam consumers for their impudence :)
Tl:dr: I would advise caution against buying any product from Hinterland, especially ones that are currently unfinished as you may or may not get a finished product within any reasonable timeframe. On a personal level, i would also refrain from engaging with Hinterland products as they have a clear attitude and work ethics problem, embodied by their banning (and deleting all posts) from forums that they deem "toxic" but that really are just you the consumer asking legitimate interest questions. Do not reward problem child game studios with your money ;)
please see Developer response below " Hinterland_Studio Posted: 4 May @ 1:14am
Unfortunately, this member was caught up in a clean-up of the community forums, where several chronically abusive and toxic members had to be removed."
Case in point. Please be aware that if you purchase Hinterland products, sink hundreds of hours into them and dare to express criticism, challenge or even question, even constructively, even politely, you are liable to be a personal target for this PR nightmare of a developer. Your posts will be deleted so as to fit any and all slanderous narrative for no other reason than to highlight their inability to deliver on their self imposed deadlines. And as you can see, even your review, no matter how legitimate, no matter how insightful or balanced, will be swatted away with a personal attack, as if anyone was duped and as if releases history (or lack there of) could not speak for themselves.

I think plenty of devs sink thousands of hours, and pour their hearts and souls into creating something fun and are able to listen and let opinions express themselves, it's just a pity this particular one seems utterly unable to do so as well.
July 12th edit:
The creator of The Long Dark also apparently does not stop at crapping over their consumers opinions should they displease his oversized ego. He also had to apologize to Manor Lords publisher after trying to (and failing) to criticize them for their update cadence. It's been a decade and TLD is not finished, DLCs that are supposed to be released over 12 months are not anywhere near done 24 months in, and this is the kind of toxic behavior Hinterland's CEO displays for everyone to see.
Toxic Hinterland CEO driving his entire company into the ground because he just can't seem to keep his toxic opinions and behavior to himself.
What a guy. At what point do the talented devs at Hinterland stop and say enough's enough, f that guy? Or do they tacitly agree with this display?
It's not even about the nerve to critizice somebody without having the good sense to look in your own backyard before opening your big mouth. It's also about putting the people who are still in the process of trying to make it in the industry down.
In a 2 months or so old thread on their own forums, this CEO whined about how cruel and difficult the industry is these days. You're part of the problem.
source: gamesradar article dated july10th "The Long Dark creator apologizes to Manor Lords team after criticism of the hit city builder's early access cadence draws comparisons with his cult survival game"
Just thought i'd include this tidbit since TLD's CEO loves to call anyone and everyone "Toxic" for speaking up.