Green Hell Review (Maoman)
This game is fantastic, but definitely not for the faint of heart. The story is crushing (especially the bad end) and the survival even more so. The world is dangerous and your needs are demanding; you WILL die. This is The Long Dark: Jungle Edition, and on steroids at that.
BUT it is fair in its difficulty. Deaths will feel like your fault, not some unfair bullshit. You'll learn from each one, get a little further each time, and by the end of the game you'll be King of the Jungle, where nothing is a threat anymore--not because you're invulnerable, but because you're PREPARED.
That's the best part. Aside from basic armor to reduce damage taken, there are no items to mitigate or avoid the dangers of the jungle or the needs of your body, only items to better help you cope with them--it is up to you to use them and prepare yourself for the journey ahead. YOU are the one who improves and advances in this game, not your character. Jake doesn't get any harder to kill, you get better at staying alive.
By the end of the game, poison and jaguars are still just as deadly to the unwise, but now you know how to deal with them and are well enough prepared that they become mere nuisances. It's only if you don't bother to learn and prepare that the game remains crushingly difficult.
There's also a ton of content. I accidentally left the game running a couple of times so my play hours are a little warped, but about 2/3 or 3/4 of that time is real, and that's just the "main" story mode. There's also a second story (a prequel), a normal survival mode with its own unique map (so you can't reuse knowledge from story mode!), AND multiplayer, and I haven't even touched them yet as of writing this review.
Methinks I'll be playing this for a long time yet.