The Long Dark - PS4

Of all the ways we've seen the world end over the years (alien invasion, zombies, asteroid, cataclysmic weather event, Lovecraftian monsters sucking us down into the void) the apocalypse of The Long Dark is one of the quietist. In fact, in the spirit of the bleakest apocalyptic tale ever told, The Road, don't expect a proper explanation as to what's going on at all - just know that technology has stopped working and your job is simply to keep leading your quiet little life as long as you can.

Granted, your quiet little life involves a snowy North American wilderness, so quiet certainly won't mean boring and it definitely won't mean easy. You have a number of things to consider at all times, chief among them being your hunger, your thirst and your temperature. Add in complicating factors like wind chill and this is a game that maintains a low level of tension at all times, occasionally escalating things 'oh no help us we're going to die' levels.

As well as the game's core survival mode there's a story mode, dubbed Wintermute, in this boxed version of the game. You have to find your wife, but beyond that the narrative is best left to be uncovered. Needless to say, all the survival elements of the open world mode are present and correct.

The real key to The Long Dark, though, is the world and the atmosphere. The quiet, eerie beauty of the wilderness is yours to explore, if you can live long enough to see it. more