Today, update 1.16, titled The Rugged Sentinel, for The Long Dark just dropped, and is live for people to enjoy, and is a good excuse for people, such as myself, to get back into the game, since it added some new content, as well as fixing some bugs.

For those interested in the story, the save system is now no longer only checkpoint-based, but also allows players to save when they wish, as well as adding an autosave and quicksave options (sandbox mode retains the same save system as before, permadeath being a crucial aspect of the game). Along with this, it also received difficulty options, for those that bought the game before story mode was in the game and found it a bit too easy. These are similar to the first three sandbox difficulty levels (Pilgrim, Voyager and Stalker), and are called Green Survivor, Capable Survivor and Hardened Survivor.

The sandbox mode, which is the meat of the game, also received some difficulty additions. Now, on top of the three standard options, and Interloper, which begins easy, but gets progressively harder over time, there is also a custom difficulty option. Here, players can now change over 50 variables, such as how aggressive wildlife is, loot availability, weather etc, in order to tailor the experience to your needs, making it as quaint or stressful as you wish. This is a stepping stone towards full mod support, coming with a later update.

A town, called Milton, that was previously only seen in the story mode is now getting the freeform treatment. A new fully explorable region, known as Mountain Town, accessible from Forlorn Muskeg and Mistery Lake, has been added and contains new weather patterns, aurora effects, loot, indoor and outdoor areas, and of course the usual wildlife seen in the game.

Speaking of wild beasts, players can now witness the moose roaming these lands. While it is rarer than deer, it borrows from its behavior, as well as the bear's, being peaceful generally, but will attack if provoked. If the player is hit, he is stunned, damaged, and can suffer multiple broken rib afflictions, which take multiple days to fully heal and can suffer weight carrying capabilities and prevent the from climbing. But successfully hunting one not only provides one with a large cache of food, but the hide can be used to make a satchel that increases carrying capacity by five kilograms, or a new outer layer coat that features the maximum warterproofness in the game, as well as high physical protection.

On top of these major additions, other smaller changes have been made, such as the fact that worn clothing now weighs less than the one you are carrying. Also, a few areas already in the game have been updated and beautified with more clutter and loot and the breathing effect in the night time is not as opaque. Multiple fixes and optimizations to the game have been made, thus it runs slightly smoother. Also, now all regions have special lighting effects applied when the aurora is active in the sky at night.

If you wish to view the entirety of the patch notes, you can do so on their website, here. You can also watch the breakdown in video form, which Hinterland made, below.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go hunt some moose, or freeze to death trying! But until that happens, share your thoughts on the game and its newest update below, as well as any feedback you might have. It is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for reading, and keep on steemin'!

(clicking any image will take you to its source)