The central feature of the DLC pack created by Hinterland Studios was the promised expansion of the in-game map. The first part of Tales from the Far Territory added a small transitional area and a new, large region with an abandoned airport in its centre. Almost one year later, the newest part of the DLC introduces another region together with new mechanics, equipment, and more deadly wildlife.
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The little things that matter
Except for the main part of the content available only to the players who purchased the DLC, the newest update adds a few minor additions for everyone to enjoy, including new animations and the travois, a makeshift sledge used to carry around large burdens.
Up to this date, the hands of the player character were always shown bare on the screen, no matter what kind of gloves they wore. Now, when they do something with their hands, the player sees the same type of handwear as in the inventory screen. And the covered hands will sometimes look quite bloody due to the new type of animations.
Up to this point, most interactions between the player character and the world were not animated, whether our survivor chopped wood, struck a fire, or prepared a piece of meat for cooking. The only thing shown to the player was a moving circle showing the progress. Now, every time you decide to dress a dead animal, it will be finally shown properly. First, the camera closes up on your prey and the extraction screen appears. After choosing the part of the animal and the tool, you'll see your character cutting it up, his hands covered in blood. Don't expect serious realism, though, since the camera only shows your blade moving down and you won't actually see the skin taken off or guts extracted. And yet, the new animations present some progress since TLD relies on immersion in all possible areas. It's too bad that only handling a carcass gets animated now, and you won't see the protagonist hand-picking rose berries or chopping wood into pieces.
Most wanderers travelling through the ice wasteland of Bear Island are bent down by their overloaded backpacks. After all, one needs many things to survive, from food and water to medicine and spare clothes, not to mention heavy tools such as axes or crowbars. The old Enfield rifle weighing several kilos does not improve matters at all. And then, when you need to move to a new location in a different region, the weight of your equipment can make this barely possible. Fortunately, the developers have finally given us a new tool: the Travois.
We're talking about two long poles tied together to resemble the letter A and a deer skin stretched between them. The travois can be used to load up everything you need and drag it across the snow, something more efficient than just carrying it on your back. It takes some fuss to make one, though, since a random stick won't be enough and it's necessary to use four pieces of cured maple wood. For some reason, wolf or bear skins are useless here and you need to hunt a deer (or find a frozen carcass). After all ingredients are collected and prepared, the final step is to spend a few hours tinkering at a workbench and voila, the improvised cargo cart is ready.
Life has become a bit more difficult for people preferring a meat-only lifestyle. After opening the food inventory, the player discovers a new variable describing various types of consumables. The Vitamin C level tells us how much food of that type is necessary to fill up the optimal daily dose of that nutrient. Naturally, the game doesn't show the exact scientific measure, just one of the three levels — Major, Moderate, or Minor. Canned corn, peaches, baked potatoes or rosehip tea seem to be the best, while other foods like fish are a poor source of Vitamin C. Prolonged deficiency leads to scurvy infliction which drains player's stats and is possibly lethal. And, of course, those delicious deer or moose steaks won't help at all, so the survivors will have to forget about the fashionable paleo diet.
On the other hand, now it's a tad easier to survive the deadly winter's breath. When you're caught in the middle of a blizzard or get lost in thick fog, seconds may decide your fate when you're frantically searching for a shelter. Naturally, hot drinks give a moderate bonus to frost resistance, but the effect expires rather quickly, and there's little of making a fire while being surrounded by a snowstorm. Thanks to the new update, survivors can find Insulated Flasks and enjoy a sip or two of warm tea or coffee under any circumstances. Just click on the flask in the inventory and then move some units of the drink. The thermos can hold about 0.8 litres of liquid and keep it warm for about three hours (more if you're indoors). To make it even better, warmed-up canned soup or broth can be stored in this way, too.
So much about the free stuff added in Buried Echos. Now, let's take a closer look at what the newest update has to offer to paying customers. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for some toxic atmosphere, psychotic wolves, and lots of underground crawling.
Into that Darkness: The Zone of Contamination
A new cave has emerged on the eastern fringes of the Forsaken Airfield region. Getting to the other side of it is quite challenging thanks to the long, confusing corridors and dead ends. Eventually, our survivor sees the daylight again. The first sight of the newly added area, the Zone of Contamination, is plain enough: a snowy ravine with a gigantic waterfall. Soon, however, things get much more interesting.
After some climbing, our protagonist finds a road and follows it until he sees the first signs of trouble. The snowy ground on both sides is covered with a sickly-looking green goo and ominous vapours hover above it. Rusty, broken metal barrels lie here and there, explaining everything. Soon enough, our brave explorer starts coughing and a prompt appears, warning the player about the risk of poisoning. Welcome to the Deadlands.
A trio of wolves appears in the distance and the sight is a bit unnerving. They move like half-paralyzed, their heads kept low to the ground. They also seem to have sharper senses than canines in other regions and rush towards the survivor immediately after noticing him. Since the toxic snow on both sides leaves little room for evasive manoeuvres, it's time for good ol' violence.
The first wolf quickly ends its life with a pinch of lead in its skull. The other two seem unfazed; normally, they'd be running away and yelping, but they continue their approach. Bullets are precious, but there is no point in retreating; the way is clear two shots later. Interestingly, it's impossible to harvest any meat from the carcasses. Living in these parts has turned local wolves into something... else.
The path leads farther along the edge of an enormous, deep mining pit and a pool filled with water that looks like taken from Lovecraft's Colour From The Sky — it's obviously contaminated. A couple of buildings loom in the distance. After a few minutes of intense walking, our explorer reaches an abandoned mining complex. This is where the proper adventure begins.
The complex is made of two minor buildings and the Concentrator, a true juggernaut, clinging to a high mountain slope. All three are connected with catwalks. Unsurprisingly, their interiors are filled up with various mining machinery while an elevator shaft and a diagonal belt lead right into the abyss of the mine. After reaching the highest floor in the main building and leaving through a door, we encounter a bridge leading to the main mine entrance. It turns out to be locked and completely immune to our beloved crowbar. After thoroughly searching the entire complex, no solution is found, but we discover another locked door barring us from a small office. Some parts required for repairing radio towers are lying around, and the logical conclusion is to scout the area and find such a tower, just like we did in the previous DLC Story. A gas mask can be found in the offices located in the top flower and special rubber boots are lying around, too. The deadly vapours have become less menacing.
After searching the main buildings, it's time to scout the broader area. A few derelict barracks and a railway siding stand nearby. We must be careful when searching the former, as our canine friends like to sneak quietly through holes in the collapsed walls. Not far from the complex we manage to find a radio tower standing on a hill, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be damaged beyond repair. It's time to explore in a different direction, so we head north along the railway tracks, dodging between wolf patrols and fields of toxic gas — or choosing the brutal approach, donning up the gas mask, and shooting hot lead or arrows left and right. Eventually, we arrive at a small workers' camp. There is not much here: a car park, two residential barracks, and one mess hall with a kitchen where we find a few useful things and, above all, a stove with six cooking slots. This will allow us to prepare a hefty supply of water.
Travellers who decide to follow the tracks further north from this point will be rather disappointed. Apart from wolves and toxic air, there isn't much to be found nothing until they finally reach the exit from the area. A better choice is to climb the steep slopes of the valley to reach a new, vast area to penetrate. Here, one can find, among other things, a ruined farmhouse and a cave, but above all: fresh meat! Yes, while the bottom of the valley around the mine and the tracks is practically dead, because apart from inedible wolves and a couple of plants nothing really lives there, in the higher parts one encounters rabbits and ptermigans. After walking a little further from the valley, survivors may also come across a deer. Caution is advised, however, as there are also hungry canines and a bear stalks the area.
CAUTION: The following section contains serious spoilers concerning the new Tale included in the recent DLC update proceed with caution.
After a thorough search of the whole area, it turns out that there is no radio tower to be activated. Sooner or later, however, a nocturnal aurora or the weird fog appears. Our handheld radio crackles and catches a signal. It appears that the mine region is covered by the large radio transmitter standing at the nearby airport, which is not far away after all. The radio track leads to the ruined farmhouse mentioned above. Among the charred debris, we find a box with information directing us to the area of the mine. There, near a ruined radio mast, a crashed helicopter lies high on the rocks. A cache buried next to it in the snow reveals the key to a locked office in the mine building and another clue. After a short while, we are back inside the mining complex. We open the office door to find a journal and wire cutters.
There seems to be no other choice, so it's time to step into the depths of the mine. Of course, before that, we'll need to get proper equipment, above all torches or a lantern with enough fuel, some water and food, and also a sleeping bag, just in case. This is not the first underground area we explore in TLD, but probably the most extensive in the entire game. The mine has several levels and is full of forking corridors. In some of them, the air is so thin that there is a danger of suffocation. We'll need a mask and spare filters, although some of the deadly tunnels can be run through without wearing one. It is worth, and even necessary, to look around carefully, because the miners have left various useful things here, above all more filters for the mask, lantern fuel and flares.
Follow the Buried Echoes
The fourth part of Tales from the Territory doesn't bring any major surprises and simply follows the path set out by the devs at the very beginning. The free part of the add-on first and foremost introduces new elements to expand the immersion (so, the illusion of realism) and fans finally don't have to wonder why not a single thermos could be found in the freezing north or why all gloves were invisible. The Travois open up interesting possibilities for players, such as transporting goods between temporary bases more easily, and will certainly come in handy when we get the opportunity to trade with a wandering merchant in the future.
Those fans who paid for the full DLC get a new area, quite interesting and challenging, as well as another narrative quest. Ratings may vary, personally, I was rather interested in further uncovering the mysteries of Bear Island and look forward to the next parts of the story which are to be added in the last two DLC episodes.
