There's been a recent surge of survival games that, instead of relying on zombies and monsters to make the game challenging, embrace surviving as its own challenge. The act of surviving the wilderness, especially a cold and dark winter wilderness, can be horror in its own right. Staying warm, finding food and fighting wolves is difficult enough, and no one knows that better than America's neighbors from the North. The Long Dark has many little set pieces across this game that seem to scream Canada, but just how Canadian is it?
The Long Dark's development is just as Canadian as the content. The Long Dark's developer Hinterland was founded by Raphael van Lierop, best known for his work on Far Cry 3 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. In an interview, van Lierop stated that he wanted "the final product will be very Canadian." The Long Dark was mostly funded through Kickstarter, but Hinterland also received funding from the Canadian Media Fund as a seed starter. It can sometimes be hard for smaller-scale companies to compete with larger productions, which is why the Canadian Media Fund was founded: to help Canadian-made projects get off the ground.
The Long Dark isn't your typical survival game. Typical video game 'survival foods,' like pork & beans or tomato soup, can be found throughout the wilderness, but these aren't the only foods found. You can also find many consumables in the form of Canadian classics, like the all famous maple syrup making its mark on abandoned shelves or the iconic ketchup chips, a salty and tangy Canadian classic. Many different brands of chips in Canada offer ketchup as an option, but these savory snacks are largely Canadian exclusive.
Some clothing items take Canadian inspiration as well. Mukluks are a rare and valuable footwear found in The Long Dark, and there is a variety of toques that can be found in the game. A toque might be called a winter hat or a beanie in other parts of the world, but in the good Ol' North, they're called toques (especially the one with the maple leaf on it).
The Long Dark's story mode, Wintermute, gets started with Mackenzie crashing his de Havilland Beaver (a Canadian made bush plane) over the town of Milton. The type of plane isn't the most significant thing about this first chapter; rather, it's the town of Milton itself. Milton is a mountain town that was cut off from the rest of Great Bear due to earthquakes. Milton is an isolated community, something that Canada has an abundance of. There are roughly 140 remote communities across Northern Canada, many of which are only accessible through plane most of the year, like Milton.
Hinterland worked hard to make this game as Canadian as possible. From the development to the products and location, the whole game is a homage to the great white North and everything it has to offer.