Mistakes were made, lessons were learned... hopefully!!

There's so many abandoned towns, villages, etc. They should do a TV show based off this game. There are survival shows, but not where you have to loot an old abandoned town and such. This game though, this one's definitely TRUE survival. You can't mess up. Yes, take advantage of those flares, kill a bear ASAP for warmth. You can go a lot further in the cold even though it does add considerable weight.

1x Reclaimed Wood and 1x Cured Gut can make a Snare

You can't turn that "near death" mechanic off -- which makes you stumble around without much control. But you can take your Condition (hit point) level more seriously when you do suffer from damage. You don't want to go below half Condition unless you know what you're doing (and using your Condition loss -- from low temperature for example -- as a temporary resource to get to a new location). If you are injured from an animal attack, and have gone below half -- then one more serious animal attack might kill you. This means you should be dealing with that as your top priority, and sleeping (with or without healing teas) to get back to 100% Condition. The near death mechanic only kicks in once you go below red Condition, and it gets worse as you approach death. If you don't like that mechanic then the best thing to do is learn how to avoid suffering that much damage. If you get mauled by a bear, run away and go heal before trying to fight him again. (The bear will probably bleed out and die if you struck him with a bullet or arrow anyway -- if it was a good shot -- and once you've healed up, you can go try to locate the bear's body.). You don't always get to choose to escape to safety and heal up, but when you do have that option and refuse to take it, then you are increasing your chances of fading into the long dark. After the wolf attack you made it safely into the Carter Dam. You could have used your antiseptic and gone to sleep in your bedroll, and healed up first. But instead you went exploring an industrial building with exposed live wires with your Condition already at 25% or less. That was a choice with consequences. So yes, the near-death mechanic is annoying. But the real issue is learning to take your Condition loss seriously, and healing up first. After the wolf attack your clothing was badly damaged -- which might be why you were cold inside the dam. But always remember that your own bedroll can offer a 5 degree Celsius warmth bonus (8 degrees if you improve it into an Improvised bedroll).

when on low health, you stagger around. there is a movement bias toward front right and more to the back left. in fact, moving backward diagonally is almost as fast as sprinting, when low moving diagonally is straight up faster

You can use the stones to stun rabbits/pigeons to catch if you’re close enough to them and don’t have a snare, possibly will scare off wolves if they’re not right on you. You can swing the flares or throw them to scare off some animals too,(same with torches taken from lit fires) also use a lit flare to start a fire if the flares close to going out(and you want a fire of course) start a fire with sticks or books rather than a log for a better chance then add the logs after. The dam does have a single wolf(Fluffy) in it so be careful, if you followed those tracks to the right it would take you to Camp office(good base for a bit) right at Mystery lake, and a watch tower nearby. I believe the hunters cabin is around there too and a good chance of finding a rifle. Always throw on the wind/water proof layers on the outside and you can take them off inside to dry so you dont get as cold, wool/climbing socks are the best to have and should be doubled up when able(as others have said) you can also drop items and hold click on them to drag and place wherever you want for organizing. Great runs so far though and cant wait for the 3rd later today! Good luck.

Yeah, live electrical wires kill -- just like in real life! Two things to be aware of during an Aurora: wildlife is more dangerous, and exposed electrical wires become active. Best not to explore the wilderness at night, especially during an Aurora -- unless you know exactly where you're going, or have no other choice. When you got attacked by that wolf, your Condition ("hit points") was already so low that any new injury was going to likely kill you. So your first priority when the wolf attacked had to be to stop the bleeding (which you did) and disinfect the wound (which you chose not to do for some reason). Once the treatment has been administered, you still need to rest up in order to heal your Condition loss back up to full. Inside the dam you were still suffering from cold, however -- which means that you had to either fix your clothing (some of which had been damaged or destroyed by the wolf) to be able to stay warm inside -- or put down your bedroll and see if the bedroll's warmth bonus would be enough to allow you to sleep. As soon as you can sleep without freezing, you could have healed up first before going to explore the building. You went exploring a building with exposed wiring during an Aurora, when you were already close to death from your wolf injuries. Not a good idea. I agree with you that the near-death mechanic that causes you to wobble severely, and lose motion control -- is really annoying. I've never seen it quite as severe as yours seemed to be here. But it is a bit much. IN real life you wouldn't be that out of control of your motor skills .... you'd probably just sit down from exhaustion, pain, or blood loss and die. Anyway, it's a learning experience -- and you get better next time if you learn from your mistakes. Personally, I think you'd be better off on Voyageur difficulty, not Stalker -- at least until you learn the game a bit more. There is a learning curve. Don't go wandering into unknown territory at night, or during a blizzard -- unless you absolutely have to.

Yea, that was a scary bear attack. You gotta get in the perfect position to be able to get out of his way when he stops to kill him with the revolver. 😢 Ouch, that's rough.

Thanks Brother. I've been waiting for this. This and The Mist are my favorite by far.

At around 27:00 you caught yourself wearing no jackets and shoes, and realized you had mistakenly put them into a locker. This is good. But then you immediately went and "harvested" your only head gear (your scarf and hat). Now you've got a frostbite risk on your head ... and went out adventuring afterwards. Oops!

Can't wait for the next one. This game is great.

Lol you tore up the best socks you had. Climbing socks and wool socks are the best. Biggest piece of advice if you don't need it drop it. I'm noticing you could cut half your weight down by dumping all the stuff you don't need to survive.

Your close to death, all ur senses are gone and your falling into unconsciosness, I feel they portrayed it very well, just dont get to that point and you wont experience it

Honestly, that stumbling looked a bit bugged. I've never seen it behave that way, it's usually just a simple sway to the left and right, but generally you're able to move in a forward direction. That warping back and forth at extreme speed was not normal.

The only thing I think they are trying to mimic is exactly being near death….. possibly trying to be a dizzy dilerium where your having trouble focusing but dang was that a tad and some too much 😬 You definitely wouldn’t be moving that fast at near death either lol

Probably need a rifle or shot gun to take out the Bear.

26:55 braincells were lost... oh the irony rip clothing apart in the clothing menu, not the main inventory menu. so you wont rip apart the clothing you wear anymore (the triangle at the top of the image is the "worn" symbol)

Around the 27 minute mark you just started ripping up all the good quality cloths you were wearing for no reason and I died a little. Really enjoying your totally ignorant run at this game, but please, BE CAREFUL.