The Long Dark 2 is coming, while the first Long Dark remains unfinished still

In case you haven’t stayed on top of the smorgasbord of new trailers released as part of The Game Awards 2024’s opening ceremony, The Long Dark 2 was one of the fancy new announcements. Great news, right? Thing is, The Long Dark remains unfinished, a decade after its release.

The situation with The Long Dark and its developer, Hinterland, is admittedly complex, but the gist of it really isn’t. Originally announced using Kickstarter back in 2014, as was the fashion at the time, The Long Dark‘s key promise at the time was that it would deliver a comprehensive episodic campaign known as Wintermute.

Then, the game was released with a stronger sandbox/survival slant, which led to a massive pivot towards developing those bits and bobs instead of focusing on Wintermute proper. Now, with 2025 knocking on the door, the final chapter of Wintermute is yet to be released, and Blackfrost – The Long Dark 2 has already been announced.

Blackfrost – The Long Dark 2 is a promising new title, but will it repeat the mistakes of its predecessor?

Blackfrost – The Long Dark 2 is due to release via Steam Early Access (that’s right) sometime in 2026. This does give Hinterland plenty of time to deliver Wintermute’s final chapter in the interim, but the fact remains that Episode 5 won’t be out until 2025. This doesn’t mesh well with the notion of announcing a whole new sequel while the original title is yet to be finished.

In a practical sense, The Long Dark has been “finished” for quite some time now. The game’s focus on sandbox gameplay has been apparent for a long while, and its Tales from the Far Territory expansion pass drives the majority of the gameplay for long-time players.

To be clear, Blackfrost looks very interesting. It introduces a new game engine, mounts, extensive urban environments, plenty of new mechanics, and co-op multiplayer to The Long Dark’s emblematic and grounded survival gameplay. That alone is worth getting excited about. Yet, it’s hard to forget all the missteps Hinterland has made over the years.

The decision to leave Wintermute on the backburner is one of them, for sure, but The Long Dark‘s game director recently had a fairly questionable take about Manor Lords, an extremely successful small-scale indie production. Back in 2020, the studio also requested Nvidia to take The Long Dark off GeForce Now. “Nvidia didn’t ask for our permission to put the game on the platform so we asked them to remove it. Please take your complaints to them, not us. Devs should control where their games exist,” said van Lierop, The Long Dark‘s game director.

There’s a history of troubled development and questionable takes that can be attributed to Hinterland at large, and though I very much enjoy The Long Dark as it currently stands, I am worried about its sequel. So far, though, Blackfrost looks great, and I hope it builds upon the success of its predecessor in a meaningful and sensible way. Hopefully, it won’t take almost a decade for its campaign and story mode to conclude.