It’s been a long while since we last checked in on Hinterland Studio’s The Long Dark, a post-apocalyptic wilderness survival game that is in the midst of getting a film adaptation. The game officially left Steam Early Access last year, and is also available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Now, in an almost unheard of event, the game is getting a complete overhaul.
Hinterland has decided to put the brakes on the release of the remaining episodes of its story mode, and are instead going back to improve the existing episodes with voice acting, rewritten dialogue, additional locations, a new mission structure. the result is “Wintermute Redux”, a free update that’s available now for current owners.
On Twitter, the game’s director Raphael van Lierop calls the move “a gamble”, which carries the understandable risk of alienating community support. “We invested in new tools and tech and learned a whole bunch of new skills so we could get better at delivering the experience we want to deliver. With every update we risk pissing off a bunch of our players just by virtue of changing…anything. Even if it’s for the better.”
However, as van Lierop states, you don’t get a lot of second chances in the game industry, and the thing that matters to him is to put out good work. “Sometimes you get it right the first time, but often you don’t. When something isn’t good, I want to make it better.”
As you can see from the trailer, the game has had some serious work done on it. From the story itself, the sandbox elements, to the new quests and challenges, nothing it seems has been left untouched. You can check out the changes on The Long Dark‘s Steam page.
Episode Three, which was scheduled for release this month, will now be unlocked in 2019.