The Long Dark's next story mode chapter arrives October 22nd
Crack open a cold one
The Long Dark has been in early access for five years now. To celebrate all that time in the snowy wastes, developers Hinterland have announced the release date for chapter three of the game's story mode, and tinkered with just a little bit of time travel.
I'll admit, I haven't quite kept up with The Long Dark's story. I was a bit daft, writing off a mode that forced me to abandon my badass lass for a rosy-nosed mountain man. But hey! Episode Three swaps out ol' Will Mackenzie, protagonist of the first two parts, to put you into the frostbitten shoes of Dr. Astrid, so maybe it's time to pick things back up. Here's a brief teaser for the update, which arrives October 22nd.
Episode three, Crossroads Elegy, picks up where the last two episodes left off. There's not much more to go on so far, although Hinterland's Raphael Van Lierop suggests some seismic shifts in his five-year recap blog post.
"In our own way, and in our own style, it moves the story forward. I don’t expect all of you to like it. But it’s a story that is true to the world of The Long Dark, true to Astrid, and I believe, also true to the world we live in today."
The other part of its five-year birthday is the Time Capsule, a newly playable archive of 15 of the game's major updates. You can now jump into the game and experience how the game was at that point in development, from the earliest access release through each new map, mechanic and update. These versions of the game aren't supported, for obvious reasons, but there's instructions for how to access each of them through Steam at that link.
Picking up The Long Dark on Steam will net you access to Crossroads Elegy when it releases, on top of the first two chapters in all their Redux glory. All future episodes of the story mode will arrive at no additional cost, too. And if story isn't your think, The Long Dark is still a proper brilliant survival sandbox, well worth the price of admission alone.