The latest Long Dark update has seen a whole slew of changes introduced to the existing episodes of the game’s Wintermute story. Players can download the revised version for free for now, but the third episode’s release date is still unknown after being delayed. The revised work on earlier episodes comes after developer Hinterland Games said it wasn’t happy with the end product of the game.
Fans of The Long Dark‘s survival sandbox are no strangers to the game’s ongoing development. Hinterland’s title was in early access for three years before getting a full release in 2017. In the time since its full release, the Wintermute story mode released two episodes, both of which having now received a massive update from the developer. While the game’s core story remains the same, the update introduces new dialogue, new side-quests, and the mode’s environment feels more open as well, with new areas available to explore.
The game’s Survival mode has also been shown a bit of love, with a small selection of changes to the game. Players will now receive health buffs if they can avoid starving to death for three days. You can also craft a new item in the rabbitskin hat, a must-have fashion accessory if you want to survive and look good doing it. Players can also try their hand at the new Archivist challenge, which asks you to collect Aurora-animated computers.
Speaking about the extensive changes to the game’s story mode, game director Raphael von Lierop said the decision was “a gamble.” Speaking on Twitter, Lierop said that the team had “spent a lot of time and money going back and redoing work we weren’t fully happy with.” And rather than continuing with the development of episode three, he said the decision was made to go back and rework that existing content, something Lierop understands could lead to the game “losing a lot of community support in the process.”
There’s still no word on when episode three will arrive, but it seems that there’s a good selection of new bits and pieces for players to go back and explore in The Long Dark‘s first two episodes.
