The Long Dark Episode 4 is out now with its prison break survival story
He was cold as ice
Snowbound survival sandbox The Long Dark has just launched its fourth free story episode update after two years in development. The new episode "Fury, Then Silence" follows crashed bush pilot Mackenzie on his continued search for his companion Astrid in the snowy apocalypse. This time, he's found himself captured by a gang attempting a prison break. Episode Four is out now with all that new story mode to chew on before Hinterland talk about what's next for modding tools and survival mode.
"Desperate to escape one of the darkest corners of Great Bear Island, he must somehow survive his fiercest enemy yet," Hinterland say. "Can Mackenzie recover the Hardcase, continue his search for Astrid, and also save the innocents caught up in this deadly confrontation?" It's all good and grim down here in the new launch day trailer Hinterland have posted.
I'd been quite into The Long Dark's survival mode sandbox even before its story mode episodes began launching. The narrative bits are quite nice though. I found I always struggled a bit getting past certain hurdles in the sandbox mode. The story does a swell job of directing you through each map area at the proper pace and with a more directed approach to gathering food and equipment.
Hinterland have previously said that Episode Four runs about seven to ten hours of playtime and includes an hour of voice-acted cutscenes.
It sure looks like this episode will involve dealing with a lot of people on either side of this prison standoff. Quite a difference from the extremely solitary and quiet survival mode. Speaking of, Hinterland say that in the coming week's they'll talk more about "the future of Survival Mode, next-gen enhancements, mod support, and other things we’re doing at Hinterland."
With "Fury, Then Silence" now out, that just leaves one chapter remaining in Hinterland's plans for story mode updates.
You can find The Long Dark over on Steam with all its story chapters so far included in the base game.