The Long Dark — the popular (2017) snowy survival game — is getting a sequel called Blackfrost: The Long Dark II. It was announced tonight.
This one will launch into PC (Steam) Early Access in 2026.
Key Features
- Brave New World – Experience the Quiet Apocalypse as survivors in the northern industrial city of Harmont and its vast environs. A year has passed since the Aurora first appeared in the sky, rendering all technology inert, with survivors just starting to emerge to face their new reality in its aftermath. Surrounded by a majestic, rugged wilderness, encounter the remnants of an isolated society still coming to terms with how the world has just been forever changed. How will you choose to survive?
- Live Together. Die Alone – Survive as a lone wanderer in this frozen wasteland of city, town, forest, and farm, or huddle together as a group of survivors in whatever shelter you can make for yourselves. As solo players, decide how much you’ll learn to live with NPC survivor communities struggling to find their way in this harsh world. As cooperative players, lean on each other and combine your skills and efforts to eke out another day of existence in the hostile environment. Alone or together, choose your own path to survival.
- The Next-Generation Survival RPG – Built on the foundation of survival gameplay pioneered and perfected by THE LONG DARK over 10 years of development, BLACKFROST evolves every aspect of the survival formula to its 2.0 iteration, setting the table for the next generation of survival games. Build your own survivor, customize traits and skills, collect scars and stories, and experience a life as a survivor in this beautiful yet dangerous world. Many games have tried to bring survival mechanics to their open-world RPGs, but BLACKFROST is the first survival game built ground-up as a survival RPG.
- Urban Survival – Experience the fantasy of wilderness survival at a 19th-century level of technology due to the aurora’s effects on the world and its inhabitants, and enjoy the same deep simulation of survival in nature from THE LONG DARK but with a new twist. Cities and towns offer new opportunities, and new hazards to your survival, introducing a fresh take on the established survival formula. The wilds are dangerous, but sometimes the city is where the real threats lie.
- The Will to Live – Survival is as much about what’s in your head as what’s in your pack. With BLACKFROST, your success is no longer just about your physical Condition. BLACKFROST‘s new Will to Live system adds elements of psychological survival to the mix, introducing Resilience and its sub-stats to the well-established mechanics. Manage your doubts and fears, and find comfort in the small things if you want to survive.
- New Hazards – Urban risks. The deep freeze of an intense northern winter. Extreme weather events. Aurora Storms. And the dreaded radioactive Blackfrost, emitted by the reactor complex looming on the horizon. Layered on the dangers from wildlife and other survivors you encounter along the way, BLACKFROST introduces a whole host of new hazards to the survival sandbox.
- Permalife: The innovative Permalife system turns every death into a new adventure. Accumulate new risks and fears for your survivor as you move through the world and succumb to various hazards. Face your fears, overcome their downsides, and strengthen your Survivor’s story in the world. Make your mark. (Classic Permadeath still an option!)