Hinterland Game Director Raphael van Leirop recently tweeted about gathering material for an upcoming developer diary update. Van Leirop’s tweet, which was issued on January 31st, marks the first time since the Long Dark’s December update that the studio has acknowledged future intentions with the game.
Van Leirop said that he hopes, “to share some project info soon.” When asked about what he meant by “soon,” he replied, “Not sure! It’s Hinterland Time(TM), you know.”
We can likely expect some new information in this developer diary on the status of the three remaining episodes of the Long Dark’s Wintermute story mode. After a three year wait, the first two episodes launched in August 2017 when the game left Early Access on Steam.
The remaining episodes were then scheduled to launch in late 2017 before the official Long Dark site changed to reflect a release date of “2018 and beyond.” No official word has been heard since.
The first two episodes of Wintermute put the player in the shoes of bush pilot Will Mackenzie. It is expected that one or more of the remaining episodes will shift focus to Dr. Astrid Greenwood, the woman traveling with Mackenzie when his plane went down in the opening moments of the story.
Lingering Issues in Survival Mode
We may also hear an update regarding the Long Dark’s Custom Toolbox within the survival mode. Custom settings, which were introduced in the Rugged Sentinel update, have shown tremendous promise in re-energizing the survival experience for veteran players and people looking for a different meta. Unfortunately the custom toolbox has been plagued with issues like missing buildings and inconsistent container spawns.
There are also issues surrounding invisible instadeath walls throughout the game world, as well as platform instability issues on PS4.
The Hinterland Forums Wishlist
If we’re lucky, we may see Hinterland address their intentions regarding some key items on the collective community wishlist. These include a VR port, additional fauna, and a more robust crafting system.
Until enough Hinterland Time™ has passed, though, we will just have to sit tight and be content with speculation.
Let us know below if you have any items you’d like to see addressed in the imminent dev diary update.
