Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2 is in development and will hit early access in 2026. The announcement came during the 2024 The Game Awards, with a gorgeous trailer showing a considerably more varied color palette than what we saw in the brilliant original. Better still, this instalment will add co-op.
"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."
Interestingly, The Long Dark 2 will [[link]] take place in a vanquished world with "19th-century level" technology, and will add a new psychological survival element. It'll boast plenty more environmental threats than in its predecessor, and it's approach to death seems to take a leaf out of Outward's books (though a classic permadeath mode will also be available.
Like it did with The Long Dark, Hinterland Studio plans to spend a lot of time in early access iterating the game's prickly survival systems. "When we launch Blackfrost in Early Access in 2026, we anticipate the game including a portion of our full world map, and a range of foundational
survival mechanics and supporting content. We will update players with more details about our specific plans for Early [[link]] Access and what they can expect when we get closer to launch.”