The Long Dark 2 announced with co-op multiplayer, new urban areas and sanity system
rockpapershotgun.comThe Long Dark creators Hinterlands have announced The Long Dark 2, another helping of open-ended wilderness survival. Actually titled Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2 - a travestying of naming conventions that is surely more harrowing than any post-apocalyptic winter - it's out in early access in 2026, and introduces urban environments together with a "Will to Live" sanity system and co-op multiplayer. Here's the trailer.
And here's some backstory, care of the just-launched Steam page.
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?
In case the mention of co-op has you screaming, fashioning yourself a wolfskin pelt, and fleeing to the hillside caves, it looks like single-player is still the heart of the game. But you'll potentially have a lot more company, as players must decide whether to join communities of NPC survivors. Co-op players, meanwhile, will "lean on each other and combine your skills and efforts to eke out another day of existence in the hostile environment". I'm not sure whether this means there are unique co-op mechanics. If my co-op partner dies, can I eat them and knit their entrails into a scarf?
And then there are the new urban areas. "Cities and towns offer new opportunities, and new hazards to your survival, introducing a fresh take on the established survival formula," the Steam page explains. "The wilds are dangerous, but sometimes the city is where the real threats lie." I assume they're not talking about boy racers at the traffic lights.
The new Will to Live system complicates the already-steep challenge of
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