Hinterland has finally announced that the exploration-survival game ‘The Long Dark’ will finally be available for Playstation 4 on August 1.
Raphael van Lierop, Creative Director, Hinterland made the announcement in a blog post and said that it was huge milestone for their small independent studio.
The Long Dark is a thoughtful, exploration focused survival simulation set in the Northern wilderness in the aftermath of a global disaster.
“About five years ago, The Long Dark was only a dream,” said Lierop who said that he working for working in the games industry on blockbuster entertainment experiences that were exciting but not personal.
“I wanted to create an experience that would channel the best wilderness survival literature and films, and also explore a post-disaster setting that was distinctly Canadian, like me,” he said. Lierop was fortunate enough to attract other like-minded game developers to making it a reality.
The Long Dark is focused on surviving the ‘Quiet Apocalypse.’ The world is nearly 50 square kilometres of deep forest, frozen hills, cliffs and mountain tops, and abandoned man-made structures such as fishing cabins, lighthouses, forestry lookouts, and the occasional remnant of pre-disaster industry.
Nothing electrical works, so humans have been knocked down a few links in the food chain. Between blizzards, starvation, bears, and dysentery, players need all their wits and a blend of quick-thinking and long-term planning in hope of surviving.
The game has been inspired by stories like ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy, while Wintermute is the narrative mode.
The five-episode story is about bush pilot Will Mackenzie, who along with Dr. Astrid Greenwood, crashes in the middle of the Canadian wilderness in the aftermath of a mysterious geomagnetic disaster.
Wintermute builds on the core survival game play from Survivor mode by adding a storyline and cast of characters whose trust players need to earn if they want to survive.
The first two episodes will be launched on August 1 — Episode One: “Do Not Go Gentle,” and Episode Two: “Luminance Fugue,” with the remaining three episodes arriving throughout the rest of 2017 and part of 2018.
In the first two episodes, players play Mackenzie but will also get the opportunity to experience the story as Dr. Greenwood in future episodes. Each episode is about five hours of gameplay, so there is a lot of great gaming between survival mode and Wintermute in The Long Dark.
Lierop said they have poured their hearts and souls into crafting this experience and are thrilled to finally share the “thought-provoking take on post-disaster wilderness survival fiction and gameplay” with PlayStation players all around the world.
