The final chord of The Long Dark: Episode 5 will be "the biggest in history" with a cinematic scale

Fans of the harsh post-apocalyptic story of The Long Dark, get ready for a grand conclusion. Hinterland Studio has officially announced that the fifth and final episode of the Wintermute story campaign will be the "biggest episode to date", offering "two to three times more cinematic and story content" than the previous, fourth episode, and will be approximately "three to four times larger" in size.

Here's What We Know

In a lengthy update on Steam, Hinterland founder and creative director Raphael van Lierop addressed fans, noting that the team "won't be sharing many details about the episode until the first teaser," but that it will include "a lot of systems we haven't used in other episodes."

"We know that many of you - like us - have been waiting for this story to be completed for years. And when it does, we can never go back. So it's really on our minds. The episode can't just be good; it has to be great," van Lierop added.

"There are a lot of plot threads that need to be tied up between all the episodes to complete the Wintermute storyline and also set the stage for the future of The Long Dark, so we have to visit a few different places and hear from a lot of new people," the director explained.

"Due to the needs of the story, we focused on narrative more than usual, and as a result, the mission structure in episode five will probably be more linear than in previous episodes."

Players will find "a lot" of new locations - "everything in the episode is new to the game and the world, so it will be places you've never seen before." And since "this final episode of the story will allow you to play as both Mackenzie and Astrid, you'll also see some key characters from previous episodes, so... there's a lot going on!"

The update also confirmed the completion of the Tales from the Far Territory expansion, with the test team testing further visual enhancements including shadow enhancements, fog, anisotropic filtering, increased rendering range, landscape blending, motion blur and more, although these enhancements will "primarily be applied to powerful PCs or top of the line consoles".

And finally, almost a year after hinting at an "unannounced survival game" that sounded suspiciously like The Long Dark 2, developer Hinterland has officially unveiled its chilling sequel, Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2, which will be released on Steam Early Access in 2026. So, fans of The Long Dark have many more frosty adventures ahead of them.

Source: Steam