The Long Dark: Iron Road is out in early access - DLC with a new island and hundreds of kilometers of rails
Hinterland studio has released the Iron Road add-on for the survival game The Long Dark in early access. The DLC expands the survival mode: players will find a new archipelago of Cauldron Island, more than 100 kilometers of abandoned railway and a prototype train that has stood in a depot for a century. At the start of sales on Steam there is a 10% discount.
What is Cauldron Island?
The flooded volcanic caldera formed an archipelago of five main islands - they were named after the daughters of industrialist Hamish McLeod: Anna, Stella, Freya, Morag and Skye. A hundred years ago, MacLeod planned to build an economic empire on the islands using whale oil, but this history has been carefully erased, and the truth about his failure is hidden in the past.
On release, Anna Island with almost 30 kilometers of rails is available: you can get to it by boat with autopilot from Desolation Point on Great Bear Island. The remaining islands of the archipelago will be revealed in future Early Access updates.
The train is in the center of everything
The main mechanic of the add-on is the restoration of McLeod's experimental locomotive. Having found the train, the player will be able to launch it and travel along the rails deep into the archipelago, to the “dark heart” of Cauldron Island. The developers promise that the final discovery will change the approach to survival in a world bathed in the glow of the Aurora.
The storyline is led by Alice McLeod, the great-granddaughter of an industrialist: following in her footsteps, the player will reveal the secret of the family heritage. The tone of the supplement is the same as that of the whole of The Long Dark: stern, restrained and without unnecessary words.
Early access plans
- Frequent minor updates - bug fixes, balance adjustments and small features;
- major updates - new areas of the world and basic mechanics;
- Some of the content will later be transferred to the base game and to Great Bear Island, but the train itself will remain exclusive to Cauldron Island.
Iron Road was released on October 27, 2026 on PC, requiring the base The Long Dark to run.
Source: store.steampowered.com