Out of nowhere, Hooded Horse and Ice-Pick Lodge unveiled the sequel to the acclaimed survival horror Darkwood. Set a few years after the original yet written as a self-contained tale, Darkwood II pushes you into a post-Soviet wasteland where the dying Aral Sea has spawned a forest-like anomaly that devours everything. Expect new lands and waters to explore, new creatures to fear, and survival built around scavenging, crafting, and barricading—without quest markers or hand-holding. The game is currently announced only for PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) with no release date, and it’s confirmed for Xbox Game Pass.

Across the region lie the relics of a vanished world: deserted villages, rust-choked ships stranded in sand, failing power plants and oil rigs. A silent biolab broods on a remote island while biker gangs and ex-soldiers rule by terror. Nomads roam day and night, and even high walls can’t guarantee safety.

As the forest’s corruption spreads and the world sheds its humanity, you’re forced to ask: is it better to remain human, or to yield to whatever the woods are becoming? The journey winds through barren deserts, clotted marshes, and deep waters; the locals struggle to hold the treeline, and you’ll rely on wits and nerve to survive.

Scrounge supplies, jury-rig weapons, and turn shelters into traps and chokepoints for the long night. Hide in the cellar as doors creak open floors above—or hunt the horrors that stalk you. Strange concoctions can grant new abilities, of a sort. Along the way, you’ll meet unsettling characters whose motives and pasts entwine with your choices, reshaping their fates and the world itself.

Source: Gematsu, GamesPress