The Pathologic devs are making Darkwood 2 with Acid Wizard's blessing in a frankly outrageous piece of horror synergy

Also, Hooded Horse are publishing it

"ICE quoting Halo is surely arsenic adjacent arsenic I'll get to hellhole this week", I said to myself earlier. "Hold my beer," interjected Manor Lords publishers Hooded Horse, earlier diving into a flyblown burlap sack and sportfishing retired the property merchandise for Darkwood 2. Did you ever play Darkwood? It's the endurance fearfulness crippled astir being a horrible hermit successful a horrible, horrible, top-down forest. It's the crippled that persuaded Adam Smith to mercy-kill his dog. The caller 1 is acceptable successful "the scorched deserts of a dying sea" that is dilatory being engulfed by evil trees.

This melodramatic alteration of mounting isn't adjacent the astir startling happening astir the game. Nor is the information that Hooded Horse, hitherto known for banger strategy games, are publishing it. No, the astir astonishing happening astir Darkwood 2 is that it's being developed by Ice-Pick Lodge, developers of Pathologic, with archetypal Polish creators Acid Wizard monitoring the accumulation from afar similar lurking creatures successful the underbrush.

Pathologic and Darkwood are, I think, cervix and cervix for the rubric of Video Game Most Likely To Actually Give You The Plague. Asking the makers of 1 to marque a sequel to the different is like, I don't know, putting Jack the Ripper successful complaint of the Manhattan Project. To apical it each off, the cardinal creation reminds maine of the main paper creation for Soul Reaver. Truly, this is simply a videogame tailored to my tastes, though I bash person immoderate concerns astir Ice-Pick Lodge's quality to trade a top-down fearfulness game. I'd besides similar to cognize much astir however they're faring fixed recent, precise disturbing allegations astir their now-departed co-founder.

Darkwood 2 is acceptable amid the saline wreck of a real-life assemblage of water, the Aral Sea. Lying betwixt Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it utilized to beryllium the 3rd largest water successful the satellite astatine 68,000 quadrate kilometres, but began shrinking successful the 1960s aft rivers were diverted to Soviet irrigation projects.

Today, it's mostly toxic dust, though determination person been attempts to replenish the waters. Darkwood 2 takes spot successful the 1990s. Assuming the crippled sticks to real-life history, that would beryllium pursuing the abandonment of Soviet Russian efforts to reconstruct the water by mode of a monolithic canal system, and during a signifier of irrigation strategy gathering implicit successful recently post-Soviet Uzbekistan. All that's according to Wikipedia, anyhow - if you hap to beryllium a due historiographer of the Aral Sea, I'd admit your input connected the screenshots and trailer.

As for however it plays, Darkwood 2 looks to beryllium treading squarely successful its predecessor's stinking, gore-filled bootprints. It's a foetid real-time exploration and scavenging sim successful which visibility is swallowed and splintered by encroaching trunks. It's inactive astir scraping unneurotic resources and fortifying a lair with barricades and traps, earlier the prima goes down and the existent monsters travel out. But determination are caller monsters to observe - hark astatine that giga-catfish successful the footage - and determination are "new reasons to commune for the greeting light". Set a fewer years later, the crippled seems to physique connected the events of Darkwood, but Hooded Horse guarantee america that it tin beryllium treated arsenic a standalone story.

Image credit: Hooded Horse

There are marshes to squelch through, meandering paths amid dunes, and heavy waters to enactment implicit (I would astir apt enactment rather fast). There shall beryllium nary quest markers oregon waypoints, nary of your modern cartographical frippery, lone the madness and desperation of section humans warring to support the invading trunks astatine bay.

All this appetising misery notwithstanding, returning players whitethorn person misgivings astir the departure of archetypal developers Acid Wizard. The archetypal game's creators suspended operations indefinitely successful 2022, aft failing "to make a enactment situation that would not beryllium destructive to our idiosyncratic lives". They had struggled to find an assemblage for their follow-up project, the jarringly upbeat shot crippled Soccer Kids.

"Crafting the satellite of Darkwood was a precise challenging and agelong travel for the team," Acid Wizard co-founder Gustaw Stachaszewski comments successful a property merchandise for Darkwood 2. "After an acquisition similar that, you go emotionally attached to your work. We cognize that the fans person been eagerly awaiting a continuation of Darkwood. For years, the thought of handing implicit our babe to different workplace was thing unthinkable for us. But, aft it became evident that moving unneurotic is not viable anymore, we decided that Darkwood should unrecorded on, adjacent if not straight done our work.

"We're genuinely excited to walk connected the torch to Ice-Pick Lodge - creators whose enactment connected Pathologic has inspired america for years," Stachaszewski goes on. "The squad astatine IPL truly gets what makes Darkwood a unsocial experience. We judge they volition not lone grant its tone but volition make thing genuinely exceptional. As for us, we'll beryllium successful the background, making definite it stays existent to the archetypal vision."

In the aforesaid release, Ice-Pick Lodge's enforcement shaper Alexander Souslov has immoderate further thoughts for radical who mightiness question the blend of developer and steadfast present - again, Hooded Horse are amended known for city-builders and 4X than spooks and squalor. "I judge the astir absorbing things are created erstwhile radical with precise antithetic backgrounds enactment unneurotic connected originative projects," helium observes. "Ice-Pick is known for its absorption connected communicative and connected the plan of semiotic systems. Hooded Horse, connected the different hand, is renowned for its expertise successful strategy. What benignant of crippled could travel from that?"

Image credit: Hooded Horse

Ice-Pick Lodge person been connected a analyzable travel of their own, these past fewer years. The developers announced Pathologic 3 successful October 2024. Due for merchandise successful January 2026, it includes communicative materials and different elements that were erstwhile expected to beryllium portion of Pathologic 2. There was a definite magnitude of frission implicit this and the dropping of the archetypal game's unfastened satellite elements, with our ain Brendy (RPS successful peace) commenting of 1 demo that it felt simultaneously designed for and designed to annoy returning Pathologic players.

Then, successful March this year, laminitis Nikolay Dybowski abruptly near the workplace aft Pathologic players discovered that helium had been accused of kidnapping and abuse, with allegations dating backmost to 2021. Former Ice-Pick developer Aleksey Luchin responded to these reports, branding Dybowski a "manipulative sociopath that is precise bully with words." I've asked Hooded Horse and Ice-Pick if they'd similar to connection immoderate further remark connected Dybowski's departure. More positively, Ice-Pick Lodge were among the archetypal Russian developers to talk retired against their country's penetration of Ukraine, telling societal media followers that "a transgression is being committed successful our name. This is not lone a transgression against our friends. It is simply a transgression against our dignity."

There's nary merchandise day yet for Darkwood 2, but you tin work much connected Steam and the Microsoft Store. You mightiness besides privation to cheque retired Alex Wiltshire's aged interrogation with Acid Wizard astir however the archetypal Darkwood "kills permadeath". We ne'er reviewed it, but Darkwood appears nevertheless connected our database of the champion fearfulness games connected PC. Here's hoping Ice-Pick Lodge tin bash it justice.

Update: Ice-Pick Lodge person declined to connection immoderate further remark astir the allegations directed astatine Dybowski. A PR typical pointed maine towards the studio's existing Xitter connection from March 2025, successful which they denote that Dybowski has near "to absorption connected idiosyncratic projects and his backstage life".