About This Game

You wake up on an island with your young son beside you. You have no memory of how you got here, and nothing around you is familiar. No Way Back: Dark Horizon is a first-person survival game with horror elements. Your job is simple to say and hard to do: keep him alive. As you fight to stay alive, you also chase the truth of how you got here and the secret this island keeps.

Night at the lake

The camp sits on the lakeshore at night. A fish roasts on a spear over the fire while your son warms himself beside it. A sign nearby warns that the lake water is dirty and must be boiled.

A garden by the village

By day, a garden bed near the village houses is yours to tend. Your son reaches out to pick a plant.

Boil before drinking

A well with a sign tells you to boil the water first. Your son waits behind it while you decide what is safe to drink.

When the dead come out

At night, zombies close in across a snowy hillside. Your son holds up his lantern while you raise a rifle.

Set a snare

An empty snare catches a curious rabbit within a couple of metres. Bait it with vegetables from your garden and rabbits up to 20 metres away will come. Return to find the catch hanging from the bent sapling, take the meat and pelt, then reset the snare.

Barter in the log cabin

Inside the hermit's cabin, you trade items for other items. There is no money on the island, only what you carry.

When your son is sick

Your sick son sleeps by the campfire. Icons above his head show what he needs.

Game features

• Protect your son: Watch his hunger and health. Tell him to follow, wait or sleep. He lights the night with his lantern, and icons above his head show when he is sick, hungry, cold, hurt or tired.

• The weight of survival: Raw meat and dirty water cause stomach sickness. Cold turns to chill, then fever. Infection drains your health. Herbal brew and purification tablets cure you, and your son can fall ill too.

• Fight to defend: A bow, a club, an old pistol. Ammo is scarce, and every encounter can cost you. Often the smartest move is not to be seen at all.

• Hunt to survive: Track prey through the forest with a bow, follow blood trails to a wounded deer, and use Focus Mode to highlight prey and trails. Harvest meat and pelts. Meat from an animal the dead have killed is infected. More animal types are planned for the full release.

• Set snares: Bait them with vegetables and come back for the catch.

• Farm, fish and cook: Dig plots, grow tomato, corn, pepper and blackberry, water them and protect them from raids. Catch fish and cook it over the fire. Boil lake water, or use a canteen, a well or purification tablets.

• Gather and craft: Chop trees and gather wood and stone. Build a house, beds and sleeping bags, a shelter you can hide in.

• Fear the dark: Days are a brief window to prepare. Nights are cold and dangerous and zombies come out. You can sleep and get a morning summary. With your son at your side and a light in hand, every step outside is a gamble.

• Trade: Barter with the island's hermit. There is no money.

• Explore and investigate: Roam the island, step inside abandoned places and follow the clues. Narrated letters and notes tell of a missing man, and there are secrets to discover.

• Full controller support: Play with keyboard and mouse or a gamepad. The interface is redesigned, and the game is available in 31 languages.

A free demo is available now. The full game releases on June 25, 2027.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

We mainly used AI for the player voice and some sound effects. It was also used for certain textures and provided assistance during coding.