About This Content

Welcome to Cauldron Island. Lost to history, hiding a mystery. A vast northern chain of islands with 100km+ of railway winding its way across the craggy and desolate landscape, and the abandoned remnants of a once-thriving whaling industry there for you to discover.

Restore and activate a century-old train to travel deep along this forgotten caldera to uncover a dark secret. What you discover in the end will change how you survive in this Aurora-bathed world, forever.

A century ago, a rich industrialist named Hamish McLeod harnessed the unique properties of Cauldron Island with a plan for economic domination through whale-oil powered technology. But this history was erased, and the dark truth about how things went wrong has been hidden in the past. Until now.

Get to Cauldron Island and uncover the truth. Follow the path laid by Alice McLeod, his great-granddaughter, who came here to crack the mystery of her family legacy.

Because uncovering the mystery of Cauldron Island is core to your survival in this new Aurora-blasted world. And the journey Alice started is yours to complete.

Standing at the heart of McLeod’s planned industrial revolution, the Prototype Train has been hidden for a hundred years. Find it, bring it back to life, and use it to explore over 100 kms of track, deep into the dark heart of Cauldron Island to uncover the mystery of McLeod’s failed empire.

Part transportation, part mobile shelter, the Prototype Train is the key to unlocking the mystery of the past that could help open a door to a new future. Keep the train running, improve it, protect it. Because once you cross the threshold, it’s the only way you are getting back home.

Meanwhile, time has not been friendly to Cauldron Island’s abandoned railway infrastructure. You’ll have to contend with broken track, aurora hazards, rock falls and avalanches, and the slumbering remnants of McLeod’s abandoned empire. You’ll need all your skill and perseverance to make it to the end of the line.

The deeper you travel along the spine of Cauldron Island, the more extreme the Aurora effects become. This is a preview of what’s to come in the post-WINTERMUTE Aurora-changed world. Alice was the first to document these heightened effects, but you’ll ultimately be the one to explore and experience the Aurora as it becomes more dangerous. And the train will be key to your survival.

Your connection to and from Great Bear Island. Travel isn’t free, and it favours the prepared. But the Fulmar makes it possible to bring useful gear and resources from Cauldron Island back to use on Great Bear Island in the Survival Mode Base Game. And when you’re ready to return to Cauldron Island, the Fulmar will be waiting in Desolation Point.

Explore to find dozens of Wax Cylinders, each with historical recordings of the figures at the heart of Cauldron Island’s mystery. Hear their voices, learn their stories, piece together the fragments of what they experienced to fully understand the truth.

Find Repair Bays and unlock new upgrades and customization options for the train. Engine improvements. Comforts to make your mobile base more functional. Improvements to unlock access to new parts of the world. The train is key to your survival. Protect it.

Over the course of Early Access, IRON ROAD will add new tools, items, and gameplay systems including the Portable Oil Heater, the Wax Cylinder Player, Harpoon, along with new clothing items, new foods, new wildlife, and a full range of Safehouse Customization items that can be brought back to Great Bear Island. All of this, and more, is outlined in the IRON ROAD Roadmap found at the "Visit the Website" link to the right of the Steam page.

A flooded volcanic caldera formed an archipelago with five main islands, named after McLeod’s daughters: Anna, Stella, Freya, Morag, and Skye. Each island offers many points of interest, new regions, and tens of kilometers of abandoned railway line to explore.

When IRON ROAD launches, you’ll find the Autopilot Boat can bring you from Desolation Point on Great Bear Island, to Port Remnant on Cauldron Island. From there, you’ll explore Anna Island and nearly 30 kilometres of railroad. Future Early Access updates will reveal the other islands.

IRON ROAD will be updated continuously throughout the Early Access development phase. Smaller, more frequent updates will include ongoing bug fixing, tuning changes, and smaller features. Larger updates will include new parts of the world and more major mechanics.

Many of the features and content are designed to be brought back to the Base Game and Great Bear Island, while some content -- such as the train itself -- are designed to work on Cauldron Island only.

The full IRON ROAD experience will be developed with player feedback in mind, using the full benefit of the Early Access development model to ensure that core gameplay, game balance, and tuning are aligned with player expectations.

Hinterland has been involved with Early Access-style development since launching THE LONG DARK in 2014, so we believe our players can purchase IRON ROAD with the confidence that we will deliver a high-quality experience, and live up to our obligations.

That said, due to the nature of game development, and because the team is building IRON ROAD guided by community feedback, it is possible that some planned Roadmap items might change over the course of the Early Access development process. In cases where the development team makes a change, the item will be replaced by an alternative of relatively equal “value” in terms of development effort. Of course, “value” may be interpreted differently from player to player.

The Early Access Roadmap for IRON ROAD should be seen as an aspirational document, and is not a promise or guarantee. As per Steam’s disclaimer for Early Access products, if you do not like what you see in the current build, you should wait until IRON ROAD is complete. Hinterland would prefer that you have a product you are happy with rather than feeling disappointed.

ABOUT HINTERLAND

Hinterland is an independent video game developer and IP creator headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Established in 2012 by Raphael van Lierop, Hinterland is a multinational, multi-ethnic team united around a single goal: to create thought-provoking, story-rich entertainment experiences. Our original fictional settings are conceived from the ground up to exist across multiple mediums and game platforms.

Hinterland’s first title, THE LONG DARK launched August 1, 2017.

We aim for our games to foster a sense of social awareness, and we aspire to provide immersive, sophisticated worlds to anyone seeking a mature entertainment experience.

Join us on our journey.