Dying Light is celebrating its fifth year of existence. There will be in-game events, gifts, and lots of zombie killing until March 19th. Whatever your feelings on the parkour undead-kicking adventure, Techland has given fans unwavering support for a much longer time than many other games that launched in 2015.
But what if you’re less Daryl and more Merle? You slip on banana peels and just can’t seem to knock the living dead down? You’ve likely been missing out on Dying Light for all this time. Now that everyone else has had their fun for five long years, it’s your turn. The developers have added a “significantly easier” Story Mode to the game. The player hits harder, can take more damage, falls hurt less, traders will pay double for your stuff, and nights are shorter. The only downside is Story Mode gives less Legend experience, but if you’re wussing around in this difficulty, you’re probably not doing much endgame stuff.
Techland continues Dying Light’s year of free add-on content with the fourth and fifth installments. Drop 4 is a Prison Heist game mode set in a new penitentiary location. Players must break into Harran prison and get in the armory in solo or co-op modes while fending off hordes of undead. Drop 5 is the addition of a new wandering mini-boss named Sgt. Deathrow to Harran’s Old Town area.
Additionally, Dying Light is celebrating the holiday by having an in-game Easter egg hunt. Players have until April 3rd to find at least 25 eggs hidden around the zombie-infested land to snag a sweet chicken outfit and a special weapon.
Dying Light’s pivot from a one-off product to the games-as-a-service model has been fascinating to watch. Midway through the developer’s 12-month support plan, players have gotten free weapons, characters, cosmetics, new game modes, and a steady drip-feed of community events. Pretty good for a game that came out in January 2015!
Dying Light, Techland’s already stuffed-to-the-gills zombie game, which is going to get a bunch of new content in February, is also getting 250 new character levels. That’s not a misprint. 250 levels of skills, unlocks, and experience to grind. The upcoming Enhanced Edition of the game will feature Legendary Levels beyond the original 25. As the linked video shows, some of the perks seem comically overpowered. That’s probably a good thing because anyone that’s maxed out the base game’s levels is probably playing in a manner that’s less serious and more experimental. It’s all about flying judo kicks and bunny-hopping into undead crowds rather than trying to stay alive.
Dying Light: Enhanced Edition will be a free update for owners of the base game on February 9th. A bundled Enhanced Edition of the game will be sold at retail that includes the Season Pass content.
Techland posted the puff-piece video above to crow about the level of support they’ve given their game since launch. Not only have the developers worked on patches and DLC included in the Season Pass, they’ve added freebies for all the regular owners of the game. Gold tier weapons! Special events! Costumes! New Modes! It’s all good stuff which is a nice reminder that CD Projekt RED aren’t the only guys giving away free updates to their games. The interesting part of the video comes right near the end when Techland teases what appears to be a dune buggy idling near some wilderness. Dying Light is already the best zombie parkour game ever. Can it become the best zombie parkour 4×4 game?
Those aren’t glitches. The super-powered punches and kicks you see in the video are benefits of contaminated batches of Antizin, the anti-zombie drug in Dying Light. As a special event for April Fools’ Day, players will receive mega-boosts to the their melee attacks throughout the day. The effect will only last for the holiday, so be sure to use your powers wisely. Punch everything!
All undelivered Antizin crates have been destroyed, and we would like to assure the survivors that untainted drops will resume as of April 2nd. We urge all the survivors to use extreme care when exhibiting symptoms of the contaminated Antizin injections.
According to Techland, players have already killed 378 million zombies in Dying Light.
It’s not in slow motion, and it isn’t being played backwards, but Techland’s Christmas advertisement for their upcoming zombie survival parkour game, Dying Light, is short and sweet.
