One Of The Best Horror Games Still Has More Gas In The Tank

Gaming’s gold standard in post-launch support continues to spoil its fans over a decade after it first hit store shelves. And this time around, developer Techland says it’s all “about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love.”

Dying Light’s “Retouched Update” will be totally free for owners of the game starting June 26. As the name implies, it adds features and tweaks to make the 2015 open-world classic hold up even better than it already does. Improvements include a completely remastered soundtrack, better assets, textures, and lighting, and better draw distances. The result is a game that looks sharper and more modern overall.

Most impressively, these improvements will apply to all versions of the game, including the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Techland’s Technical Game Director, Grzegorz Świstowski, said these changes are possible because of constant improvements to its proprietary engine.

“One of the best things about working with your own engine is that the people building it are just next door,” Świstowski said. “Over the past couple of years, we've added, customized, and learned how to squeeze more from the tech we already have. One day, someone just started applying those learnings to some old assets - and it just clicked that we could do that across the whole game.”

A few of the examples shown on Techland’s blog post about the update show more detailed and realistic-looking materials in the environment. Wood planks have more clearly defined grain, metal surfaces reflect light more accurately, and ground textures and cement walls have more depth. Players with beefy hardware can also crank the maximum level of detail from 260% to 340% and ultra-quality shadows. The game’s lead 3D artist, Krzysztof Knefel, said the update “was a lot of manual work,” but the end product looks like it was well worth it.

The game’s sound design has also been retooled. The game’s original composer remastered the entire soundtrack and added new ones for particular scenarios. Developers say ambient soundscapes and gameplay effects have been punched up significantly to make sure hits and takedowns “sound more satisfying, more impactful.”

It’s impressive that Techland has repeatedly gone out of its way to update one of its oldest single-player games. But the work seems well worth it, as the title continues to endure through the years. Despite just passing its 10th anniversary, Dying Light somehow has more concurrent players on Steam than its well-received 2022 sequel. As recently as 2024, the game has received community updates, next-gen patches, huge expansion packs, and more. It’s a testament to how fun its unique mix of parkour and zombie apocalypse survival still is, and a glowing example of how post-launch support can muster up community goodwill.

If you’re thinking about a return to the city of Harran, it's a pretty good time to do so. The newest chapter in the series, Dying Light: The Beast, drops later this summer. “Retouched” is one of the first rollouts during what Techland is calling “Summer Of Dying Light.” The developer said that updates will roll out in the months ahead across all three games.