A decade after Dying Light came out in 2015, developer Techland is revisiting the zombie game with a major new update to refresh the game’s visuals and other elements–just don’t call it a remaster.

The “Retouched” update, as it’s called, launches on June 26. This update is focused on “squeezing out even more” from Dying Light, the studio said. “It’s not a complete overhaul or remaster,” the developer clarified, adding that the team has found new ways 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,” technical game director Grzegorz Świstowski said.

In the Retouched update, players can expect increased texture quality and upscaling for textures to help them look “sharper” and better overall.

Additionally, the “maximum level of detail range” in Dying Light has been increased from 260% to 340% in the view distance menu from the game’s settings. The studio is also adding new “8K Ultra shadow quality” and improved lighting for many surfaces. Surfaces that might have previously looked “flat” should not “really pop out and get depth.”

Check out some of the images in the gallery below to see the improvements.

Gallery

Beyond visuals, Techland said composer Paweł Blaszczak came back to “give the soundtrack a complete remaster” with a unique twist.

“He even recreated that retro-tape sound by actually recording on tape! Talk about dedication. It’s authentic, nostalgic, and absolutely fantastic,” Techland said, adding that the Retouched update will have new tracks and ambient sounds. Audio in combat has been “juiced up,” too.

“Every swing, every crunch, every zombie takedown will sound more satisfying, more impactful. You’ll feel those hits,” the developer said.

This Retouched update was first hinted at in January, and Techland said it took so long to realize because of the manual effort required.

“I basically walked through the entire map, looking for assets to be improved. And all of those had to be changed manually by our artists,” lead 3D artist Krzysztof Knefel said.

The Retouched update doesn’t require players to invest in new PC hardware, however, as Techland said it was important to keep the system requirements the same. The Retouched update is also available on PS4 and Xbox One, requiring Techland to test the game “endlessly” to ensure “we didn’t run out of memory” for those older consoles.

The Retouched patch launches June 26 and it’s free for everyone across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. While the Retouched update promises improvements on all systems, Techland said, “the level of changes may vary by platform,” but it didn’t dig into specifics.

June 26 is also the date that CD Projekt Red planned to release Cyberpunk 2077’s big new 2.3 update, but it’s been delayed. Techland and CD Projekt are two of Poland’s biggest developers, and fans of their games no longer have to decide what to play first on June 26.

Dying Light was followed up by 2022’s Dying Light 2. The next entry in the series is Dying Light: The Beast, which launches in August for console and PC.

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