‘Dying Light’ Enables Incredible New Player Abilities For April Fools’

The team at Techland appear to know that there’s no point in having an apocalypse without a sense of humour. Newly revealed DLC indicates that for a very limited period of time, things are about to get very strange in Harran.

A faux Public Service Announcement from G.R.E. TV (Global Relief Effort) has appeared on the official “Dying Light” YouTube channel. The announcement warns of a batch of contaminated Antizine in circulation, noting that those exposed may experience a number of side effects over the next 24 hours. The trailer proceeds to show off the augmented physics added to “Dying Light” via this brief April Fools’ DLC update.

Players melee attacks and physical hits will carry added weight, enabling them to punch zombies clear across the environment and kill them with a single blow. The video shows a player hammering the undead into environmental objects, smashing them into other unwitting zombies and launching them off rooftops and far, far across town. The “Dying Light” Twitter account notes that the April Fools’ DLC will launch on April 1 and be available for 24 hours.

Originally slated for release in late 2014, Techland made the decision to delay “Dying Light,” pushing its release into early 2015. Speaking to GamingBolt in January, Techland game designer Maciej Binkowski said the game was delayed due to a desire to innovate on gameplay.

“Above all, we believe the freedom of movement in our game will change what you expect from the genre, and we didn’t want to sacrifice any of its potential by releasing too early. We delayed because we didn’t want to stop before we can deliver what we aimed for and make ‘Dying Light’ the best experience possible,” he said.

The decision to delay the game would seem to have paid off, “Dying Light” has proven immensely popular with gamers and Techland itself has reaped the benefits of a regular post-release DLC schedule to the tune of 3.2M units in sales. According to VG24/7, “Dying Light” is already the most popular title in Techland’s history and no doubt benefited from avoiding the crowded holiday 2014 timeline of its original release schedule.