Techland is bringing players back to Harran after a decade with a surprise free content update for the original Dying Light, titled the Retouched update.

Starting June 26, 2025, the thousands of fans who never stopped playing the 2015 zombie parkour classic will experience significant improvements across the board. The Dying Light: Retouched update delivers visual upgrades, a remastered soundtrack, and other refinements for players on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. IGN reached out to Techland about a possible Nintendo Switch version of the Retouched update.

So let’s clarify: the Retouched Update is about extracting even more enjoyment from the Dying Light you already love.

It’s an exciting moment for fans of the original Dying Light, but Techland wants to be clear—Retouched isn’t a remaster. Franchise director Tymon Smektała said this update focuses on enhancing the original experience without changing its system requirements.

“When I checked online the day after [the update was announced], my heart skipped a beat. Many of you were expecting a full remaster,” Smektała wrote in a new blog post. “So, let’s set the record straight: the Retouched Update is about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love. It’s not a complete overhaul or remaster.”

Players can look forward to improved textures, lighting, and shadows. You might spot finer details on wooden fences or more realistic light reflections on metal surfaces. Techland is particularly proud of the new depth and realism in floors and cement walls, sharing images of stone paths that now feel more tactile.

Dying Light: Retouched - Screenshots

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On the audio side, original Dying Light composer Paweł Blaszczak returned to rework the entire soundtrack. Every track has been re-recorded on tape for Retouched, with new music, enhanced ambient sounds, and remastered hit reaction audio included in this week’s update.

“A lot of you have asked over the past few months where the Retouched Update was and why it took so long,” the post continued. “The honest answer? We were working with over 10-year-old technology. Even with all the experience we’ve gained since, figuring out how to apply modern improvements to the original Dying Light engine while maintaining stability was a real challenge.”

The Dying Light: Retouched update isn’t Techland reviving a forgotten game—it’s a thoughtful surprise for a title that has endured. Despite SteamDB showing a peak of just 45,876 players, the original Dying Light has consistently maintained around 12,000 players over the last year. Those numbers are impressive for a zombie game built mostly around single-player content, especially when considering Dying Light 2: Stay Human, which launched just three years ago and usually struggles to break 10,000 players.