As noted on Steam, some of these improvements include a reworked armory which includes all of your Hellraid items and weapons along with an “Inspect Weapon” option. The Deathbringer, which looks like a Super Shotgun straight out of DOOM, can also be unlocked by completing a new weapon bounty. New Crystal consumables, each offering different buffs at a price, are also coming. You can also purchase wants and the Shock Bearer for use in the main game.

By using Weapon Remnants from the Hellraid chest, players can craft 13 Hellraid weapon blueprints. Various balancing tweaks, economy changes, bug fixes and “other general changes” can also be expected so stay tuned for the full patch notes. Dying Light: Hellraid’s final update is out on May 5th.

In that, the very fact that Hellraid even exists is a pleasantly surprising one- you don’t often see developers adding new content to a game that came out half a decade ago, especially when they’re working on a sequel for it as well. Meanwhile, the fact that Hellraid also gives us a brief look at Techland’s long-in-development fantasy looter slasher with the same name is also a treat for those who’ve been looking forward to that game (and sadly, probably will have to keep waiting for a good while).

"The DLC is all about looting and slashing, and little else."

But beyond these conceptual reasons, when you actually get down to playing Hellraid, there’s a lot that gets in the way of enjoyment. Unlike other ordinary expansions, Hellraid doesn’t have much (if anything) to do with Dying Light. It retains some of the core mechanics, of course, but it’s set in a completely isolated setting, with a different look and style, and different objectives. You enter the world of Hellraid – a medieval, grim castle full of dark fantasy enemies an objects – through the arcade machine in the Tower, and once you do that, you’re in a completely different world.

Hellraid does have a pretty interesting look. Though its grim fantasy aesthetic isn’t necessarily something that you haven’t seen a hundred times before, it is completely different from the world of Dying Light, and so it does manage to carve out a place for itself in the game in interesting ways. But again, actually playing through Hellraid is a very static and dull experience. The DLC is all about looting and slashing, and little else. You progress through the multi-tiered dungeon, looking for pieces of the Clavis Stone to be able that will allow you to progress through each tier, and along the way, all you do is fight enemies, open doors, and loot the occasional treasure chest.

The enemies are, sadly enough, mostly just reskins of the zombies you fight in the base game, with very minor aesthetic changes to make them more aligned with Hellraid’s fantasy setting. Combat can be fun for sure, especially when you slice an enemy’s head clean off its shoulders with a slim blade, or crush a brute’s ribcage with a sturdy mace, but given how repetitive the DLC tends to become in its short duration with the enemies it throws at you, and how many of them it throws at you, combat soon becomes a tiring, mindless affair.

"The enemies are, sadly enough, mostly just reskins of the zombies you fight in the base game, with very minor aesthetic changes to make them more aligned with Hellraid’s fantasy setting."

It doesn’t help that, as I mentioned earlier, combat makes up the bulk of this DLC. Outside of that, there isn’t much else going on. In the time you spend outside of combat, you’ll be walking deeper into the dungeon, searching the corpses of your making, and looting treasure chests, while locked doors might occasionally force you to look for mechanical levers to open up paths to be able to continue progressing forward. None of it is particularly engaging, as you can probably imagine, and only adds to the DLC’s monotonous nature.

Hellraid does on paper have some interesting advantages, such as allowing you to unlock or buy strong weapons that you can use in the base game, but those benefits aren’t nearly enough to lend any mechanical depth to the experience. The weapons themselves don’t feel particularly strong, so you don’t ever feel like you have to get your hands on them, or else you’d be missing out on something exceptional, while they also break really quickly, which means they don’t stick around for long either. I know, of course, that all weapons in Dying Light do have to abide by the durability mechanic, but perhaps a rewarding the DLC’s players with a weapon that takes much longer to break would have made more sense, and incentivized more players to give it a try.

At its current price of $10, I also find it very hard to recommend Hellraid. It’s a fine, unremarkable piece of content, that only lasts less than an hour per each run through the dungeon, and these runs themselves aren’t exceptionally fun, which means you might not want to tackle them too many times- especially since there’s zero narrative here to make you want to invest any time in the exprience. A DLC such as this one should ideally have been free content, but even if the publisher did want to see it for a price, $10 seems a bit steep. If you’re absolutely intent on getting Hellraid, wait for a price drop.

"A DLC such as this one should ideally have been free content, but even if the publisher did want to see it for a price, $10 seems a bit steep. If you’re absolutely intent on getting Hellraid, wait for a price drop."

I was curious to get my hands on the Hellraid DLC, because clearly, the actual Hellraid project is something that Techland have been thinking about for a long time. There’s no telling when we’ll get to see them work on that full game, or if they will even get to it, but one thing’s for sure- this DLC doesn’t seem like a very good way to introduce players to its world. Nor is it a good way to follow up on Dying Light’s otherwise excellent post-launch support. If Techland do ever get around to making Hellraid, I sincerely hope they do a significantly better job than they did with this DLC.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

It may be five years since release but Techland continues to update Dying Light. The latest DLC to come to the first person action platformer is Hellraid, based on the developer’s on-hold hack and slash RPG. PC, Xbox One and PS4 players can get their hands on it now.

The story sees a strange arcade machine appearing in the basement at the Tower. Upon investigation, the player is dragged into a dark medieval fantasy world where they must assault Ba’al’s Tower and fight off a variety of enemies like skeletons. Instead of makeshift weapons, you’ll have access to swords, hammers and axes, which can also be used outside in Harran.

With four player co-op support and it’s own progression system, Hellraid should make for a decent diversion. Techland has also promised free content, collectibles, weapons, ranks and a bounty system for Hellraid with the first update out by September end. In the meantime, development continues on Dying Light 2 which is coming to Xbox One, PS4, PC, Xbox Series X and PS5.

Tis the season (or year) for delays and Techland is no stranger to them. After delaying Dying Light 2 to an unspecified point, the developer has recently announced that Hellraid, its upcoming paid DLC for the original Dying Light, has also been delayed. It will now release on August 13th for PC and August 14th for Xbox One and PS4.

In a statement on Twitter, Techland revealed that it had received “tons of great feedback” during the DLC’s beta. Since it’s “hell-bent” on applying players’ suggestions, it has delayed the mode to by a few weeks. Hellraid was originally slated to release on July 23rd so the new release date is technically not that far off.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Hellraid was the name of a first person hack and slash dungeon crawler. It had solo and co-op modes with the latter having one player as a Game Master that could create various obstacles and enemy placements against a team of other players. Due to its failure to meet expectations, Hellraid’s development was halted back in 2015 but it’s now back as a spin-off mode for Dying Light.

For more details on Dying Light: Hellraid, check out our interview with the development team at Techland.

We received tons of great feedback during our beta of Dying Light – Hellraid. Big thanks to everyone who participated! We’re hell-bent on applying your suggestions, so we will be launching the new game mode on August 13 for PC, and August 14 for consoles. pic.twitter.com/3rqp680b7P

— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) July 17, 2020

To learn more about it and what players can expect from it, we recently conducted an interview with its developers at Techland. The questions below were answered by Tymon Smektała (producer on Dying Light and lead game designer on Dying Light 2), Agnesa Belegu (game designer on Dying Light), and Mateusz Piaskiewicz (senior level designer and level artist on both, the original Hellraid project and the upcoming DLC).

"When the original game was released it wasn’t critically received as the phenomenon it ultimately became – and it was our community that jumped on the game right from the start and started showering us with signs of support. So this is us getting back at those guys, telling them they really gave us strength, so now it’s our turn."

It’s been over five years since Dying Light came out, so seeing the announcement of a major new expansion for the game has been a very pleasant surprise for its players. It’s rare to see a game get supported with post-launch content with so long – there’s even a sequel coming out, after all – but what has driven you to keep adding to and improving the game so long after release?

Tymon Smektała: For me it’s a matter of repaying all of the energy and support we received from our community. When the original game was released it wasn’t critically received as the phenomenon it ultimately became – and it was our community that jumped on the game right from the start and started showering us with signs of support. So this is us getting back at those guys, telling them they really gave us strength, so now it’s our turn. Also having such great community is a great help for a developer – being able to listen to so much valuable feedback about your game gives you great insight just waiting to be used for improvement.

Is this sort of prolonged and beefy post-launch support something we can expect to see for Dying Light 2 as well?

Smektała: Of course, this is precisely the plan. Dying Light 2 is already full of content that we want to have delivered on the release day. But we’re also planning to support the game for a long time after that, like we did with Dying Light – we have new ideas popping up almost every day. We know that our community is used to that and, as always, we will do our best to provide them with an unforgettable experience.

Speaking about Dying Light 2, can we expect to see it this year?

Smektała: My lips are sealed. There’s a great team working on the communication about the game and I don’t want to spoil their work for them.

Hellraid was first announced all the way back in 2013 and pitched as a cross between Dying Light and The Elder Scrolls. Now, after having been put on hold, it’s coming back as an expansion for Dying Light– how did the idea to revive that project as a Dying Light DLC come about?

Mateusz Piaskiewicz: Dying Light and Hellraid were totally different games. Hellraid was envisioned as a game closer to Hexen, Diablo or Dark Souls. Our dream was to create a full-on dark fantasy game with a gothic atmosphere. Hellraid, the game, is currently on hold, but we still wanted to share with our community at least a peek of what was done with the title. We are able to do that in this DLC because both Hellraid and Dying Light are based on the same technology.

"Dying Light and Hellraid were totally different games. Hellraid was envisioned as a game closer to Hexen, Diablo or Dark Souls. Our dream was to create a full-on dark fantasy game with a gothic atmosphere. Hellraid, the game, is currently on hold, but we still wanted to share with our community at least a peek of what was done with the title."

How much DNA does this share with that project exactly? Is it a case of executing those ideas as closely to their original vision as possible, or more a case of taking those ideas and philosophies and putting a new spin on them to accommodate them in the Dying Light universe?

Piaskiewicz: Implementing a game with such different DNA into Dying Light sure is a challenge. Because of the difference in both games, we decided to use some of Dying Light’s gameplay mechanics, and implement those of Hellraid’s that won’t interfere with the overall experience, and will simply match the gameplay. The key challenge was building a whole different world within Dying Light – the dark fantasy setting, the enemies, the weapons. The DLC is full of Hellraid’s original sounds and models. Dying Light – Hellraid will let the player experience a whole different dimension.

Can you talk about the new weapons that are being added to the game with Hellraid? Will they be in keeping with its fantasy tone, or more grounded to fit in the Dying Light universe, or sort of a cross of the two?

Agnesa Belegu: A mixture of the two. We have all the gear that a medieval knight could have asked for- swords, axes, maces, you name it. Some of these weapons were designed and crafted for the original Hellraid game. We loved their medieval style, rich with details of ancient craftsmanship, or just overall refreshing silhouettes, and wanted to, after all these years, give them to players via the Hellraid DLC.

What kinds of new enemies can players expect to run into Hellraid?

Piaskiewicz: Hellraid’s flagship enemy is the skeleton, and those will definitely be present. We will reveal more enemy types soon, but I can tell you there will also be a lot of firebolts flying around.

Roughly how many hours of content will Hellraid add to the base game?

Piaskiewicz: We decided early in development that one session – starting from entering the level to finishing it – shouldn’t be longer than 30 minutes. If our players decide to visit the world of Hellraid, they can be sure they will be able to accomplish something in the dungeon. For now, we plan on releasing one level, and the amount of time needed to explore it depends on how well the player knows the area. We created this level having a great amount of replayability in mind. Each time a player enters the dungeon, some spots on the map will be available while others won’t (i.e. blocked doors). This was an important part of the gameplay mechanic in the original Hellraid, and we wanted to incorporate it into the DLC. There is also one more part to the replayability – for coins you collect in the dungeon, you can unlock medieval style weapons you will be able to bring into the Dying Light universe, and slash zombies with a medieval axe!

"We decided early in development that one session – starting from entering the level to finishing it – shouldn’t be longer than 30 minutes. If our players decide to visit the world of Hellraid, they can be sure they will be able to accomplish something in the dungeon."

How big is the map compared to the base game, and how different is it, design-wise?

Piaskiewicz: The added level is linear just like Hellraid, but it will be very much randomized. It’s hard to compare this level to any of those from Dying Light. Our main focus was the duration of gameplay – we’re offering at least 30 minutes of slashing skeletors and opening numerous secret portals.

Have you given any consideration to porting Dying Light to the Switch?

Smektała: Switch is a machine completely different from PCs or Playstations/Xboxes so it requires a different approach, not only in terms of technicalities, but also things like controls, etc. Never say never, but we don’t have anything to share at this time.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X releasing in a few months, has the thought of bringing Dying Light 1 over to next-gen consoles crossed your mind?

Smektała: Crossed? Yes.  But right now, the whole studio is focusing on the things we already have on the table – first and foremost Dying Light 2.