Cut Content in Dying Light

In the timeline, between from its announcement in 2013 to 2015 before its release date, many changes and features in the process were either changed or removed from the final product. Many of these are most likely due to balancing or development reasons. Below are the many cut or changed features not present in the final game.

Changed/Modified

• Before the player character was settled on being Kyle Crane, originally the character was showcased as an Australian survivor named Ken; his default outfit was a gray shirt, short baggy pants, and black and white sneakers. The character was then changed to a survivor named Antoine, who had a French accent instead. A possible reason why Ken and Antoine were changed was because the two would later fold into their own separate characters, being Brecken and possibly. Rahim.
• Rahim's name in development was Rakim.
  • Rahim's hair previously had black spiked hair.
• While Jade's player-model was not shown during development, her accent was previously a British accent before it was later settled on a Turkish accent.
• Brecken's previous accent was American. Later in development, the accents between the player and Brecken were switched.
• Rais's name in development was Razor.
• Spike's model used to be him wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, tapped wrists underneath a grey short-sleeved shirt, black shorts and sandals. He was also bald and had a shaved beard.

• Rais's Men previously had a different appearance. Unlike in the final game which they are seen in black and gold clothing and armor, they had an orange and green set appearance. This can be seen in many pre-release screenshots and videos.
  • Rais's Men originally had their firearms early into the game.
• An alternate variant of the Volatile can be seen in one of the pre-release screenshots. They appear to be a harder version of the creature, and presumably would've replaced the early set of Volatiles when the player advanced in level. The arthropod-like mandibles are visible, but appear intact together and not open, and spike-like ribs are seen on the shoulders. Notably, they don't appear to have any visible sores susceptible to UV light, which is the main weakness of a Volatile; this ultimately would've made them extremely hard to kill and resort the player to emphasis on escaping more likely.
• When using melee weapons, they had a longer drawback when attacking, and giving out a rather meaty animation.
• The Grappling Hook previously would take a bit before the player is hoisted to the grappled area.
  • Two placeholders for the hook were a Hunter's Machete, and a Military Throwing Knife.
• When you get grappled by a Biter, you were able to preform an instant kill on them. In the final game, you were able to kick or punch the Biter off of you instead of killing them. This may've changed due to having the stun-kill as an unlockable ability instead.
  • When you preformed the knee head-smash, the Biter's head didn't explode to pieces like it does in the final product.
  • When you preformed the jump-elbow attack, the Biter would look up at the player's elbow before they are killed.
• When stunning enemies with blunt weapons, the enemy's skeleton while stunned showed a section of the bones in red where you hit the enemy. In the final game, the skeleton shown while stunned showed a section of the bones shattered instead of glowing red.
• The German 9mm Pistol rear sights were more pointed and different before.
• When the player used a bladed weapon while preforming the Drop Attack ability on a Biter, it didn't cause a large hole in the Biter's chest. However, this was changed when the Enhanced Edition was released.
• The wind physics appeared to be much more windy than in the final game. This may've been toned down due to hardware limitations.
• Demolishers were originally going to appear in the Slums area, including a specific spot where a Demolisher would've broken out of a wall.
• Prior the implement of the flashlight tapped onto the player's shoulder, there was a pre-release screenshot of the player holding a handheld flashlight.
• There were previously additional appearance variants for the Goon. They can be seen in green, yellow, and white suits; the white suits appeared to be like the Forever Foundation scientists.

• Certain animations have been changed in the actual game.
  • The Vault animation previously was more realistic, where the player could see their hands, legs, and their weapon in hand while vaulting.
  • The Whirlwind animation previously appeared to be more out of control, rather than precisely straight, when preforming the ability against nearby enemies.
  • Prior to two-handed weapons having the horizontal swing animation when attacking, they had a vertical swing animation when attacking. Although the vertical animation is still present in the game, this can only been seen when the enemy is on the ground or when the player attacks while jumping.
  • Throwing weapons had a horizontal throwing animation instead of it being vertical.
  • The Tackle animation previously had the player using his right elbow and arm to tackle, instead of the player's both arms in a criss-criss animation.
  • When the player sprinted with a baseball bat, the bat can be seen held in the player's hand when running.
  • The animation when you stomp on a biter's head was quicker, and the stomp was on a left tilted angle.
  • The Power Attack ability was also quicker, having the player instantly swinging down the weapon upon any nearby enemies. In the final game, the attack is more slower and Crane can be heard yelling when slamming it down.
  • When the player landed on a weak roof or a wooden box, the animation had the player looking down at the ground before looking back up and resuming.
  • When using a pole, the player would slide all the way down instead of climbing down.
  • When landing on a pile of sandbags, the player would kneel down upon landing on it.
  • Opening up Airdrops had the animation slower than in the final game.
  • The Night Hunter's pounce animation had it killing the player by pounding at his chest and tearing out his internal organs.

• Night-time gameplay has been modified from the final game.
  • Previously, the Day and Night cycle duration would change very quickly. This has been changed so that the cycle would last longer before changing; day-time lasts for 60 minutes, while night-time lasts for 10 minutes.
  • It seemed that the night-time gameplay had more emphasis on stealth. For example, turning on the flashlight or making loud noises such as running would attract attention to the infected, thus they would begin to follow you. In the final game, this doesn't seem to apply as the infected, oddly, neither react to light or loud noises, including the Volatiles.
  • When you got spotted by a Volatile, it would instantly chase you once they see you, unlike in the final game where they have a detection meter which instead it takes a couple of seconds for a Volatile to recognize you before the chase begins.
  • The chase music was different compared to the final game. Previously, it was the Escape track that played throughout the chase; there were two versions of it however, one with more drums and one with less drums which can be heard for the Extraction chase sequence. In the game, the Escape music was replaced with a different track that can be heard while you are being chased.
  • Before the overhaul to the parkour mechanics, Volatiles would spawn in random areas while being chased such as them breaking out of doors, or waiting inside rooms.

• The car trap's placeholder was a Sedan model that resembled a Lada 2103 and Skoda from Techland's Dead Island.
  • Originally, the older-looking sedan had black windows and looked more squared.
  • Ambulance vans previously appeared as white with blue and red striped designs on it. The van's side captioned "Emergency Service Ambulance" with a Caduceus design and a 112 phone number.
• Originally there was a different blood texture from enemies when attacking, appearing to be more realistic. In the final product, the blood texture now has a red mist included, and overall has a more "Tarantino" appearance to it.
• Antizin (then titled Suppressants) was initially set and shown to be one of the items able to retrieve from the Airdrops.
• When using your Survive Sense at night, the infected would flash in red instead of orange, and the sense would make a "dun" sound instead.
  • When playing Be the Zombie, the Night Hunter nests were flashed in yellow when using the Sense.
• Abilites used to have a recharge time after using them. Examples of this were the Vaulting, Grapple, and Dropkick abilities.
• The HUD appearance had went through changes during development. In 2013, the HUD is shown having the weapon and equipment icons at the top left corner, the map on the bottom left corner (the map would also be colored in red when the player is spotted by enemies at night with the detection meter and health bar around it, and the objective colored white on the middle right. In 2014, the HUD has a new map on the top right corner, with the objective now in orange underneath the map, and a new health bar shown at the bottom left corner.
  • The mission notification had a different design in orange and grey, with the time underneath the notification icon.
  • The near-death screen was red instead of black and white.
  • There were two stamina bars in the middle, the left being Agility in gold, and the right being Power in orange. This was changed where the Agility was blue and the Power was yellow.
• The base game had rankings for the leveling system, one shown as Newcomer as presented when saving a survivor.
  • A success bar appeared after saving survivors from the infected, as shown in the E3 2014 showfloor gameplay.
• The Spiked Collar blueprint had six metal rings around the baseball bat with the nails implement into the bat.
• The search animation when looting off of the bodies was previously different and slower, more akin to Ubisoft's Far Cry 3's search animation.

Cut/Removed

• One of the recognizable Biter variants removed from the game was a hijab-wearing biter with a pale face and blackened eyes. There were shown primarily in pre-release screenshots and videos, until 2015 just before the release date that these variants were removed from the game. This may've been the case due to avoiding any controversy with Muslims.
• One of the features appeared to have been cut from the game were choices having different consequences, and the game reacting to the player's decisions.
• According to an article on Polygon, there was said to be a reputation system when completing side missions and assisting survivors. This would make the player recognized in the game, survivors becoming more helpful as a result, and weapons in shops becoming more cheaper to buy.
• Certain abilities have been cut from the game.
  • Having to use melee weapons for the Takedown ability was cut; an example shown was when the player used a Military Machete to decapitate a Biter from behind. In the final game, the ability consists of the player simply snapping the Biter's neck from behind. A presumable reason why this may've been removed is due to similarities with Dead Island, especially at the time when Dead Island 2 was in development when the game was being showcased.
  • In pre-release screenshots, dual-wielding was seen used by the player and Rais's Men. Two screenshots of this are the player dual-wielding a German 9mm Pistol and a Boning Knife against biters, and a bandit dual-wielding a Military Machete and a Brass Knife against the player. This may've been removed due to balancing.
  • One ability cut from the game was the player being able to tear out of the heart of a Biter from its chest. This may've also been removed due to balancing.
  • The ability for the player to preform a wall bounce was removed from the game.
  • The ability to quickly quickly turn around 180°, similar to Mirror's Edge, was also cut.
  • An ability for the player to push back a Biter when grappled was cut. However, this can be re-added through mods.
• During development, many firearms have been cut from the game. This may be due to balancing, or possible restoration for DLCs. For more information, visit the Firearms page.
• When killing a Bomber up close, the player was able to get sprayed in guts from the Bomber's explosion. This can be see in the E3 2014 Showfloor gameplay.
• In the Be The Zombie trailer, there were some player models cut from the game, one of them being a character in a gas mask. In some aspects, these player models, while they are Crane, do resemble Rais' Men.

• Certain animations have been also been removed from the game.
  • The animation where the player would raise his hands up in surrender when at gunpoint sees to be, oddly, cut from the game.
  • The animation where the player blinks after getting Toad phlegm in their eyesight was also cut.

Videos

• 12 Minutes of Dying Light Gameplay
• Dying Light - Night-time Gameplay Walkthrough
• Dying Light Early Build DEMO Mirror's Edge Meets Dead Island!
• Dying Light - E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer
• Dying Light - gamescom 2014 Gameplay Trailer
• Dying Light Stage Demo - E3 2014
• Dying Light Gameplay Demo - IGN Live Gamescom 2014

Gallery

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  Screenshot of the player dual-wielding a handheld flashlight and a Brass Knife against a Biter.

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  Screenshot of the player killing a hijab-wearing Biter with a Military Machete.

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  Screenshot of the player's animation of surrendering at gunpoint by Rais's Men.

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  Screenshot of the pre-release Volatile.

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  Screenshot of the player sneaking behind a group of Rais's Men holding down hostages.

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  Screenshot of Rais's Men under attack by Biters.

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  Screenshot of player dual-wielding a German 9mm pistol and a Boning Knife against a group of Biters.

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  Screenshot of a Demolisher in the Slums

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  Screenshot of the Tower's residence planning on a table while the player holds a coffee mug.

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  Screenshot of the player appearing to be preforming either a wall run or a wall bounce.

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  Gif of the Grappling Hook in use and the horizontal throwing animation when using a throwing weapon, as see in E3 2014.

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  Gif of the German 9mm Pistol seen in E3 2014. Note the different appearance of the gun compared to the final game.