Developer Techland has found a way to breathe new life into a long since shelved title named Hellraid by including it in Dying Light as its latest DLC.
Developer and publisher Techland’s suspended hack and slash title Hellraid is finally getting its moment in the sun, just not as originally intended. The first-person action game is being reintroduced to the world as the final paid downloadable content for Dying Light.
Techland included a short teaser trailer with their announcement, followed by a sneak peek at what Dying Light: Hellraid has to offer. The DLC is slated for release on July 23, 2020, for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Dying Light – Hellraid is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One on July 23, 2020!
Want to get a sneak peek into our development progress? Pre-order the DLC on Steam and join the time-limited weekend beta!
Learn more => https://t.co/iHI0CRfEcy pic.twitter.com/dX0zQtLxkM— Techland (@TechlandGames) June 26, 2020
Hellraid lives on in Dying Light
Just as how it was announced back in 2013, Dying Light: Hellraid will be a first-person fantasy hack and slash game with horror undertones, that takes place in the Hellraid universe.
Not much was shown in the DLC’s initial 35-second teaser trailer beyond a demonic arcade cabinet that appears out of a crimson portal somewhere in what looks like Rais’s Headquarters.
Techland dropped a second trailer last week, showing off some of Dying Light: Hellraid’s environments and combat, which bear quite a resemblance to what the developer showcased in E3 2014.
In an email correspondence with gaming publication Gamespot, Ola Sondej—Techland’s senior PR Manager—explained how the studio wanted to somehow bring a part of Hellraid to their community, despite the original title still being on indefinite hold.
Sondej also confirmed that Techland has no plans on restarting Hellraid’s development, as the developer has its hands full with Dying Light 2 and an upcoming new intellectual property.
Hellraid’s rocky development
Hellraid was initially intended as a mod for Techland’s zombie action-RPG Dead Island but was later parlayed into a standalone game with the working title Project Hell.
The hack and slasher was officially announced in April 2013 and was scheduled for release within the same year. Hellraid was described as an amalgam of the RPG elements found in Dead Island and The Elder Scrolls series, as well as an ode to 90s horror shooters like Vexen and Witchaven.
https://twitter.com/GameFly/status/395597157530877952
Unfortunately, Techland’s supernatural action game never quite got off the ground, as it was first delayed to be rebuilt on an updated game engine, then subsequently shelved indefinitely after failing to meet the developer’s expectations.
Dying Light: Hellraid may not be the release it was originally intended to be, but mixing Dying Light’s mechanics with Hellraid’s vision may just elevate it to heights greater than initially envisioned.
Featured image courtesy of DyingLightGame/Twitter