The first Dying Light had a plethora of Easter eggs to be discovered. The Excalibur was a sword that you had to take out of a corpse-like King Arthur. You can enter ‘World 1-1’ by going through a chimney in Old Town, where the zombies resemble Goombas and you must jump on their heads to acquire Mario’s Tanooki Suit. The loot cave can be found in Destiny, Harry Potter’s bedroom, and Bates Motel. I’m sure there will be a slew of Easter eggs and mysteries in Dying Light 2 before long, but I’ve only spotted one secret task so far. It’s known as The Space Cock, and it’s one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen.
When you finally get at the Colonel’s stronghold in the game’s final hours, you’ll have the chance to have a look around before facing Williams. A little stairway extends around the corner from the Colonel’s room to some more residential quarters. A talking chicken in a cage can be found in one of them.
The chicken speaks in protracted bawks that sound like a guy imitating a lethargic chicken, but Aiden manages to grasp it somehow. It claims to be an alien who has been stranded here since the zombie outbreak began. According to reports, Earth was supposed to be the target of an alien invasion akin to Independence Day, but after everyone turned into zombies, the invaders chose to focus their efforts elsewhere. Our new chicken friend is stranded here as a result of this, and he’s asking you to assist him to get home by retrieving some parts.
Because you’ll be stuck in the epilogue at this point, you won’t be able to accomplish this side quest until the game is finished. After the game, you can swim out to the middle of the lake, south of the Central Loop, and find the components the chicken is looking for. You’ll also come upon the ruins of a sunken city, which you may be allowed to explore depending on your choices.
Return to the chicken, and he’ll teleport away, promising mercy when his species returns and leaving behind a blueprint for a special accessory called the Pan of Destiny, which is a frying pan that flies back to your hand when you throw it, similar to the boomerang costume effect introduced in Dying Light’s last Halloween event, Van Crane. It’s the only one-of-a-kind blueprint I’ve uncovered so far, and I’m not sure what it refers to.
What I do know is that the Space Cock is a payoff for a storyline that began in Dying Light: The Following’s expansion. Some people believe the Haran virus, or possibly the THV vaccine, was manufactured by aliens after discovering a submerged UFO in the countryside. In August of last year, a UFO appeared in Old Town as part of the space-themed Low Gravity event. Finally, the Space Cock explains what the aliens were up to.
If you only casually played the first Dying Light, you probably have no idea what an extraterrestrial invasion is. I’d mostly forgotten about the easter eggs in the first game, so the Space Cock was a bit of a shock. Zombies are one thing, but bringing in an alien storyline at the last minute – especially one as ridiculous as this – is, to say the least, a risky move.
Something tells me that we won’t see the Space Cock and his interplanetary pals again. I’m hoping that there are more easter eggs like this in Dying Light 2, but it’s possible that this is the only one of its kind.