Dying Light: The Beast is set to expand the series into a trilogy and will answer some burning questions in the process. Whereas other games in the franchise have embraced branching storylines, Dying Light: The Beast will bring some clarification to the table, tying up loose ends and setting a new narrative precedent.
Dying Light: The Beast will combine new and old ideas, delivering a fresh experience to fans while refining what worked in past games. In particular, not only will The Beast bring fans to an all-new wilderness setting in the Castor Woods, but it will also see original protagonist Kyle Crane return to the playable spotlight—albeit reshaped by a new drive for revenge. Among these new takes, however, will be a focus on setting the story straight for the larger franchise. The Best War Games sat down with members of the Techland team, including franchise director Tymon Smektala, to discuss how The Beast will definitively establish a canon for the IP moving forward.
Dying Light: The Beast Dev Reveals 10 Gameplay Details You Might've Missed [EXCLUSIVE]
The Best War Games speaks with Dying Light: The Beast's Techland about gameplay details, hidden mechanics, and world-building touches fans might have missed.
How Dying Light: The Beast Will Reveal The Series' True Canon
Burning Questions About Dying Light
Any game that allows players to make narrative choices, especially if those choices result in different endings, will have fans trying to figure out what aspects are 'canon'—the narrative answers intended by a game's developers, the ones that will be acknowledged moving forward. When it comes to Dying Light, there's a veritable smorgasbord of questions players have when it comes to canon. Whether it's the canon ending of Dying Light 2 or the original game's The Following DLC, players frequently find themselves debating narrative questions around the series.
When discussing the question of Dying Light: The Beast's story, Smektala spoke on the game's nature as a definitive junction point. According to Smektala, The Beast will tie up the many loose ends lingering in the series:
"We wanted Dying Light: The Beast to set the canon for the universe, solving some unresolved threads from previous games and setting the series for the future—that’s why we decided to go with a linear story, over which we have full control. This doesn’t mean we’ll not have a branching storyline in the future, though if we do—I’m sure we’ll use everything that we’ve learned from Dying Light 2: Stay Human to make the choices more impactful, clear, and direct."
Furthermore, Smektala also went on to discuss the exact questions Dying Light: The Beast will answer, without revealing too many specifics. Smektala spoke on the weight of questioning the dev team has been under over the years, and how The Beast will set things straight: "It’s very easy to identify these questions as these are exactly the same questions that you have to answer, squirming like an eel, at every possible opportunity, every meeting with the fans and every meeting with the media. I answered—or had to avoid answering—the question of 'what’s the canon ending of The Following' probably thousands of times in my professional life. It had to end one day."
Smektala continued,
"Now trying to come up with answers to these questions—that’s much more difficult. As most developers do, we have our own internal documents which describe and chronicle the history and details of the world much deeper than what players see in games, so we “just” had to take that knowledge and beef it up with details, but the real fun (or horror!) Is to determine if these are the answers that will make our players happy."
While Smektala doesn't get into anything that would spoil the upcoming Dying Light: The Beast, he does call out The Following in particular. The Following DLC has two main endings and one secret ending, with many fans seeing the Infected Option as the implied ending—something corroborated by the presence of Kyle Crane in The Beast, as he wouldn't have survived the nuclear blasts in The Following's other endings.
Dying Light: The Beast
