Dying Light: The Beast is making some big strides to ensure the mark that it leaves on the franchise is one that will be felt and remembered long after its credits roll. It wields many tools to accomplish exactly this, but one of the main ones is protagonist Kyle Crane's Beast Mode—a familiar system, but with a survival twist.
The Best War Games recently spoke with Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektala and game director Nathan Lemaire to get a closer look at what Dying Light: The Beast's Beast Mode truly is, and the answer turns out to be a lot more nuanced than some might have anticipated. What on the surface looks like a standard power surge quickly spirals into something unpredictable, narrative-driven, and tied to the way players experience Kyle Crane's journey, as well as the world around them.
Dying Light: The Beast's Beast Mode Is Hiding a Whole Other Game
The best action games are no strangers to what is normally labeled a "fury mode," which temporarily empowers the player character in some way. The mechanic often increases the character's damage output, makes them invulnerable, or prevents meters like health, stamina, or magic from depleting for a short period. At first glance, Dying Light: The Beast's Beast Mode might seem like its own version of that, but Smektala had a few things to say in clarification:
"It's actually more complex than you might think. On the surface, it's just a "fury mode," something players know from a number of other games. Beast Mode can be charged by dealing and receiving damage, but we also have a number of small mechanics hidden under the hood which allow it to be triggered in situations where it can create powerful, memorable moments — e.g. During a chase. For example, at the beginning of the game, players have limited control over when the Beast triggers, so it can surprise you and trigger in moments where you don't really expect it. Later, players grab the reins themselves, so it's easier to use some of the Beast abilities, and then you discover there's a number of them centered around traversal, which helps you to solve environmental puzzles and reach locations which are hard to get when in human form."
The key to Dying Light: The Beast's fury mechanic setting itself apart from the crowd is not in what it is capable of, but in how it evolves as players progress. Typically, when a game's fury mode is introduced, it is done so cinematically, with the character suddenly becoming enraged and having no frame of reference for what is happening to them. After that initial moment, however, the mode can usually be triggered at will by the player, as the character quickly learns how to control it. In Dying Light: The Beast, on the other hand, that moment will not only happen more than once, but it will even extend beyond cutscenes and interrupt regular gameplay. Smektala continued:
"Remember that Dying Light: The Beast aims to be a survival game — maybe not the most hardcore on the market, but definitely one that treats the topic seriously. So how do you inject these moments of almost untamed, explosive power into the gameplay loop? It really took us a lot of time to balance all of the parameters of the Beast Mode in a way that keeps the experience demanding yet gives players these overpowered moments of cathartic release."
Dying Light: The Beast Turns Chimera DNA Into a Progression Pillar
Balance really would be the primary goal in designing Dying Light: The Beast's Beast Mode, since it is built to be a core part of its survival gameplay experience. Yes, Kyle Crane is surviving as he fends off hordes of Infected, but he is simultaneously trying to outlast the irregular rage of the beast within him—to tame it and bring it under his dominion. The key to that balance, then, would be ensuring the experience makes the player both a second-hand witness and a first-hand participant in Crane's evolution and survival. Lemaire shed some light on how this will all translate into gameplay:
"There's a nice narrative explanation for it, but in simple "game terms," Kyle kills Chimeras, which gives him Beast skill points, which he can spend on new Beast abilities to use in Beast Mode. We have both combat and parkour abilities to support our core pillars. The agency players have over Beast Mode also evolves. At the beginning, it is something Kyle cannot control. By harnessing the DNAs of Chimeras, he will eventually be able to, changing the whole perspective on how players will use it."
Given Dying Light: The Beast's subtitle, harnessing the power of Crane's new fury mode will no doubt be a standout aspect of gameplay, but it seems the full extent of it will come down to how often players are willing to engage with Chimeras. It could be that every Chimera that players encounter in Dying Light: The Beast is tied to a major narrative beat, but that seems unlikely in light of how the series has handled each game's open world in the past. Regardless, Beast Mode's earliest hours will put players into a demanding tug-of-war match that they won't be prepared for until they finally take the reins and activate it at their leisure.
Dying Light: The Beast
