Dying Light: The Beast was announced during the recent Gamescom Opening Night Live ceremony, where it stole the show for many fans of Techland's previous work. An 18-hour open-world zombie adventure, Dying Light: The Beast will see players once again take control of the series' first protagonist, Kyle Crane, though this time he has a wealth of new abilities thanks to the decade-long experiments he's been forced to endure.
But Dying Light: The Beast wasn't always a standalone game. In a recent interview with The Best War Games, Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektala discussed the origins of Dying Light: The Beast. He explained how a leaked Dying Light 2 DLC ended up bringing Kyle Crane back and becoming the fully-fledged game that fans recently laid their eyes on. In short, the combination of a prior leak with the DLC and the feeling that it should be Kyle Crane's story saw the game grow beyond its initial scope.
Dying Light 2: Best Blueprints To Upgrade
To help them along their journey, Dying Light 2 gives players access to tons of weapons and consumables.
How Dying Light: The Beast Went From Leaked DLC To a Standalone Release
Released in February 2022, Dying Light 2 had an ambitious post-launch roadmap planned out from day one. Techland's vision is to support Dying Light 2 for at least five years, which is still ongoing. This plan included immediate balance and performance patches, as well as plans for content drops much further down the line. In this initial roadmap for Dying Light 2's post-launch support, Techland promised that two paid story DLCs would be coming to the game, with the first one set to hit the sequel in 2022 and the second one initially planned for a 2023 launch.
While Dying Light 2's Bloody Ties story DLC would launch in November 2022, the sequel's second story DLC never materialized. For a while, it was rumored that Dying Light 2's second story DLC had outgrown its original scope and become a much bigger project, and Smektala essentially confirmed that during his recent interview with The Best War Games, saying,
[Dying Light: The Beast] started as a DLC for Dying Light 2, but fans were so eager to learn about the DLC that they managed to leak the story for DLC 2. This made us start thinking about bringing Kyle Crane back as a protagonist.
According to Smektala, Dying Light 2's second story DLC suffered a major leak some time ago, resulting in some very sensitive story details making the rounds online. This eventually led to bringing fan-favorite character Kyle Crane as the protagonist and expanding it into the full standalone title it is today. What's more, Techland is still giving Dying Light 2: Ultimate Edition players Dying Light: The Beast to fulfill its promise of DLC 2 - a notable consumer-friendly decision. While leaks can be detrimental to the development process, it seems Techland took it on the chin and looked to make it bigger and better than before. This, combined with the fact that it felt like Kyle Crane should be playable, all played their part in making this game its own entity. Now fans have a lot of surprises coming up, and Kyle Crane being back is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
How Dying Light: The Beast Has Been Shaped by The Community
But those leaks aren't the only way fans have ended up shaping Dying Light: The Beast. In the same interview, Smektala went on to discuss the importance that fan feedback has on Techland's development process, saying:
The feedback we received from Dying Light 1 and 2 changed the balance of gameplay elements that make up Dying Light: the parkour, the combat, and the day and night cycle. All of this has evolved based on player comments.
Techland has always listened very closely to its community, and it's great to hear that the development team has not only taken all of that feedback from the last decade on board but carried those lessons forward into Dying Light: The Beast. Hopefully Dying Light: The Beast ends up being the most balanced, mechanically sound game in the franchise when it eventually launches.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 76 /100 Critics Rec: 68%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- C-Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Dying Light
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5
