While Dying Light has always been a game that prioritized melee combat, the original title had also given players plenty of guns to play around with, and franchise director Tymon Smektala has said that Dying Light: The Beast will be no different. In an interview with GamesRadar, Smektala spoke about the “complicated” relationship that the franchise has had with guns, since they’ve often been overshadowed by the melee combat ever since the first Dying Light.
“If Dying Light and ‘guns’ were on Facebook, their relationship status would be ‘it’s complicated,’” said Smektala in talking about the role firearms have traditionally played in the Dying Light franchise. He noted that the studio had found it relatively easy to add guns to a player’s arsenal when it made the first Dying Light thanks to its experience with the gun-centric combat in Call of Juarez. However, the studio ultimately had players asking “why did you even bother to have the guns there?” since the melee combat of the game was considered so much fun.
This, Smektala said, led to the decision to forego guns entirely for Dying Light 2 Stay Human. However, this led to another problem, with Smektala noting of the feedback for the title being: “and the first thing we heard after release was ‘but where are the guns?’” Dying Light 2 Stay Human would also end up getting guns added to its player arsenal through updates and DLC.
With the upcoming Dying Light: The Beast, Smektala said that the studio decided to give players the choice between firearms and melee combat. This, however, also meant that the studio would then have to make sure that both styles of combat are balanced well enough to be equally viable for players. According to Smektala, “for Dying Light: The Beast we decided ‘OK, let’s give the players the guns if they want, but also let’s focus on the guns so they really feel on par with melee combat’.”
“Dying Light games were always games about finding your own solutions to problems,” Smektała explained. “Going where you want to go, but also finding your own solutions to problems. And right now we want the guns to be just another piece in your toolbox.” He noted that the choice between picking guns or melee combat “should offer the same kind of risk and reward level, but realized differently.”
Smektala had recently also spoken about how Dying Light: The Beast will not offer players a final choice that will bring changes to the ending. This, he noted, was because the studio wanted to keep a tighter control on the canon of the Dying Light franchise so that it could plan out future titles in advance. “When you give players choice, actually, to be fair, you shouldn’t be saying what’s canon and what’s not,” he said.
Dying Light: The Beast is being developed for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game will be out on September 19, with the PS4 and Xbox One versions slated for release at a later date.
