While Dying Light: The Beast is being seen internally at Techland as a proper new entry to the franchise rather than just a spin-off, it looks like the game will be going back on some of the narrative decisions that were made in Dying Light 2 Stay Human. In an interview with GamesRadar, franchise director Tymon Smektala spoke about these narrative decisions, and how Dying Light: The Beast will focus more on the fallout from the events of the original Dying Light.
“We wanted this to be a canon entry into the series,” said Smektala. “We’re looking back at what happened to Kyle Crane in the first game, and we want to tell the next chapter of the story.” He went on to say that Dying Light: The Beast is an attempt by the studio to “get back to what we know from Dying Light 1”.
A big part of this decision comes down to the ambiguity surrounding Dying Light protagonist Kyle Crane. Dying Light 2 Stay Human, for context, featured a completely new protagonist in a new setting. Crane’s fate, on the other hand, was left open to interpretation owing to the choices that could be made in the final missions of the original Dying Light and its The Following expansion.
Smektala revealed that Dying Light: The Beast will give us a clearer idea of where the series is headed next. A big part of this revolves around exploring the ultimate fate of Kyle Crane, and what his status will be by the end in order to lead in to a potential sequel.
“One thing that Dying Light: The Beast does is hint at the future of the series,” he explained. “We really wanted to make sure that at the end of the game, Kyle Crane is where we want him to be, so that’s why we decided to back down from the narrative choices of Dying Light 2.”
Dying Light: The Beast seems like it’s shaping up to be an earnest attempt by Techland to undo some of the mistakes that the studio believes it made with Dying Light 2 Stay Human. In an earlier interview, Smektala spoke about how the title “sacrificed some of the Dying Light DNA” in order to appeal to a wider audience.
“Our fans were telling us ‘that’s not it, that’s not what made you so special,’” he said, referring to the studio wanting to provide a more polished AAA experience with Dying Light 2 Stay Human.
“We want to deliver both,” he said. “We want to deliver the AAA quality, but at the same time, we want to deliver proof that our mojo is not gone, that our mojo is not there, and we know what makes Dying Light, Dying Light. And if players say ‘wow, this feels like Dying Light 1, and it looks so amazing, it’s such a polished game’, then I think we’ll be very, very happy.”
Dying Light: The Beast is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on August 22.
