Dying Light: The Beastis Techland’s next step for the acclaimed zombie-slaying franchise, which is set to leverage all the developer’s accumulated talent. The spin-off, which has also been thought of as Dying Light 3, builds on the parkour, combat, nighttime experiences, and player agency that have defined its predecessors, while also introducing new traversal options, environments, and a stronger focus on tactical gameplay and survival. Oh, and if that’s not enough,Kyle Craneis back.
Game Rant recently spoke withDying Lightfranchise director Tymon Smektala about everything revealed for the game so far. Three weeks ago, Techland gave fans an in-depth, 30-minute look atDying Light: The Beast’s gameplay, but it’s so jam-packed that even hardcore fans may have missed a few details. Others may have theorized but could not confirm how some features work. Game Rant can exclusively confirm all the details below, with Smektala adding more details on each and every single one of them.
Dying Light: The Beast 30-Minute Gameplay Trailer
1Decoys Can Be Combined for Advanced Tactics
Throwable distractions are making a return, but they function as more than just simple diversions. Instead, players can combine decoys with environmental hazards or enemy positioning to set up some surprisingly complex traps forDying Light: The Beast’s zombies.
“On the surface level, each one has its own, clearly defined purpose or purposes. For example, firecrackers allow you to distract them for a number of seconds, and you’re able to use that window of opportunity to go through or open a locked door. But at the same time, many have less obvious uses; firecrackers also allow you to move groups of enemies from one spot to another. On top of that, they can be combined with other tactics for better effect; e.g., you can draw a number of infected towards a group of hostile enemies (though firecrackers probably aren’t the best for this because humans do notice that something fishy is going on when they hear them) or throw firecrackers to an oil spill, igniting it, and setting enemies on fire.”
2Human Enemies Are Smarter and Deadlier
Human AI inDying Light: The Beasthas also been completely rebuilt, with smarter enemies that feel more threatening than ever. Players can now expect human foes to use cover, be more coordinated in their attacks, and even adapt in ways they wouldn’t in previousDying Lightgames.
“There’s a number of different human enemies, using both melee weapons and firearms, and variants of these sporting different behaviors or various levels of armor. The general split between zombies and humans is definitely in the favor of the infected, but this doesn’t mean we allowed ourselves to focus on humans less. Actually the opposite—coming from Dying Light 2: Stay Human, we had tons of feedback regarding the behavior of our melee fighters, and we tried to react to all of it when coming up with the new implementation in Dying Light: The Beast. For the shooters—we haven’t really touched that topic for close to 10 years, so there was a lot of homework to do, going back as well to our designs from the original Dying Light, and realizing how simple they were compared to current players' expectations. We basically had to build our shooting AI from scratch, but it really was a blast, pardon the pun. We’re still tweaking the knobs on these guys, but they’re already very capable, looking for cover, using group tactics and behaving like a proper private army should.”
3Combat Rewards Smart, Tactical Play
Combat inDying Light: The Beastrewards more thoughtful play, as resources are scarce and brute force can lead to players becoming overwhelmed. The game encourages players to use throwables, the environment, and even zombie camouflage to handle each situation carefully and creatively.
“The Beast is a game of smart survival, so even if you look at the screenshots and think, ‘oh, there’s a machete, there’s a zombie in front of it, so this must be about hacking and slashing’… think again. The bloody juiciness is there, but the fights are challenging, the resources are scarce, and sometimes it’s better to use your own set of legs to avoid combat than to run to it mindlessly. The tactical approach to combat is one of the aspects that makes Dying Light unique; it’s a game which allows you to combine melee weapons, ranged weapons like bows or crossbows, firearms, offensive and tactical throwables, and environmental kills to solve open world challenges in front of you. You can also leverage some of the unique aspects of the zombies themselves, e.g., if you kill one and smear yourself with its guts, you can cheat the senses of the others and sneak through them unnoticed.
4The Damage System Is More Gruesome Than Ever
Dying Light: The Beast’s damage system pushes goreto the limit, with a multitude of ways to slice, maim, and dismember enemies. Every cut, wound, and severed limb is now rendered with far more detail thanks to the game’s improvements.
“I think we have really overdone ourselves on this one as we took all of our gory experiences from the first two games, crossed them with the technical advancements of the newest iteration of our C-Engine, and crashed them against the rendering power of the current machines. There are a number of features that have been given significant improvements—there are more places (so-called “Gore Nodes”) on the zombie models where players can do damage. For the smallest ones, there’s 12 and it gets better. We have doubled the number of open wounds and deep cuts that the system can show on one singular enemy. We have significantly increased the number of visual representations of wounds and cuts (we call them “Gore Patches“) that can be placed in these “Gore Nodes.” We have increased the precision of our weapon arcs—trajectories that represent how the weapon slices—so now it’s possible to cut an enemy’s limbs in more places than ever. And, of course, all of the visual representations of cuts and wounds are rendered in all the g(l)ory of the current gen consoles and PCs graphical power.
5Zombie Reactions Are More Dynamic and Terrifying
Zombies inDying Light: The Beastnow react in unique ways depending on whether a weapon is blunt or bladed, with extra layers of unpredictability added through randomization. Flamethrowers, in particular, create some of the game’s most terrifying moments when zombies brute force their way through the fire.
“We vary the reactions to hits depending not only on the general weapon type—blunt/slashing—but also the weapon weight. It creates a quite unpredictable spectacle of violence in front of your eyes (especially when there’s a level of randomization, so the reactions are always different between consecutive hits). When it comes to reactions to the flamethrower, we discussed and balanced this a lot based on if and how long a zombie should be stopped by the initial reaction to fire. In the end, it’s rather minimal, which allows us to have really freaking scary moments where you fry a group of zombies with the flamethrower, there’s this beautiful cone of fire in front of you…and suddenly a zombie jumps out of it, Terminator-style, as he’s the one that didn’t yet die in the fire. When he grabs you, with his skin all burned, and you see his destroyed face 2 inches from you…this is how nightmares are made.”
6Lighting and Weather Build a More Immersive World
Dying Light: The Beastalso introduces some considerable changes to its lighting system, with dynamic sun positioning and weather effects that take the game’s realism to the next level. Of course, this is meant to make the game more visually appealing, but it’s also designed to alter the atmosphere of each encounter. Given how important day andnight are inDying Light: The Beast, this is sure to make the most out of every moment.
“The Beast brings a number of technical advancements, mostly focused around the feeling of immersion, and lighting plays a very important part in that. We rewrote huge parts of our rendering code for lighting and added some missing features—e.g., sun moving on the horizon. Combined with current gen solutions for material rendering, it makes the world much more believable. Oh, and the weather system got an overhaul as well, as we now support more different weather states than before. Wait till you see the foggy weather in the swamps.”
7Driving Feels Like It’s Been 20 Years in the Making
Vehicles inDying Light: The Beastbenefits from Techland’s history with racing games, and it shows in the physics and handling. The team devoted extra time to perfecting how zombies react to being hit by a vehicle, making each collision both brutal and satisfying.
“Not many people know, but Techland was making rally and arcade racing games almost 20 years ago, and one series—Xpand Rally—actually had a very competitive driving model, praised by the rally community, so it only lacked licenses for real cars to be remembered as fondly as the Colin McRae series. The lead programmer that works with his team on the driving model for Dying Light: The Beast was one of the key people involved in the production of Xpand Rally and other racing games we produced, so half-jokingly, we can say that the driving in Dying Light: The Beast was 20 years in the making. But one thing that makes our diving model truly unique is how well it handles hitting and driving over zombies. Sounds gruesome, but that’s something you don’t really get in your Forzas or Gran Turismos, right? We spent considerable time tweaking the physics of these interactions as well as the sounds that accompany them. Thwump, splotches, and squeaks were onomatopoeias we used most often in these discussions.”
8Chimera Boss Fights Are Full of Surprises
Chimera boss fights inDying Light: The Beastaren’t meant to be just about fighting stronger enemies with larger health pools. Instead, these battles consist of multiple phases with unique mechanics and cinematic finishers, making them primed to be the standout encounters in the game.
“Even though most—but not all—of the Chimeras are based on some of the special zombie archetypes we already had in the series, we spend a lot of time making sure that each fight feels unique. Chimera encounters are our boss fights, and they follow a classic boss fight template—each one is split into phases, and each phase brings a set of new behaviors to the enemy.
Chimeras Also Have Special Mechanics
“We also created special mechanics for Chimeras. Some can turn invisible, some will play hide-and-seek, and most of them can call in minions to make the fight even tougher. Almost all Chimeras have brutal, cinematic finishers that players can use to defeat them.”
9Beast Powers Can Be Used for Traversal and Puzzles
WhileDying Light: The Beast’s Beast Mode can certainly help in combat, its uses extend far beyond that. Over time, the power will evolve, giving players more freedom to control when it activates. Some Beast powers can even help solve environmental puzzles and access otherwise hard-to-reach areas.
“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 chase. At the beginning of the game, players have limited control over when the Beast triggers, but later they grab the reins themselves so it’s easier to use some of the Beast abilities, mostly the ones centered around traversal, to solve environmental puzzles and reach locations which are hard to get when in human form.”
10Castor Woods Is Full of Real-Life Human Touches
The world ofCastor Woods inDying Light: The Beastultimately feels alive because Techland packed it with handcrafted detail and personal touches. Some in-game objects, like the Lion-themed blanket, were actually inspired by the real lives of the developers themselves.
“We made sure Castor Woods feels lively and like a lived-in ecosystem by fully unleashing the creativity and talent of our artists. We gave our team just one direction: “Go through each and every square inch of the map and make sure it feels unique, handcrafted, and lived-in.” The team led by Katarzyna Tarnacka-Polito, our Art Director, treated this as a showcase of their skills, and they truly delivered. We also helped them from the tech perspective by optimizing the rendering, streamlining code, and freeing some additional memory resources for the environmental objects. What makes it really unique is the number of real-life objects that were added and rendered in the game—a good example is the Lion-themed blanket that you see in the safe zone in the gameplay. It’s a real item that belongs to Katarzyna’s grandmother! There are plenty of little stories like that in the environment and these human touches really make Castor Woods stand out.”
