We recently went hands-on with the first North American preview event for Dying Light: The Beast during our appointment with Level Infinite to see their other lineup, including Exoborne. From roughly the beginning of Kyle Crane’s return to the world of Dying Light, we got to play out the first hour or so of the adventure, following his escape from captivity after a thirteen-year stint of experiments and inhumane treatment. While he wasn’t yet The Beast that this semi-sequel proves, the gameplay did show a meaner, more vindictive Kyle Crane who’s angry at the world. This is a man who still has his parkour instincts but isn’t shy about knocking a few heads around with a two-handed weapon, no matter if they’re human or volatile.

Granted, it was quite clear that Kyle Crane is still just about as effective as he once was in the first Dying Light, and taking on volatiles was asking for a death wish this early on in the adventure. During this session of Dying Light: The Beast, we got to experience small pieces of the Dying Light DNA, from the day and night cycle and the return of safe rooms with IV lights to keep the infected at bay (with a new feature to bolt and shutter windows). The demo even featured a short driving sequence to propel the story into an abandoned junkyard where a twelve-foot-tall infected giant calls his home, leading to a shootout and dance of death. The playthrough session ended with Kyle Crane making the decision to inject infected blood into himself after taking down that hulking behemoth, so there’s certainly no way that could backfire on the player, right?

Following my hands-on demo, we sat down with Tymon Smektała, Franchise Director for Dying Light. As a reminder, the game launches on August 22 for PC and current-generation consoles, with old-generation consoles also getting it, albeit later.

What was behind the decision to make Kyle Crane’s adventure its own standalone title rather than a DLC for Dying Light 2?

First of all, it makes sense because it’s Kyle Crane, right? And there is the whole origin story about how the project started. But actually, I don’t really want to go there, because right now at Techland we feel that this is a burden that we have to kinda carry on our backs and I think it makes our work a little bit more challenging because we now need to convince players.

But even though it started as something then, right now it’s basically the next Dying Light game. It just doesn’t have three at the end of it because we just don’t want to scare too many people that might be new coming to the franchise. But actually, we would like to lose that weight on our backs because even though everything starts as something, it evolves and changes. Over the last six months, we have kept adding and adding and adding to the game. Right now, it’s an extremely sizable game. The main story takes about 20 hours to complete and all the extra stuff, the side narrative, side mission, and open world activities, they easily double that.

Also, in terms of quality and implementation, side missions have cutscenes, they have quest design practically on the same level as the main story. The last time I played Dying Light: The Beast from start to finish was in April, and my save was 37 hours long of gameplay. So, it is a very proper experience. We have also improved the visuals a lot. Our in-house C-Engine in-house engine went through a number of iterations. Now, all the weather effects, the rendering of materials, lighting, shadows, and how the sun moves in the sky. All of those things are on a completely different level compared to Dying Light 2: Stay Human. One day, we realized we had a new game on our hands. That realization is also something that we would like to assume moving forward as a developer. Because both Dying Light 1 and 2 took seven years to make. We think that with a slightly different approach, with a bigger focus, we can release games more often. We are probably looking at a three or four year cycle, and I think that Dying Light: The Beast is the first step in that direction.

I understand why some players might think, ‘oh, it started as a small thing and now they charge full price, they just want to sell it as the next game.’ But it actually is, it is the return of Kyle Crane. The campaign is comparable to the previous games, and I think it really is the best Dying Light game we have ever made.

What makes this iteration of Kyle Crane so different from the first game?

There are two things. One is on a more mechanical level, which is obviously the beast-like abilities he gets access to. Aside from his regular survival skills, there’s a new progression skill focused on the beast mode and his beast-like abilities—those special superpowers that he gets from the experiments conducted on him by the guy named Barron.

The whole thing about the narrative is that you want to take revenge for those experiments. Narratively, I think Kyle Crane is much more seasoned. In the first game, he was almost like a mercenary who started the game being very one-dimensional. But then, as he went through the game, he started showing some additional colors. Yeah, I think he’s very colorful in this one. He really expresses a lot of emotions. He starts as this very bitter, a little bit frustrated character that was basically taken away from the world for a number of years.

He just wants revenge. But then he encounters people in the region of Castor Woods. He encounters communities. He starts interacting with them, and this makes him grow. This makes him open his heart to the people around him. It is a revenge story, but with a number of twists and times and I think the vocal performance of Roger Craig Smith is really phenomenal in this one because Roger is able to use the 10 years of additional experience as a voice actor for the same character that he did 10 years ago, except he’s more mature now.

Will this version of Kyle Crane be as nimble and agile as he was in the first Dying Light?

Generally yes, of course, but I don’t think nimble and agile are the best words, because yes, he’s able to go anywhere he wants, but I actually would like to avoid the word nimble because I think that’s one difference between Kyle and Aiden, the protagonist of the second game. Aiden was this young boy who was actually very energetic and nimble.

Kyle was able to use his parkour and go everywhere, but he felt more grounded and more physical. You could really feel like there’s a ton of muscles that are pulling the body on top of the rooftop. So, in terms of the feel of the animations, we are aiming at the same thing with Dying Light: The Beast. He’s quite a bulky guy. He’s able to go anywhere. But he does it realistically in a very physical, grounded manner.

With these superhuman abilities that he’s getting from defeating and injecting the Chimera’s essence into himself, does that enhance his jumping and running speed?

Yes. On the surface, you might think, okay, I just deal more damage. But you can also run faster and jump higher, even though we didn’t design his abilities to be used for traversal or solving environmental puzzles. Of course, we are playtesting the game constantly as the development progresses, and we have realized that there are a number of players who are using those abilities to maybe cheat their way a little into some of the environmental puzzles.

At first, we discussed in the studio that maybe we should limit that somehow, but then we said, “Why should we?” Those players were smart enough to come up with that solution, and games were always about freedom and liberty to do what you wanted to do. So we kept that in the game. Even though the majority of those abilities are focused on combat, there are a number of them that you can use to basically just be more effective with traversal.

Some of the Chimeras will be defeated as part of the story of Dying Light: The Beast, while others will be optional encounters players find in the world. What’s the breakup? Is it like 50-50?

I would say it’s very much skewed more towards the main story. We actually first thought that they would be like open world activities, but then we realized during playtesting that a number of players just go through the game and don’t look for anything outside the main story. We realized that a lot of those cool boss fights with Chimeras would be lost to players. They just wouldn’t know that they even existed. After some consideration, we decided to pull most of those Chimeras into the main story.

And I’m actually very glad we did that because some of those fights, well, hopefully all of them, but some have standout moments that we wanted all players to experience. So right now, the majority of the fights are there on the main story path, while some will just require you to maybe just be a little bit more observant of the environment.

Are there any breadcrumbs to guide the player towards these Chimeras, or will there be points on your map to keep an eye out for?

The general mindset for Dying Light: The Beast is that we don’t want to guide players too much. Of course, if you play the main story, there’s an objective. There is a dot on the compass that tells you where to go. But I think with the world we have created, a lot of the fun comes from discovering what’s in it and exploring it yourself. Of course, there are some icons on the map. There is an objective for the main story, but I highly encourage all of our players to get loose, start exploring, and start seeing what’s there in the world for them.

In open world games, there’s usually a diverse type of side content and quests. Are there any mission types that either are not returning for Dying Light: The Beast or are brand new?

Some of them, definitely. One thing that we are doing is bringing vehicles back, and there are a number of missions focused on vehicles, like I would say little races that you participate in. So definitely, that’s something quite new.

Not many people know this, but Techland was making rally games around 15 years ago. We have kept the developers of those games within the studio because they were very talented programmers in general. They always wanted to get back to creating vehicles and driving models, etc. The lead programmer working on the vehicles for this game was also the lead programmer for one of our oldest rally games. That’s why we decided to have a number of those additional activities around driving. Actually, I think there’s a potential for a zombie Carmageddon game in there somewhere, so maybe we’ll do that at some point in the future.

Looking at other content, we basically examined what worked and didn’t work in the previous games and then decided to cherry-pick the most interesting formats, tweak them, and update them.

Can you share any examples of what you did?

For example, save zones were a staple of the first Dying Light. We presented them differently in the sequel, which might have been a misstep. We went back to the blueprint of the first game but then added a number of small mechanics. For example, you can barricade the save zones using shutters, which is needed for the save zone to actually be able to function.

Is Kyle Crane any good at using a glider?

Nothing to announce at this time.

Alright. In the demo, we saw many military troops out there with plenty of guns. Is that a new focus on leaning more into military tech?

Generally, when it comes to firearms, I wouldn’t say that’s our focus, but we spent a lot of time and resources making sure that the guns feel right, sound right, and have the right animations. And when you shoot that enemy with a shotgun, he actually flies away as he should.

We wanted to make sure that guns are properly realized in Dying Light: The Beast, and I think we never really did that in any of the previous games. We had guns in the first, and we introduced them later in Dying Light 2: Stay Human, but they were never realized on this level.

All the military tech comes from the fact that the guy who controls the whole area owns a private army. So, yes, you will fight with them and you could feel that this turns into a military shooter type of game. But it’s definitely not predominant in the game. It is still a game that is very much zombie-centric. It’s very much a game where we present the different combat situations and challenges in front of you, and we give you plenty of tools to choose the one that you want to use to solve that problem in front of you. Melee weapons, ranged weapons, firearms, a number of accessories, or maybe even trying to turn the zombies against the Barron’s people and vice versa.

Will the firearms be as customizable as the melee weapons?

Not really. There are some systems that allow you to upgrade the guns, but you don’t craft the guns; you can just make them more effective, deal more damage, basically be upgraded.

Okay. Any changes to how the durability system works for melee weapons?

No. I know this is a divisive mechanic for players, but I think it’s needed for a survival horror game because these games work at their best when you feel fragile. And for you to feel fragile, we really need to have those moments where we take away stuff from you.

So it’s there, but you can repair your weapons, you can upgrade your weapons, you can scrap your weapons. Actually, we are introducing a crafting table in every safe zone where you can do a number of things to make them more effective in the next encounter.

Any plans or thoughts about bringing back ‘Be the Zombie’ mode?

It’s not going to be there at launch, but I think we, as Techland, have already proven that we are trying to be this developer that listens to our community. Right now we are just focusing on the proper launch of the game, but then we see where the community’s appetites are and we’ll start announcing our plans for post-launch support after the new releases.

With this iteration of Kyle Crane being so much more vicious and dangerous, how is the night still going to be a challenge?

It’s going to be a challenge in the way that if you play with headphones and it’s dark in your room, then you’re really going to get scared. We are not doing anything revolutionary with our night. We are just trying to execute the best possible version of our night. So, it’s properly dark. The flashlight just offers you a little visibility. There are those moments of tension where you just want to see what’s in front of you when you turn, but you don’t really know yet.

The Volatiles’ visual design and behaviors have been improved to make them even more gruesome and scary. What really helps us a lot is the new environment. In our prior games, you could use parkour to basically get away from any situation. But to use parkour properly, you need to have a city landscape with buildings to jump on. I think our players got used to the fact that they can use parkour every time they are surrounded to get away.

But when you are in the middle of the forest, like you take away the car from you, you can just run. You cannot really do all of those cool tricks that make the zombies fall behind. You can just run, and they run as fast as you, so I think the new environment adds a lot to the tension and pressure we put on the players during the night.

Are the new consoles helping you realize the visual fidelity you’ve wanted to?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it is most visible in the lighting, shadows, weather effects, and how we render materials. If you see a stone, it looks like a stone from real life. If you see a wooden table, it looks like a wooden table from real life. So, the power of the current engine and then modern hardware is something that really adds to the visual fidelity. And I think fidelity is the most important word here because fidelity leads to immersion.

It was always a goal for Dying Light games to put you in the shoes of the protagonist, make you feel like you are part of this world and you have to survive in it.

Okay. And what are your thoughts on bringing Dying Light: The Beast to the Nintendo Switch 2?

I would love this to happen at some point, but nothing to announce at this time.

Which platforms will Dying Light: The Beast be available on?

The game will be available for PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and X on August 22nd, with old-generation versions to follow by the end of the year.

Will there be a physical release?

Not at launch, but we are considering some options, maybe approaching it more from a limited edition perspective. But for the full launch, it’s a digital-only release.

To wrap things up, is there one thing you’re so passionate about that you don’t want players to miss?

Keep your eyes open for the details. It is a very detailed world, with everything you will encounter, including how the zombies look, how the weapons look, and how they behave. The locations, the interiors, the apartments, and the buildings you visit. All of those things are full of details, so please appreciate those details. Stop for a second. Look around you, and I think you’ll be amazed at how much work and passion have been put into this project. One tip for players who will be stepping in fresh without the knowledge of the previous games.

Don’t mistake this for a mindless hack-and-slash against zombies type of game. This is a game of smart survival. This is a game where you have to use your brain to survive, to complete what’s in front of you. So don’t play it mindlessly, just try to focus, try to get into the groove.

What’s the best way for players to understand the story of Kyle Crane before going into this?

We are actually doing a lot to import them properly. If you have never played a game before, a very nice summary will play at the beginning of the game. But we have also made a lot of conscious narrative decisions to feed you the information in a way that you don’t get overloaded with stuff, but you’ll be properly able to understand everything that happens around you.

Thank you so much for your time.