Techland tricked Dying Light fans with the promise of cutting-edge butcherery in Dying Light: The Beast, which releases August 22. The official tweet goes: “Raw savagery and visceral melee moves worthy of really feeling like a beast—the sins of the best possible way.”
This realm already has some hype and skepticism on the audience. The reply section is probably a very interesting mixture of anticipation and concern as to whether this new entry will really deliver after the almost bipolar reception Dying Light 2 entered; the players want Techland to step up.
Now, the spicy stuff with DL2 comparisons. The CEO of Darkinism threw down a deep critique: “Everything pretty much looks the same as dl2, why make it a new game instead of releasing it as dlc.” Oof. But then Nexus came back with an “explanation-out-of-desperation” style reply: “well considering this game literally runs on the dl2 engine.”
One more dagger comes from the Dead Island 2 comparisons: StarBreaker and veryzer got into an entire thread on how DI2’s gore system makes a clown out of Dying Light’s. “Dead island 2 was so much better at this with the GORE system,” states StarBreaker, while veryzer indicates, “I’m not asking for an INSANE system like dead island 2 but at least some kind of feedback would be nice.”
Then there’s a weapon wish list from Bahmacdavid373 for a Kusarigama (really really seriously would be nice). Jylan then designs some combat mechanics: “make the enemies stun and interrupt your attacks more often so we would have to time our attacks.” Somebody get this guy a job @Techland!
Then there’s the classic one: “Isn’t this just DLC?”. The Awesome Scientist said it “really does look a DLC” and would only pay $40 for it. Wesder went counter with “It is good enough for a ‘Free DLC'” which… damn, shots fired.
Random stuff:
– Paul Kelleher trying to finesse an early copy because his birthday’s August 21 (“Worth a shot in asking anyway 😂”)
– GRIMLOCK demanding an Indiana Jones crossover (???)
– Glitcher.616 screaming about FOV sliders as if their life depended on it
– Samantha struggling with achievements (relatable)
Techland is walking a tightrope here- they have to show this is different enough from DL2 to justify being a stand-alone game and at the same time retain what made people fall in love with the series. From the trailer, melee combat looks sick, but players want to see it translated into gritty, kill-or-be-killed gameplay.
One thing’s for sure: zombie slaughter aficionados can’t wait until August 22. Whether one is going to be a full win for being a DLC, whether the gore really does measure up to Dead Island 2, and whether the combat physics really have enough oomph to stand on their own as a soundtrack-backed-with-bass-filled groove…are questions soon to be answered.
Until then, there’s a wishlist link in the tweet, so hit that button in preparation for unleashing your inner beast this summer. But really, don’t expect to see Indiana Jones anytime soon- or unless there’s one more ace card up Techland’s sleeve.
