After the announcement for Dying Light: The Beast went live, Techland successfully baited the spoilers hype with the community. After many years of waiting, the Dying Light player base will finally find out what happened to Kyle Crane, and the answer will be delivered on the 19th of September. The Dying Light official Twitter account uttered something dark: “Tortured for years, you are finally out in the wild. And the moment you got out, you begin to do everything in your power so that the Baron pays for what he did to you. No matter the cost. Then, a bit of unease is growing within. What the hell is going on within you?” Pre-orders are now live, and the response of the community has been a very crazy mix of hype and mismatched gaming complaints.
And first and foremost-Crucial-would be Roger Craig Smith back as the voice of Crane. You shall consider it to be an important one. MaverikWerewolf captured the sentiment: “So glad you guys brought Crane back (specifically because you brought Roger Craig Smith back) and were willing to explore this story. I’ve been waiting for it since The Following.” They are definitely not alone. Tezzy2022 felt similarly; they adored the slick movement and fun story of the first game and really excited to see more of Crane’s story, so it seems like any tie to the original Dying Light and its expansion The Following is an important one.
Of course, the announcement would never be devoid of some sort of controversy. But the big one? No physical release. OnlineInquisitor basically said, “Then unfortunately I will be unable to buy and support your game. It was one of my most awaited game this year. I do hope you will reconsider releasing a proper physical version in the future (full game on the disk not just a glorified download code).” And they weren’t all by themselves. Kemisset5002 simply said, “No physical so no buy.” And ririspace1 pleaded, “Please please give us physical versions! I want to play as soon as possible after launch :((”
Techland responded concisely: “Right now, as we are focused on applying the finishing touches to Dying Light: The Beast, we have no plans to release a physical edition.” So yeah, that really sucks from a collector point of view and from a person with slow internet probably, but you know, it’s 2024, and digital is the preferred choice for many developers, with games becoming huge in terms of footprint. Then, a debate was sparked in the replies over if any modern game could even fit on disks at this point, courtesy of CheUltra and OnlineInquisitor. Classic Twitter.
Other than the argument over digital, a lot of questions about the gameplay began to pop up from the players themselves. GoblinHestia asked the real questions: “Do you still get to drop kick zombies off of rooftops?” Because, let’s face it, that’s a pretty defining mechanic of the Dying Light experience. Mr Nobody wonders about the genre: “Is this action? Survival horror? A mix?” Given the description of seeking revenge against the Baron while something feels wrong inside, it sounds like a mix of both, with maybe some psychological elements thrown in.
People are curious about the improvements, too. StillDaLion started with “Fix volatile attack patterns and make night super scary and dark please…” And szatadajka said that ragdolls on DL2 feel stiff compared to the original game. Techland responded: “Hey! Dying Light: The Beast uses a new physics engine for combat, and the improvements on ragdolls are based on the feedback coming from the players. We hope you’ll appreciate the work of the team when the game launches.” So, they’re listening, which is good to see.
Other random interactions: WardenBrutus asked about Steam Deck support; that would be great for portable zombie slaying. SoulsofMystery asked if the game would suffer another delay, but September 19 looks locked in. Then, indigo_soulfly… Well, they said, “This is making my tip sticky unc 🔥🔥.” Uh, we are just going to go right past that.
In summary, the anticipation is palpable: v1825Natasha commented, “I recently played a new game of the original Dying Light. It’s in my top 3 games of my life! Now I’ll get back into DL 2 to prep for Dying Light The Beast! Can’t wait to parkour thru the Swiss Alps!” GeekLander_GR called it “so goddamn epic 🔥,” and nafojames is already pulling out his credit card.
They’ll never not work returning a much-loved character, the promise of revenge, classic Dying Light parkour, and combat.
But yeah, the no-physical-thing is going to sting for some folks. Phriffo says it is “a horrible marketing move.” But the rest of us are lining up for pre-orders right now, and September 19 can’t come fast enough. Whether you’re in it for the story or the gameplay or dropping kick some zombies, the hype for Dying Light: The Beast is going to be one of the highest peaks in 2024. Now we gotta wait and see where that “something inside feels wrong” ends up. Probably not a very good thing; you know that for sure with this series.
