Dying Light: The Beast doubles down on the "sheer horror of the night"

Dying Light: The Beast doubles down on the "sheer horror of the night"

With Dying Light: The Beast bringing its parkour-filled horror fun to Xbox this year, we had a chance to ask Techland some burning questions about the game.

Tom West

Published 09 Mar 2025

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If you're looking forward to Techland's next zombie game, we've got you covered with our Dying Light: The Beast interview with franchise director Tymon Smektala. We were already looking forward to exploring Castor Woods for the Dying Light: The Beast achievements, but after learning more about the setting, superpowers, and the team's renewed focus on making it an Xbox horror game, we cannot wait to clamber back into Kyle Crane's boots for more zombie-slaughtering goodness.

Dying Light: The Beast is a return to the series' horror roots

• Release window: Summer, 2025
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One
• Dying Light 2: Stay Human Ultimate Edition owners will be able to claim the game for free at launch

Set 13 years after the events of the first game, Dying Light: The Beast sees us return to the blood-splattered boots of Kyle Crane for another bout of zombie mayhem. Unfortunately for Crane, he has spent the last 13 years as a lab rat, undergoing numerous experiments that have changed his biology. Fortunately for us, however, that means the hero of Haran now has special "beast" powers, which unlock a whole new way of playing.

In this entry, we're heading to a once-popular tourist location called Castor Woods. Although we're initially searching for our captors, we soon learn that we're not the only monstrosity prowling the woodland. With several factions of survivors, both friendly and not-so-friendly, and all manner of infected roaming around, we soon realize that far more is at stake.

While it's a standalone entry in the franchise, The Beast started out as the second expansion for Dying Light 2: Stay Human, but after a severe leak pushed the team to rework the content, and subsequently decide to bring back Kyle Crane from the first game, it turned into its own fully-fledged experience.

Although we'll be wielding supernatural powers in this entry, franchise director Tymon Smektala tells us that this entry gave the team the "Opportunity to go deeper into the survival horror aspect," stepping away from the action-focused gameplay found in the second game. And it seems Castor Woods is the perfect place to start.

"The setting plays a huge role in this — Castor Woods is dense, isolating, and unpredictable, making every encounter feel more dangerous. The infected are deadlier and scarier, especially at night," Smektala said. "Compared to Dying Light 2: Stay Human, this game is more focused on survival, resource scarcity, and the sheer horror of the night. Every fight feels like a struggle rather than an action-packed spectacle."

So far, our experiences with Techland's post-apocalyptic franchise have seen us exploring huge cities overrun with zombies. During the day, slower infected and hulking mutants make up the majority of the enemies you face (unless a few sprinting Virals catch your scent), but during the night, the Volatiles come out to play. Volatiles are fast, powerful, and extremely deadly, forcing you to outmaneuver them using parkour traversal through the built-up city streets or favelas.

While The Following DLC for the first game gave us a more open play space to explore (throwing in a drivable buggy to help), the main games have always focused on parkour for moving around the map and escaping Volatiles. Dying Light: The Beast will be the first standalone game to come away from built up locations, taking us to a heavily wooded region. Smektala tells us that while Castor Woods "brings a different kind of traversal challenge," parkour is still a key mechanic.

"You won’t have towering skyscrapers, but we’ve designed the environment to encourage creative movement — fallen trees, cliffs, industrial ruins, and makeshift parkour routes hidden throughout the national park surrounding the valley. Vehicles will help cover larger distances, but parkour is still a key part of survival. And yes, when Volatiles are on your tail, knowing how to weave through the terrain effectively will be the difference between life and death."

You'll need to refuel and repair your vehicle as you make your way through the game, but when you're on foot, you'll have a full arsenal of weapons to play with. Unlike the second game, which is set during a modern-day dark ages of sorts, limiting you to makeshift melee weapons and crude ranged weapons, we'll have a variety of firearms to play around with here.

Smetala told us that alongside the handguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers we've seen in the trailers, Techland has "more surprises in store" for players, including firearms and melee weapons, some of which have been "specifically designed to complement the new environment, making them even more satisfying to use."

We'll also have those aforementioned beast powers, which bring a whole new experience to the franchise alongside brand-new skills. "Crane’s beast-like powers give him enhanced strength, speed, and agility in short bursts," Smektala said. "They are the result of the experiments conducted on him by The Baron, the game’s main antagonist. His powers make him a more formidable fighter, but there’s a primal, uncontrollable side to them."

Those new powers could come in handy, because although we'll have a more linear story to playthrough this time, there are still plenty of things to get up to in Castor Woods. The Beast is smaller than its predecessors, but we can still expect to indulge in a plethora of side activities. "Expect side missions, unique encounters, and challenges that encourage players to test their skills. We want to strike a balance between a focused, cinematic narrative and giving players opportunities to step off the beaten path."

Smektala also says Techland has "Refined enemy AI and introduced more reactive environmental elements. The tighter scope allowed us to take more creative risks that weren’t as feasible in a larger open-world game like Dying Light 2: Stay Human. One of the biggest leaps of faith was placing the game in a rural environment, far different from our usual urban landscape. Looking at the decision now, I can confidently say it was a good one."

We don't yet have a release date, but it launches on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and other platforms sometime this summer. It's a full standalone game, but as it started out as DLC for Dying Light 2, players who purchased the second game's Ultimate Edition will be able to claim this one for free.

While it does bring back Kyle Crane, players who haven't played the original game will still be able to jump in and understand what's going on — although I highly recommend everyone checks out the first game beforehand, because it's fantastic.

The Beast is "Designed to be accessible for new players while rewarding long-time fans with deeper lore connections," Smektala said. "Since Kyle Crane has been in captivity for 13 years, he’s rediscovering this world — just like a new player would. Of course, if you played the first game, you’ll recognize certain story threads and feel a stronger emotional connection to them, but newcomers won’t feel lost."

Keep an eye out for more content in the coming weeks, as we still have a couple more articles to share from our Q+A with Tymon Smektala. For now, though, check out my thoughts on Dying Light: The Beast's new setting, and let me know what you think of the game so far!
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Written by Tom West
Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.