Dying Light: The Beast Lets Rip

The pre-eminent zombie series is back with a primal roar as Dying Light: The Beast preps for its release to an expectant world. Polish studio and publisher Techland has become almost synonymous with the genre-defining, zombie-crushing Dying Light series, and with over 50 million players worldwide to date, it’s easy to see why. Intel Gaming Access tore off some flesh with Tymon Smektala, franchise director at Techland, on his quest “to make sure the Dying Light series becomes the ultimate zombie experience in video games.”

Dying Light: The Beast is a blend of open world and action survival horror, set in the scenic yet danger-laden valley of Castor Woods, which has somehow been overrun by zombies. You’re back in the shoes of Kyle Crane, finally free after years as an unfortunate lab rat, and left teetering on the brink between man and beast. It promises to be quite a ride. “We want players to experience the visceral combat and adrenaline-pumping traversal, we want players to be immersed in our hand-crafted open world,” says Smektala. “It’s a game for the explorers, for the survivors, for those ready to face a difficult challenge.”  

Smektala is keen to assure us the game is more than just your average run-of-the-mill undead-fest. “Don’t look at it as ‘oh, it’s just a zombie game’. I think Dying Light: The Beast has a number of very unique, cool mechanics that many players will find interesting. I encourage you to give it a go even if you didn’t play any of the previous games—it’s a very good entry point to the series!”

Among the treats in store are first-person parkour, off-road vehicles, and plenty of brutal combat, fueled by Crane’s new beast-like abilities. We’re also promised a bunch of new enemies, including Chimeras and armed humans, in a world stuffed with hidden dangers. “Parkour and combat have been redefined to feel more dynamic and rewarding, while the night experience is darker and more terrifying than ever,” says Smektala. “Players can also expect a beautifully hand-crafted world, filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered.”

The Techland team has been working in the zombie-littered world of Dying Light for a long time, and so they’re naturally “quite fluent in the zombie genre”, as Smektala puts it. But with the different themes and locations in Dying Light: The Beast, they’ve been able to cast the net a little wider than usual. “For The Beast, specifically, one major inspiration is the film Old Boy, which tells a similar story of someone looking for revenge after years of captivity,” says Smektala. “As for the game’s location, it was inspired by American TV shows presenting small mysterious towns, like Twin Peaks or Stranger Things.”

One of the biggest development challenges the team faced on the new game was making those more open countryside locations work for the experience they wanted. “Our previous games have mostly taken place in cities, so creating a map such as Castor Woods was actually scary,” admits Smektala. “Is it ok that we’ll have places where you can’t really parkour that much, like the swamps? Will the night be equally as tense in the farm fields?” 

The team was relieved to discover that these new environments could contribute to the experience in ways they didn’t initially expect. “I think our night is actually the scariest in the middle of the forest,” Smektala says, “and having places where you can’t easily use parkour to escape makes survival even more challenging, but also satisfying.”

The long-term collaboration between Techland and Intel continues to bear fruit for Dying Light players, with rendering and audio director Tomasz Szałkowski involved since the beginning. “We’ve been working with Intel since the days of Dying Light 1, which means over 12 years,” he says. “Our collaboration really gained momentum during the development of Dying Light 2: Stay Human. This resulted in the implementation of IntelⓇ Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) in our proprietary C-Engine, as well as an in-game benchmark showcasing how well the game can scale across hardware of varying power and configurations.”

“Our engineers jointly resolved quality issues, and Intel’s lab helped extensively test the game’s compatibility and performance on Intel hardware,” continues Szałkowski. “Dying Light 2: Stay Human was the first game I can honestly say worked properly on laptops—a true testament to our partnership.”

The benefits of the partnership have continued thick and fast on Dying Light: The Beast. “With the integration of XeSS 2 in Dying Light: The Beast, the quality leap is massive,” says Szałkowski. “Communication with Intel is fast, so even the ocean between us isn’t an obstacle—any topic can be discussed quickly and collaboratively. I’m looking forward to continued, fruitful cooperation in the future!”

But enough about fruit, let’s get back to undead body parts. Dying Light: The Beast is set to launch its assault on September 18th, so get ready—those zombies aren’t going to dismember themselves.

Pre-order Dying Light: The Beast on Steam