While Techland’s latest release – Dying Light: The Beast – has been quite successful, the studio has made no secret of the fact that it was hoping for it to be a major improvement over Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Speaking to Prima Games, franchise director Tymon Smektała said that the muted reception of Dying Light 2 Stay Human helped the studio in developing Dying Light: The Beast.
Feedback from the title led to the latest release having more focus and clarity, especially when compared to the more ambitious second game. “The biggest lesson was clarity of focus and attention to details,” he said. “Dying Light 2 Stay Human was ambitious, maybe too ambitious in some areas, and while we are proud of what we achieved, we also learned that sometimes less is more.”
Further in the interview, Smektała spoke more about how Techland decided to trim down the fat from Dying Light: The Beast. The goal, he noted, was to deliver an overall tighter experience that would have the same level of grounded, intense and emotional gameplay and story that made the original Dying Light a fan favourite.
“For Dying Light: The Beast, we stripped away the noise to deliver a tighter, more purposeful experience,” he explained. “The game knows what it wants to be: intense, grounded, and emotional. We have also taken community feedback, every little detail of it, to heart in terms of combat feel, movement precision, and pacing.”
Smektała had spoken about Techland having learned quite a few lessons from Dying Light 2 Stay Human back in June. In an interview, he had spoken about how, for the second game in the franchise, the studio had ended up sacrificing “some of the Dying Light DNA”.
“Our fans were telling us ‘that’s not it, that’s not what made you so special,’” Smektala said, referring to the studio wanting to provide a more polished AAA experience with Dying Light 2 Stay Human.
“We want to deliver both,” he further explained, referring to Dying Light: The Beast. “We want to deliver the AAA quality, but at the same time, we want to deliver proof that our mojo is not gone, that our mojo is not there, and we know what makes Dying Light, Dying Light. And if players say ‘wow, this feels like Dying Light 1, and it looks so amazing, it’s such a polished game’, then I think we’ll be very, very happy.”
Since its release just last month, Dying Light: The Beast has proven to be quite a hit. While Techland hasn’t revealed any sales data for the title, it had released an infographic just last week, confirming that more than 25 million hours had been cumulatively been spent by players in the game.
“Every jump, every strike, every scream fuels Kyle’s quest for vengeance,” wrote Techland in its social media post. “You’ve pushed the limits cutting down countless foes and parkouring vast distances, and as a community you left a mark on Castor Woods.”
Dying Light: The Beast is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. The title is also slated to make its way to PS4 and Xbox one later on.
