How do you know when a DLC is no longer DLC? That was the question we came across Dying Light developers Techland are working on the next installment of their long-running zombie-fighting parkour series. It's intended to be the second major piece of DLC for 2022 Dying Light 2has now been announced as a standalone release Dying Light: The Beast We made this transition through a process of disaster and inspiration.
When I asked Tymon Smektala, franchise director, the opening question, Dying Light“When it explodes,” he replied. It was a term that came up again and again in my conversation with Smektala, art director Katarzyna Tarnacka-Polito, and Roger Craig Smith, the voice actor behind the film. Dying Light's returning original hero, Kyle Crane.
This explosion started with a whimper. During the development of what was intended to be the next DLC, the game's perhaps… overzealous community managed to uncover and leak details about the narrative plans, distorting the developers' intentions and causing an internal rethink. And in the process, people fell in love with the idea of completely changing directions and bringing back the original hero from 2015 Dying LightKyle Crane, who ended the game in a disastrous way. Smektala says it was “an adrenaline rush, an injection of something powerful into our arms” [and] “Almost overnight, everybody had so many ideas of what we could do, things they really wanted to do to pay homage. And it just exploded.”
While all of this reads like pretty standard developer-to-press chatter when doing PR for a game (and you'll see the same story on a dozen other sites this week), the text doesn't convey the depth of passion with which everything is presented. During my chat with the team, shortly after watching about 20 minutes of gameplay, both Smektala and Tarnacka-Polito were in tears, pausing for breath, so palpable was their enthusiasm.
As the team moved away from the leaked and spoilered version of new content and toward this new project more focused on Crane, they eventually came to an agreement that what they were making was no longer DLC. MonsterIt was a complete game, with Crane returning after being held captive and experimented on by mentally ill scientists for 10 years. It's hard to argue with that, as it's over 18 hours long.
Crane has been through a lot during his ten-year absence. What exactly is deliberately kept secret seems like a big part of the game's plot, but what we do know for sure is that he was the victim of horrific experiments where scientists tried to splice him with zombie DNA. Considering the events that eventually took place The followingWe can safely assume that one of the possible endings involving a nuclear warhead is no longer canon, but the other more provocatively suggests a Crane with reason to be compatible with such corrupt genetics.
As a result, he can now enter a beast mode where his abilities and skills are extremely powerful. This was demonstrated during a boss fight, and that fight looked like something. Dark Soulsand it ended like an unfairly matched match Street Fighter. In the beginning, Crane was taking chips from this giant infected, running around and avoiding its massive, slashing arms, draining his health bar. As he called in other zombies to help, the fight became overwhelming, and at this point Techland opted to use demonstrator Crane's (limited) monstrous powers. At this point, the fight was a completely different affair, with Crane now ripping chunks out of his foe, picking up giant concrete blocks and throwing them at the monster's head, making short work of it. It'll definitely change how players approach it.
It is worth adding that what is shown is Monster It also didn't feel like an overgrown DLC at all, and that was largely due to a huge step forward in fidelity. Dying Light 2 was one Beautiful game, but Monster on a whole new level. This is largely due to the incredible new weather effects that were shown off in my hands-off demo, with a heavy downpour that felt more like part of the world than I've ever seen a game manage before. Then, to my surprise, instead of pausing in that traditional God-pressing-a-button kind of way, the rain started to slow down as patches of blue appeared in the clouds and then everything slowly cleared out. This dynamic, the team told me, allowed the game to introduce weather at its own whim, as well as scripted moments.
It’s all part of an effort to give the new valley location a unique feel after the sunny climes of previous games. It feels like the Pacific Northwest, a foggy, autumnal world that’s still gorgeously lit by the sun but prone to storms that add a gloom that feels appropriate given our characters’ darker nature. “The audio is the same way,” art director Katarzyna Tarnacka-Polito adds. “The rain sounds, I think, will add a lot to the experience.” Again, I hear this coming to you as a kind of elaborate detail that obsesses developers but rarely bothers players, but Tarnacka-Polito is really understating the effect. When it rains, it overwhelms all the sounds in the game, dulling the effects and re-recording everything accordingly. These are details that players are unlikely to consciously notice, but that have a significant aesthetic impact, like making a David Fincher film shot in silver gel feel much more somber.
“Our sound department is crazy,” Smektala says. “When they record battle sounds, they get this big piece of meat that they hit with lots of objects. When we work on it, The following [the expansion for the first game]”They were stationed in more open areas, recording what they called 'the sounds of silence' in the fields, so they are absolutely crazy guys. Every aspect of it has changed and evolved.”
“I don't know if you noticed in the demo,” Tarnacka-Polito added, “but rain makes different sounds depending on where you are. If you're knee-deep in water or standing in the woods, it makes completely different sounds. I didn't expect that!”
Where is the previous Dying Light The games are really focused on the series' signature parkour, sending you leaping from rooftop to rooftop before throwing you into terrifying close-quarters combat with endless hordes of the undead, Monster The demo shows Kyle making use of environmental elements as he tries to assault rooms full of zombies (by burning down oily areas, then connecting them to a generator to add electricity to the mix), and it also seems to be trying to mix this up with some surprising FPS gunplay. The developers wanted to make it clear that this isn’t a sea change, but rather an added element when fighting heavily armed human enemies who control large bases. They have firepower, so when you take it from them, it’s yours to use with a generosity that’s never been possible before in a series that relies so heavily on you building improvised weapons from scrap metal you find lying around. And despite these moments of bullet-happy silliness, Techland also emphasised that this will be a return to the much more survival-focused nature of the original game, Dying Light 2's more generous, slightly easier approach.
Oh, and now there are vehicles! Given the studio's experience in the racing genre, it's not like the series before 2010 FIM Race Track And Extended RallyThey said it was something they felt very comfortable adding, but again made it clear that it wouldn't drastically change how you play. They said driving was a dangerous choice, fuel was extremely scarce, cars were very vulnerable to attack, and were very likely to break down in the worst possible places.
But one thing hasn't changed, and that's the voice of Kyle Crane. Roger Craig Smith, who played the lead role in 2015, is a voice you recognize. He's the voice of Batman. Arkham OriginsIn a mirage Apex LegendsIn Ezio Assassin's Creedand above all, he's Sonic in pretty much everything Sonic (excluding movies) for the last ten years. Considering how it all ended ten years ago, it was crucial for the whole project that he agreed to reprise a role that he no longer thought he was good at. It was a huge relief for him that Techland was up for it. In fact, he was happy to do it.
I've learned over the years that it's unlikely a voice actor will ever play the games he's in, and asking questions can lead to strange places, but here it was Smith, delving into memories of playing the original. Dying LightCrane enthusiastically recalled how he felt dizzy as he climbed the massive tower and the sound of the wind began to swirl around him. “My stomach literally turned. At that moment I realized how high up I was.” In fact, he was brimming with excitement about making this game.
Kyle Crane We Met Monster As mentioned, he's not the same guy, and it was really important to everyone involved that that came across in his voice. Smith said that after some early recording sessions, Smektala gave him feedback and said it wasn't right yet. Without naming names, he said he's worked with other studios whose direction wouldn't be much more than, “Yeah, just do it the way you do it!” “It's not a service to the fans,” the actor said, “so it's always nice to be a part of something that has passionate people who want to do it right.”
Did he ever go into beast mode in the recording booth? He laughs and says yes, mentioning that it was fun to make the transitions, adding, “You can only go there so many times before your voice is ruined. So we were very strategic about how we did the sessions, saying, 'Hey, this is going to take a lot of effort. Are we going to do the beast? OK, let's save that for last.'”
And he's not the only one who's happy to be back. Tarnacka-Polito looked at Smith and said, “When we made the game and we played it over and over again, for hundreds of hours, and I heard you in my head for so long — when I heard you again for the first time, after a long time, [gulps] For this reason strong.”
It's so much fun to be in a room with developers who are genuinely excited about their games. At events like Gamescom, you meet so many developers who spout PR-approved statements until your regular slot is up, then repeat them over and over again throughout the day. Maybe I was lucky to see them earlier in the week, but their passion was so palpable it was contagious.
It's too early to tell if this will translate to the gameplay experience. It wasn't all tangible, and while it looks impressive, a lot will depend on whether the game can maintain that important sense of flow and fear that made previous games worth playing, while also adding a wealth of new elements.
But in a dramatic move, those who purchased the latest version Dying Light II You won’t have to pay to find out. Despite being a mutated version of a game that was once intended to be DLC, in a move that very sensibly avoids what could have been a tiresome disaster, Techland is respecting the project’s original intent and giving it away to those customers for free.