Dying Light: The Beast is arguably one of the most anticipated first-person zombie games for 2025 – and for all the good reasons. Kyle Crane is coming back, we have a new enemy called Baron, a new OST soundtrack, and Castor Woods, their newest map yet. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming title.
Although I have already written that Kyle Crane is finally coming back to the franchise, I wanted to level things up and go even deeper in the upcoming game by mentioning everything that we’ve seen so far, whether that’s from the official trailers, leaks, or interviews with the developers.
I’ll keep updating the article each time I learn something new about Dying Light: The Beast, so make sure to keep it saved in your bookmarks and re-check it once in a while.
What is Dying Light: The Beast?
Let’s start from the basics, especially if you’re new and haven’t played the older titles. The game has been developed by Techland, and it’s the third installment of the franchise. Dying Light was the first game featuring Kyle Crane, but we never learned what happened to him.
Then the company released Dying Light 2: Stay Human, which featured Aiden Caldwell as the main protagonistic and it was set 20 years after the events of the original Dying Light. In the beginning, Dying Light: The Beast started as a huge DLC for Dying Light 2: Stay Human, but Techland said it got so big, that they started looking at it as a whole different game, and so, instead of DLC it’s gonna be a standalone game.
If you haven’t played the previous titles, you should, because it’s basically a sequel to the original game, and it may also feature the events of Dying Light 2 and Aiden, as the third installment is set in the future, not in the past. Basically, the first game will introduce you to the world of Dying Light, while the second will take you 20 years away, so yeah, both are crucial to play before heading all into the newest release.
Release date and Cross-Platform availability
Techland has relieved that Dying Light: The Beast will get released somewhere in the summer of 2025, and many players think that the actual release date is set for September 10th. Why? Because based on the live-action trailer that the company published on its YouTube channel a while ago, there’s this date at the end of the video.
Unfortunately, though, the company hasn’t revealed an exact date. Thankfully, they’ll take as much time as needed in order to make sure that the game will run smoothly, providing great and fun gameplay for the players without the buggy experience we had with the release of Dying Light 2.
Everything we know so far
Unlike a few other companies, such as, let’s say, Rockstar Games, Techland has been more than generous at giving us lots of information when it comes to The Beast, but not more than they have to, keeping the “good stuff” as a surprise.
A new big city called Castel Woods
We don’t know much about Castel Woods, but Techland said that it used to be a bustling tourist destination, now filled with survivors, zombies, and other enemies with a post-apocalyptic landscape that makes it as spooky as it gets.
Based on what we know and have seen from the official trailers, the area features natural landmarks, small villages, and industrial complexes, and looking at the graphics, Castel Woods surely comes to life.
New weapons (crossbows, pistols, grenade launchers)
Want new weapons? How about crossbows? Maybe pistols? Want something even greater? How about a grenade launcher that launches UV grenades to help you stay alive in the nightlife?
This scene [look above] takes place in the streets of a tourist town at the center of Castor Woods. The crossbow Kyle uses in this scene is part of a rich and varied arsenal of weapons you’ll have in Dying Light: The Beast.
“Even though Dying Light started as a game focused on melee combat, we have consistently added new tools to the player’s brutal arsenal.”
Tymon Smektała
Here, we get a glimpse of another new weapon:
What’s cool about it is that it supports different kinds of ammunition, including UV grenades, which give you at least some advantage during the terrifying nights.
Tymon Smektała
If anything, I couldn’t but agree with Smektała, the UV grenades look fantastic, and as we already know, Dying Light is not playing when it comes to nighttime, so such weapons will surely come in handy when fighting zombies in the dark.
Amazingly well-designed graphics
Here, you can see the swamps – a new biome with foggy weather and ankle-high water that creates a dark, mysterious atmosphere. The water seems so real, and dead (I’m assuming zombies) are all over the place, which makes it even more realistic.
Here’s a quick look:
I think anyone can relate to the fear of being alone in the woods at night, and that’s exactly the kind of experience Dying Light: The Beast seems to be delivering even from the first trailers. I mean, look at how real and scary the place looks like:
The shadows from your flashlight and the many trees hiding zombies, all of this make nighttime exploration truly spooky, and if we can enjoy those kinds of environments in multiplayer with friends and other players, that would be even greater.
Ideally, we would love to see a big forest that we will be able to explore and not a 1km area with a few trees and zombies.
Driving in third and first-person
I still remember the fun that we had playing The Following DLC which was released for the first Dying Light. We had that amazing Buggy that we could drive around the map and the one that we had to upgrade and make sure that it had a full tank.
It was fun, and it was one of the things I’ve missed a lot in Dying Light 2 – although we could basically fly in the second installment, so it wasn’t that bad overall when it came to exploring the map and running away from zombies.
As you can see from the GIF above, there are two different scenes when it comes to driving a car: One from a third-person and one from a first-person perspective.
Initially, Techland was all about driving from a third-party perspective, but after getting lots of feedback from players, they introduced driving from a first-person perspective.
Initially, we planned for a car driving to be presented only in a third-person perspective, but based on player feedback, we decided to go the extra mile and add a first-person view as well.
Tymon Smektała
If there’s anything to say, is that Techland listens to their fans and makes changes accordingly, which is great for avoiding harsh feedback when the game gets released. Driving from a first-person perspective also makes the game more realistic, so I’m in favor of this change, although we may see both driving perspectives included in the game.
Better parkour moves
Dying Light was always about parkour: Jumping from one building into another, doing crazy parkour moves, avoiding zombies, and jumping over them was always the fan part of the gameplay Techland created, and as you can see, we can expect even greater and more realistic moves in Dying Light: The Beast.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a bit longer until the company releases more footage of the parkour moves that players will be able to make, but as far as the above scene goes, it looks like we will not miss all the previous parkour moves that the game introduced.
New Vitals, enemies, and improved physics
Speaking of making a game even more realistic than the previous one, it seems that Techland has addressed some critical details when it comes to physics, including things falling off the walls when a zombie hits them, or even when a vital gets pushed through the railings.
The above picture is from the official trailer, and if you look closely enough, you can clearly see how much they improved the physics when a zombie gets pushed from the railings, providing a more realistic experience than ever before.
A new greater enemy: The Baron
What we know for sure is that the man behind the experiments is called Baron, and he’s “an emotionless, calculating, but brilliant scientist,” as Techland describes him. Baron has been deep into experimenting with sinister virus strains in pursuit of restoring order, and we get a better glance at him and how evil he is.
Here’s the latest trailer for Baron:
Dying Light’s franchise director, Tymon Smektała, took to YouTube to explain a little more about our new villain, saying that as players go deeper and deeper into the game, they’ll learn more about Baron and his family’s history.
“We wanted to really emphasize Kyle’s suffering to better explain his intense thirst for revenge. By the way, after working on this grim scene, we wanted to lighten the mood a little, so we’ve hidden a few fun easter eggs in the medical monitors used in it.”
You’ll notice the Baron surrounds himself with luxurious items. For him, these prestigious objects symbolize his superiority over others. His perfectly tailored suit, jewelry, high-end music equipment, and authentic art from Europe’s greatest museums were all carefully chosen and transported to Castor Woods at his demand.
Of course, the paintings hold significant meaning reflecting the Baron’s philosophy and outlook. The same applies to his monologue, which references a famous quote from Galileo about humanity’s obligation to use intellect and reason.
There are quite a few hidden meanings in the trailer, so I encourage you to dig even deeper and try to catch them all.
Tymon Smektała
Exploration and discovery are big parts of the experience. In addition to the open-world areas, Techland has enclosed locations like the Baron’s laboratory, which features a horror-like atmosphere. It’s a place where players will encounter a new type of Virals, the fast-moving zombies that Baron is using as soldiers.
How to stay updated on anything Dying Light: The Beast-related
When it comes to Norpan, the gaming blog that you’re currently reading, I’ll be posting everything there is to know about the upcoming release and constantly updating this article each time we get new information, trailers, and glimpses of the gameplay.
- Save this article to your bookmarks.
- Follow us on your favorite RSS Feed readers: https://norpan.co/feed/
- Check out our categories: Dying Light: The Beast & Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- Stay tuned by checking the official website: https://techland.net/news
Look at the end of this page to see if I have updated the article with new information and what has been added.
New updates about Dying Light: The Beast
- 02/01/2025 – Publishing the article, no new updates other than what I have already wrote.
Looking forward to Dying Light: The Beast
The game features a hand-crafted, high-fidelity open world divided into distinct and diverse areas – or biomes, as Techland calls them. We get to see Kyle Crane back in action, and although we don’t have any more clues as of this moment of writing, we only hope that we’ll see Kyle and Aiden together.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming release and what are you waiting the most to see in the Dying Light: The Beast? For me, it’s all about re-experiencing another new world that Techland has created, as I loved both previous games, and I think they’ll excite us once again.
