Dying Light: The Beast aims to be one of the "most dense open-world games on the market." Read on to learn more about the bold proposition from franchise director Tymon Smektala.

Dying Light: The Beast Focuses on “Most Dense” Open World

The Beast to be the Best of Both Dying Light Titles

When it comes to open-world games, bigger isn’t always better, and according to Dying Light: The Beast director Tymon Smektala, size might be the least important thing of all. Speaking to GamesRadar , Smektala made it clear that Techland’s latest entry in the parkour-meets-zombies franchise isn’t competing with the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 or Grand Theft Auto in terms of square mileage. Instead, it’s aiming to be one of the "most dense open-world games" on the market.

"Open worlds are not about scale," Smektala explained. "They’re about your feeling of being there." It’s a bold statement, especially at a time when maps filled with hundreds of icons have become standard fare. He’s been candid about Dying Light 2 in a separate interview with GamesRadar just last week, wherein he admits the game’s ambition may have cost it some of the franchise’s original spark.

"Maybe we made some missteps," Smektala said, as he reflected on the sequel’s reception. Dying Light 2 sold well, so much so that it sold five million copies back in February 2022, in its first month. However, he did note that some long-time fans criticized the game for focusing too heavily on making the game "accessible" to a wider audience as a AAA experience at the expense of what made the original Dying Light work.

That course correction appears to be front and center in Dying Light: The Beast. In this installment, players will explore the now-infected Castor Woods, a dense and interconnected map designed to keep players busy every step of the way. The map may not rival the expanses of Elden Ring or Assassin’s Creed, but Techland’s focus is on quality over quantity. For comparison, Elden Ring's map is roughly 80 square kilometers, while Dying Light 2's map is less than 10% of that size.

"In a lot of open-world games, there’s hubs of activity and in-between them, not much is really happening," Smektala noted in his latest interview with GamesRadar . "We were trying to make Dying Light games where you are constantly playing, constantly interacting with the controller, constantly pushing buttons."

This philosophy seems to extend to The Beast’s environments. From what we’ve seen in the "Explore Castor Woods" Behind the Beast video, Castor Woods appears to be a decayed urban sprawl ripe for exploration. Players will be exploring everything from abandoned hotels and crumbling streets to the overgrown forests of a nearby national park. Danger lurks around every corner, and true to a Dying Light game, the map is packed with opportunities for parkour.

Of course, being a zombie game makes filling the world with threats a bit easier. But Smektala insists that density is about maintaining that "zone" of immersion, where every aspect of the game just clicks. "You are constantly looking around you, constantly in the zone, in the feeling of it all," he said.

For their latest installment, Smektala is hopeful that The Beast can strike the balance between the two earlier titles fans have been asking for. "We want to deliver both," he emphasized. "We want to deliver the AAA quality, but at the same time, we want to deliver proof that our mojo is not gone, that 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."

How The Beast will translate to players when it releases this August 22 is still uncertain. Nevertheless, if Smektala’s words are any indication, Techland knows exactly where its priorities lie. For more on Dying Light: The Beast, catch the latest information in our article below!

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