Dying Light: The Beast dev reveals the unlikely inspiration for Kyle Crane's new abilities – "I think of Pac-Man as a survival horror game"

Dying Light: The Beast may be a gritty zombie survival simulator filled with gore and horror, but it turns out this new entry was inspired by none other than Pac-Man for one of its mechanics.

At Summer Game Fest 2025 we learned that Dying Light: The Beast is launching on August 22, almost a year after it was unveiled at Gamescom Opening Night Live in 2024. During that Gamescom demo last year, we were reintroduced to Kyle Crane, who has just returned from a lovely little getaway in which he was held captive and experimented on for over a decade. As a result of this, he now has access to a "beast mode," which turns him into a near-unstoppable force who punches zombies and throws whatever he finds lying about.

Speaking to Famitsu (translated via Automaton and machine translation), Dying Light's franchise director Tymon Smektala said, "You may be a little surprised, but we got the idea for Beast Mode from the classic game Pac Man." He adds, "I think of Pac-Man as a survival horror game," and while that sounds somewhat ridiculous, it tracks considering you're helpless being chased by ghosts, much like with the Zombie enemies. Then, once you get the power pill in Pac-Man, you become the monster with the enemies running in fear of you, which is how Kyle Crane becomes when he gains his superhuman abilities as the titular beast.

However, Smektala did mention he doesn't want beast mode to become too one-sided, so the abilities come with a pretty hefty cooldown period. Plus, the addition of the hulking Chimeras to the enemy pool is specifically designed to challenge you while in beast mode.

Dying Light: The Beast dev says "we are not Call of Duty" and the series has a "complicated relationship" with guns, but The Beast's firearms should finally be "on par" with melee.