Dying Light 1 was "a kickass game," but developer Techland tried to do too much with its sequel, and it's trying to recapture some of what it lost with Dying Light 2 when it comes to Dying Light: The Beast.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, franchise director Tymon Smektala said that "when we were releasing Dying Light 1, we were this underdog studio that no one expected to do such a kickass game as Dying Light was." While he acknowledges that "you could say it wasn't the most high-budget, most-AAA, high-budget game," it's hard to suggest that Techland wasn't punching above its weight with its debut game.
Sadly, Smektala admits that it lost some of that magic when it came to Dying Light 2. While he points out that the studio's follow-up "was a commercial success," he admits, "maybe we made some missteps." Some of those mistakes, he suggests, were that "we just wanted the game to be a little bit too accessible" to a wider audience, and in chasing that, Techland "sacrificed some of the Dying Light DNA."
It's a well-known adage that a game for everyone is a game for no one, and in its attempt to make Dying Light 2 "the kind of high-budget, AAA game" that Dying Light 1 wasn't, Techland fumbled its more dedicated followers. "Our fans were telling us 'that's not it, that's not what made you so special,'" he says.
Still, Dying Light 2 was more of a stumble than a fall, and with Dying Light: The Beast, Smektala says Techland wants to find a middle ground between its two previous games. "We want to deliver both. 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."
This isn't the first time Smektala has acknowledged the parts of the Dying Light experience Techland has nailed - or flubbed. Elsewhere in the interview, he notes that there are "areas of perfection" in Dying Light that fans would be devastated if The Beast undermined. But he maintains a real sense of confidence in the series, noting that he's surprised he hasn't seen more of Dying Light's ideas reimagined in the rest of the industry. That's the kind of attitude you don't get to have unless you feel you've made some waves - or that your game is "kickass" enough to have attracted some real attention.
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