Dying Light: The Beast will have guns that feel "on par with melee combat," as Techland struggles to solve the series' "complicated" relationship with firearms

Dying Light: The Beast is aiming to solve the series' "complicated" relationship with firearms, by making sure that gunplay feels "on par" with melee combat.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała acknowledges that "if Dying Light and 'guns' were on Facebook, their relationship status would be 'it's complicated.'" Pointing out that adding guns to Dying Light 1 was easy thanks to Techland's previous experience on Wild West shooter Call of Juarez, Smektała says that that game's focus on melee combat had people asking "why did you even bother to have the guns there?"

Taking that feedback on board, Techland moved on to Dying Light 2, in which there were no guns – "and the first thing we heard after release was 'but where are the guns?'" The studio eventually added firearms back into the sequel, but only after getting around the world-building they'd put into Dying Light 2 to explain its lack of guns.

Having gone back and forth in its first two Dying Light games, Smektała says that "for Dying Light: The Beast we decided 'OK, let's give the players the guns if they want, but also let's focus on the guns so they really feel on par with melee combat'." In The Beast, guns will need to feel just as physical and "brutal" as melee combat, but they'll also need to be balanced "so they don't feel too overpowered" in this melee-first world.

"Dying Light games were always games about finding your own solutions to problems," Smektała explains. "Going where you want to go, but also finding your own solutions to problems. And right now we want the guns to be just another piece in your toolbox." He gives the example of a strongly-defended outpost, where you'll now have the option to go in quietly with melee weapons or go in loud with firearms. The two options "should offer the same kind of risk and reward level, but realized differently."

It's a balancing act that Smektała seems to think the team has pulled off. Speaking ahead of the Dying Light: The Beast delay, he said that "I'm really, really proud with what we've managed to achieve with firearms. I'm not saying we're Call of Duty, which is where the focus is just on shooting, but we managed to have a very competent version of shooting and guns."

Dying Light franchise director says The Beast's final mission leaves you no choice, and that's a good thing: "You shouldn't be saying what's canon and what's not."