The reason behind this, he said, was that the studio wanted to focus on releasing the game first, and then it could “respond maybe to some potential bugs […], and then focus on the release of the two DLCs for that quarter.” These plans, which were originally minor, ended up having a knock-on effect where the studio started getting a loyal fanbase.

“Players are there, they are excited, they are supporting us, they want more of the game, so we did more. The appetite grew, they wanted even more, so we kept going,” he said. “And, in the process, we had created a business model that was very unique at that time, and it’s a triple-A game with long tail post-launch support.” Techland would then expand this idea further out into what it called its “10 in 12” initiative. Essentially, it would work on releasing 10 free DLCs over the course of 12 months.

“Then it continued, and then it continued, and in the end, the support lasted for 10 years,” he said. “Last year, we released a graphics update for Dying Light called Retouched.”

However, this form of long-tail post-launch support may not work well for every studio out there, especially in the AAA gaming industry. Smektała has acknowledged that many studios would find this difficult, especially with a lack of continuous revenue. However, it did make sense for Techland at the time, he said, since “it keeps the game on the hard drive, it builds the community trust, it makes the game sell for longer, and you can keep the price at a high level.”

Ultimately, Smektała said that this largely comes down to planning and management. “If you can plan the production around this wisely, the game will give back.”

Smektała announced that he was stepping down from his role as franchise director of Dying Light just last month. After having worked in the role at Techland for almost 13 years, he acknowledged that his life was “moving into a new chapter”.

“Thank you to all the talented people of Techland I’ve had the chance to work with – across both development and publishing – for the passion, energy, and shared ambition to make Dying Light the ultimate zombie experience,” he said in his statement. “We made it happen, together!”

“And to our amazing community: your love, engagement, and vocal support have always been our North Star. You helped shape what Dying Light became.”

More recently, Smektała also spoke about how the release of Dying Light: The Beast taught Techland that “quality beats quantity”.

Dying Light: The Beast is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.

Speaking to GamesRadar at Digital Dragons, former franchise director Tymon Smektala called it a “hard lesson” for the team to learn. “The game [Dying Light 2] was very hyped, millions of players [were] waiting for it. We launched it and quickly realized that even [though on the] surface it’s quite similar, almost the same type of game, we had missed a lot of the details, the little things that were important for players, and they were very vocal about it.”

The project’s development troubles are nothing new, and Smektala confirms that the new engine and deadlines ended up causing trouble. Post-launch updates were welcome but ended up being “everything to everyone all at once.”

“Some want more tension, some want more RPG elements, more parkour. Combat could be less bloody, more bloody. Realism, power fantasy, the first game again, or maybe something new. So, you want to give everything to everyone all at once, but it is a trap.”

With Dying Light: The Beast, Techland decided to slow down and focus more on the project’s core quality. “We learned that quality beats quantity. We slowed down, we focused more, we adapted that for Dying Light 2, and kept using that mindset for Dying Light: The Beast, understanding that the quality of core elements is more important than satisfying all of the needs and expectations.”

It’s those elements, from the parkour to the gruesome combat and open-world design, which drew extensive praise (and reportedly sold more than 1.5 million copies). Since launch, it’s received some pretty hefty free updates, including New Game+, Legend Levels, Nightmare Mode, and, more recently, Restored Land.

The latter changes the world to be persistent, meaning no more replaying activities or constantly looting the same containers for rewards. However, any slain zombies stay dead, and you’ll slowly see people returning to those areas. There’s also One Life mode for those who want to indulge in some permadeath.

While The Beast is likely to receive support for years, what’s next for the franchise? No one really knows, but at the very least, Techland seemingly knows what direction to take.

“Thank you to all the talented people of Techland I’ve had the chance to work with – across both development and publishing – for the passion, energy, and shared ambition to make Dying Light the ultimate zombie experience. We made it happen, together!

“And to our amazing community: your love, engagement, and vocal support have always been our North Star. You helped shape what Dying Light became.”

As for the future, he noted that the Dying Light franchise is “in great hands,” and “I’m excited to see it grow even further, and I can’t wait to experience its next chapter as a player. I’ll always root for Dying Light! Good night, and good luck!”

Smektała has been with the franchise since the very beginning, serving as a producer on 2013’s Dying Light. He’s credited as a designer on Dying Light 2 Stay Human and has more recently worked on Dying Light: The Beast, which released last year to very positive reviews.

Techland has been busy updating The Beast, with its latest patch adding the new Restored Land mode. It turns Castor Woods into a persistent open world with certain activities not being repeatable and resources not reappearing. Described as the “ultimate survival experience,” it can be played alongside One Life, which is essentially permadeath.

Of course, if you finished the base game, it’s interesting to note Smektała’s statement about the “next chapter.” Maybe he’s speaking generally as someone who’s now on the outside looking in. Perhaps it’s a tease of what’s to come. Either way, it’s been a long journey, and we’re keen to see where he ends up next.

For more details on Dying Light: The Beast, check out our review, where we gave it a nine out of ten. You can also learn more about the Restored Land update here.

That’s because it’s bringing a long list of balancing changes to systems governing your hunger (like reducing the drain while sleeping) and recovery from it alongside other changes like nifty new additions to vendor shops, legendary upgrades for DLC weapon blueprints, and some clever changes to you inventory management that ensure you don’t miss out on new gear thanks to a shortage of space in your inventory and stash. The complete list, which you can check below, showcases Techland’s determination to ensure Restored Land is as close to perfect as it can be for its players.

For our part, we were quite happy with what the update has brought to the table, its new modes and other additions making the game feel fresh enough to warrant another playthrough. Check out our thoughts here. Dying Light: The Beast is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC – head here for our review of the launch version.

Hotfix 1.6.1 – Restored Land Edition (1.6)

• Reduced hunger drain when sleeping
• Slower overall hunger depletion
• “Very Hungry” and “Famished” states now trigger later
• Vendors now offer improvised food bars
• Weapon Blueprints from DLC bundles can now be upgraded to Legendary rarity
• When receiving a new weapon during a cutscene with a full inventory, the lowest-quality weapon is automatically moved to the stash
• If both inventory and stash are full, the lowest-quality weapon is dropped on the ground
• “Better Be Safe” and “Peace Bringer” achievements no longer auto-complete
• Night chases rebalanced – Level 1 chases are now slightly easier to escape
• Increased chances to loot rags and bandages from Biters and Virals
• Fixed the crossplay connection between Steam and Epic
• Fixed the issue with amount of ammo that the Player can loot from ranged human enemies being capped
• Fixed the issue with Player dropping equipped weapon after entering Slasher arena
• Fixed the issue with hunger meter missing throughout the fight with The Beast
• Fixed the issue with Alpha Volatile sometimes not spawning during Chase sequences on Restored Land
• Fixed the issue with “Days Survived” being counted after starting a race
• Fixed the issue with Leaderboards sometimes missing
• Fixed the issue with message about Restored Area always appearing after loading a save
• Fixed the issue with some encounters being unresponsive
• Fixed the issue with Items Found values in the Leaderboard section
• Fixed the broken Night Cycle after quitting to the main menu during challenge
• Fixed a few collisions in new Roadkill Rallies
• Fixed the issue with item stacks being incorrectly subtracted while moved to the Stash
• Fixed the issue with Player receiving the achievement “Apex Predator” without killing a Volatile after a cutscene in “One flew over the Volatiles’ nest” mission
• Fixed the issue with SFX missing after failing to load a broken save file
• Fixed the issue with infinite death loop happening after Player gets out of map/playable area during Roadkill Rally
• Fixed various unresponsive NPC’s while playing in Coop

Headlining the update is the eponymous Restored Land mode, which is meant to be a new way to experience Dying Light: The Beast all over again. When enabled, the mode introduces a way for players, once more taking on the role of Kyle Crane, to restore Castor Woods to something at least a little closer to its former glory. Zombies killed in Restored Land mode won’t ever respawn. On the other hand, resources you’ve already looted won’t come back either, which introduces an interesting double-edged sword. That means you have to be much more careful when moving through any given area. Sure, you can eventually clear out a place well enough so that zombies can’t ever come back. But at the same time, you also end up losing the easiest way in the game to get your hands on basic resources like crafting materials: the zombies themselves.

The balance is skewed even further against the player thanks to resources being a lot more scarce, and repeatable activities that often tend to be a great way to grind out more materials can only be completed once. When it comes to actually playing through the mode, these limitations create some genuinely great moments where I had to stop and think through my next moves. Sure, I could always use some extra crafting materials, and I was certainly strong enough to take on a certain Dark Zone. But then I had to ask myself: “Do I really need those materials right now, or would I be better off waiting instead of draining my already-limited flashlight battery?” Restored Land mode, for all intents and purposes, turned Dying Light: The Beast—otherwise a pretty fun power fantasy—into a much more cerebral experience.

While the update also added more ways to ramp up the difficulty, like a One Life mode that results in permadeath, I chose not to use them, since I was already having a hard enough time trying to survive as it is. I haven’t finished a full Restored Land playthrough yet, so I can’t really comment on the usefulness of the rewards, but doing so will likely take me much longer than my first playthrough, since it encourages a slower pace thanks to resource constraints. I did find the act of taking out all zombies in an area quite rewarding, however, and it was a lot of fun to take a leisurely stroll through these zones without having to worry about anything. My only real complaint with the whole experience was the fact that co-op—one of my favorite features of the game overall—isn’t available in Restored Land.

"When it comes to actually playing through the mode, these limitations create some genuinely great moments where I had to stop and think through my next moves."

The update also brought with it one of my favorite new side-activities—Roadkill Rallies. Strewn around the more open parts of Castor Woods, the Roadkill Rally activity revolves entirely around your driving skill and rewards you based on how many zombies you can run over from point A to point B. While simple in concept and execution, Roadkill Rallies become a fun way to compete with friends on a leaderboard. And as an added cherry on top, you don’t have to be playing in Restored Land mode, which also means you can take on Roadkill Rallies in co-op.

Aside from Restored Land mode itself, the update’s meatiest additions are a host of new event-based side quests. Rather than seeking them out on the map and making your way to them, however, these new quests tend to pop up depending on the area you’re passing through and what route you’re taking. These new quests largely revolve around telling small stories about what might have happened to nearby survivors. The studio has noted that these quests were added in an attempt to “make the journey between main quest moments more engaging,” and I think these new quests achieve that quite well. They feel like a natural part of your journey as you parkour or drive your way through Castor Woods, and can often add to the sense of place that the setting has always excelled at.

What helps even more is the fact that these quests don’t even tend to be particularly long. They tend to be relatively simple affairs, often revolving around a single fight or a couple of conversations before you return to your journey. They can be quite varied, ranging from a simple inter-faction battle over a truck full of useful resources, to finding new outposts set up by the Baron’s forces. These aren’t really meant to tell any deep and emotional stories on their own. Rather, they act more like quick encounters that help flesh out the world of Castor Woods, and their relatively dynamic nature also has the added benefit of making the open-world game feel more alive.

"These new quests largely revolve around telling small stories about what might have happened to nearby survivors."

I’d also be remiss not to mention the many improvements Dying Light: The Beast has received through its extensive post-launch support. My favorite of these has been the added depth to the parkour systems. Rather than making any single, sweeping change to the traversal, however, the studio instead added a range of smaller improvements through additional animations that are only really obvious to those who may have already spent some time with the game. This has resulted in on-foot traversal generally feeling a lot smoother. Additions like Legend Levels for level-capped players also provide more excuses to just hang around in Castor Woods to take on some of its tougher challenges.

Generally speaking, Techland did some fantastic work with Restored Land, breathing new life into the already-fantastic Dying Light: The Beast. Thanks to the plethora of new content, new players have plenty to sink their teeth into, while those of us who had already considered ourselves “done” with the game have a great reason to come back: its headline new mode for fresh playthroughs. The new event-based side quests also offer some fantastic new opportunities for environmental storytelling depending on how you approach them and where they appear, and Roadkill Rallies are yet another great way to make traveling between faraway points more interesting.

When it comes to PC performance, Dying Light: The Beast already ran very well, and Restored Land hasn’t slowed it down one bit. With most of the visual settings cranked up to max, I was able to maintain steady frame rates of well over 60 FPS while playing at a resolution of 2560×1440. This was on an upper-mid-range PC featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, a Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Kyle’s going to have to be very careful in this new take on the Castor Woods, as resources are now rarer and more pricey, while an optional permadeath mode can make even the slightest mistake very costly indeed. However, it’s not as bleak as it looks, as high-risk areas remain blissfully clear of zombies once you take them all out, which applies to zombies out in the open world as well. It’s going to be a chaotic yet rewarding gameplay loop, and if you already own a copy of the game, it’s available as a free update.

This is an edition we would recommend without hesitation, as we found the base game to be quite the entertainer and a worthy sequel to its predecessors. The new edition seems like it’s additions are all meaningful changes that can build on an already excellent gameplay loop to take it to new heights. More information on the new edition can be found here.

Described as changing the “rules of gameplay,” it offers “a highly challenging solo-only mode” that promises “the ultimate survival experience.” Restored Land essentially makes the open world of Castor Woods persistent. It means that zombies cleared from an area won’t respawn.

However, it also means that loot and resources won’t reappear, and activities such as convoys, dark zones, etc. can’t be repeated. To make things even more challenging, there are limited supplies overall, and vendors will charge higher prices. If that’s not enough, you need to deal with “intensified” hunger and flashlight requirements. Failing to keep Kyle Crane well-fed will result in penalties, and you’ll need to replace the flashlight’s batteries.

For the truly hardcore, there’s an option to enable One Life, which does pretty much what it says: Die once, and that’s it. You’ll need to start all over.

Completing a Restored Land run will unlock “prestigious items” and “visible recognition” (likely a skin), but that’s not all. New Roadkill Rallies provide fresh challenges for those driven (pun fully intended) to race against the clock and splatter any infected along the way. Completing this unlocks an “amazing reinforced version of a car built for even more distraction in the open world.”

You can also look forward to numerous improvements and new Achievements, quest encounters and finishers. Performance is also getting a noticeable bump, so stay tuned when Restored Land goes live later this week (and check out the behind-the-scenes trailer courtesy of IGN below).

Obviously, you’ll discover new weapons to help against the very worst that Castor Woods has to throw at you, but there are also Legend levels. Think of these as Prestige levels, unlocked after hitting level 15. Any XP earned will feed into Legend levels, which increase health and provide Legend Points to spend on, well, more health, Beast Mode and damage.

Best of all, playing on higher difficulties and New Game+ tiers provides more XP. But what’s risk without the reward? Progressing through the Legend Levels will unlock 22 new weapons, 12 gear pieces (making up two outfits) and new Legendary skins for your vehicles.

If that wasn’t enough, Update 1.4 introduces ray tracing, with Low to Ultra settings (Frame Generation is automatically enabled for the latter, though). There are also three new finishers for specific weapon types. A welcome surprise, to be sure.

A double XP is currently ongoing, so if you’re looking to jump back into Dying Light: The Beast, now is the best time. If you’re still on the fence, check out our review for more details.

Call of the Beast is the first in this list of features, and has already been added to Dying Light: The Beast. It is essentially a global community initiative with challenges that players have to work together to accomplish in each of their individual runs through the game. All in all, there are 22 total goals that players will have to complete, with one of them already having wrapped up and the second one being under way.

Completing these goals will get players quite a few rewards, with there being a secret Legendary Reward coming to players if at least 17 of the goals are completed. Hitting 20 goals will reward all players that participated in at least one of the goals with all of the weekly rewards. The current goal has players tasked with taking on biters with dropkicks; completing this will reward them with na 80s inspired “Sunset” car skin and a matching machete weapon.

New Game+ and Legend Levels are both part of Techland’s efforts to boost the replayability of Dying Light: The Beast. New Game+ will allow players to start up a fresh playthrough after having wrapped up the story, while still hanging on to their XP progression, skills and items from the previous runs. Each run through New Game+ will add new challenges to the game, encouraging players to get even stronger as they spend more time with the open-world title.

Along the way, players will also be able to earn Legend Levels, with a host of Legend Skills that can be unlocked. These additions will also come alongside a new tier of weapon rarity which has its own visual flair, which can be earned by getting higher Legend Levels.

After releasing New Game+ and Legend Levels, Techland will also bring Nightmare Mode to the title, which will essentially be a new high-difficulty mode that introduces challenges in more unique ways than just boosting enemy health and damage numbers. Nightmare Mode will include new gameplay mechanics as well, since the studio wants to tie it in with a more realistic survival-based gameplay loop. The developer has also noted that it will be making some tweaks to the Volatiles in Dying Light: The Beast, with the post noting Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Alien: Isolation as direct inspirations for these tweaks.

Ray Tracing is one of the many additions part of the technical and visual upgrades that Techland wants to bring to Dying Light: The Beast. The studio has noted that it will continue to roll out updates and improvements to the title over the course of its 11-week plan, which also happens to be the first crossover event for the game. October 31 will mark the start of Dying Light: The Beast and PUBG Mobile, with players getting the chance to earn items from the battle royale, including the Killing Pan, Battle Royale Bat, and the Marked Man outfit.

Dying Light: The Beast is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There are also plans to bring the title to PS4 and Xbox One at a later date. For more details, check out our review.

Techland is also looking to implement ray tracing on PC, new weapon executions and other visual and quality-of-life improvements. There’s even a collaboration with PUBG Mobile planned. In the meantime, players can partake in Call of the Beast, an 11-week series of community challenges.

Starting today and ending on January 7th, 2026, it promises 22 rewards, including weapons and car skins. Complete 17 out of 22 goals, and a “secret” Legendary will become available once the event ends. If the community as a whole completes 20 goals, players who participated in a single challenge will receive all rewards.

Head here for more details. Dying Light: The Beast is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, with Xbox One and PS4 versions coming later this year. Check out our review and stay tuned for more updates.