Two games and three years later, the creators of Dying Light have relented: “we’re finally giving players the weapons they’ve been clamoring for.” Techland’s game director Tymon Smektala admits you can’t please everyone, but this time, they’re going to try.

Techland is shaking up the Dying Light experience with The Beast, but the studio is determined not to lose the DNA that makes the series special. During Summer Game Fest 2025, the team behind Dying Light: The Beast revealed new insights into the sequel’s design and confirmed a controversial, much-requested shift: yes, guns are coming back, and this time, they’ll play a bigger role. But it’s not just “more of the same”—Techland promises to weave firearms into the world without ruining the signature brutal, physical melee combat fans expect.

In a GamesRadar interview, project director Tymon Smektala acknowledged that sidelining firearms in Dying Light 2 made sense narratively, but it wasn’t without backlash. In a post-apocalyptic world without factories, it was logical to rely on sticks, makeshift blades, and rusty pipes—but players were quick to voice their discontent: “The first thing we heard after launch was ‘where are the guns?’” Smektala recalls.

Techland has now given in to community pressure, but with a twist. In The Beast, guns will be available, but their design is meant to complement—not overshadow—hand-to-hand combat: they’ll be savage, tactile, and balanced, but not overpowered. “We wanted the weapons not to break the game, but to feel like another tool,” the director explains, emphasizing that balance—not sheer power—is the priority.

This isn’t the studio’s first brush with the debate. The original Dying Light received criticism for including guns in a game built around parkour and melee action. Then, when Techland removed them entirely in the sequel, the backlash swung the other way. “If Dying Light and weapons were on Facebook, their relationship status would be ‘it’s complicated,’” Smektala jokes, underlining the struggle to keep fans happy without compromising creative vision.

Even skeptics admit that The Beast feels like a return to the franchise’s core. Smektala says the new game is constantly measured against the original, which made you feel “alone in a huge city, surrounded by zombies.” That’s still the vibe Techland wants to deliver—now with more options and without abandoning the spirit that turned Dying Light into a global hit.

Source: 3djuegos