Dying Light: The Beast devs say the nights are even scarier than you first thought

Techland has just revealed how they’ve made the nights in Dying Light: The Beast more terrifying than ever before. The developers have been working on making the horror experience even more intense as requested by fans through the first game.

The team assembled a dedicated ‘strike team’ (as they put it) of programmers, game designers, and level designers after the delay to the game. The idea was to create an even more tense, terrifying night experience that could rival the legendary after-hours moments of the first Dying Light. The feedback from Gamescom was largely positive, but they wanted to make it even better, ready for launch.

What changes have been made to Dying Light: The Beast nights?

One of the biggest changes is that nights are now darker in general. Depending on where you are, the Castor Woods setting adds different shades of darkness. You can find yourself in total darkness in the dense forest areas, while light can wander through from the moon and other ambient lighting when you’re closer to the towns and villages nearby. 

The Volatiles themselves have gotten some serious upgrades, too. The devs redesigned how these powerful monsters move, both alone and in coordinated packs, so they can hunt players more effectively across all areas of the map. Expect more coordinated pincering, or more aggressive solo Volatile action with them diving more often at you, and willing to fight you until the last bit of health before retreating. It should make the Volatiles a more serious and tactical threat, depending on the situation. Furthermore, they’ve also improved the Volatile visuals, making them more bloody and increasing the number of their variants. Each one now looks scarier and more unique than before.

But what really makes the night terrifying is the improved sound design. The team focused on making the ambiance subtle so you can hear the footsteps of Volatiles and Infected clearly, helping you locate them precisely and understand their distance just from hearing alone.

Different infected types now have distinct sounds – Biters and Virals sound more aggressively human, emphasizing the horror of their transformation. But, it’s also a unique way to identify what monsters or infected are nearby, as you can learn to recognize distinct enemy noises, which is handy when you can’t see too well.

At the bottom of the blog post, the devs say Dying Light: The Beast uses more than 9,000 soundbites just for zombie screams and shrieks. That’s a lot of sound variety to listen to in the world. It should create an incredibly detailed audio landscape that helps you identify what’s hunting you before you even see it, and keep you immersed and tense as horror fans of the series want.

If you’re interested in diving even deeper into the above information and more, you can read the full Dying Light: The Beast blog post here.