It took longer than anyone likely expected, but Dying Light: The Beast—no, no, calm down, it's not actually here, but it does finally have a release date. Developer Techland revealed during today's Summer Game Fest showcase that the new addition to its popular series of zombie-stompers will be out on August 22.
Dying Light: The Beast brings back Kyle Crane, the lead in the original game, who's had a rougher go of things than most videogame heroes. Instead of kicking back and enjoying the post-game fruits of his labors, Crane spent 13 years enduring horrific experiments at the hands of some creepo calling himself The Baron, who seems to be putting together a zombie army for what I imagine are not-great plans for the rest of the world.
Having finally escaped, Crane is looking for some payback, and it turns out that despite some clear ethical concerns, The Baron's experiments had an upside: Zombie DNA is now inextricably intertwined with his own, enabling him to—wait for it—unleash the beast. (You're the beast in the title, see, it's a clever and unexpected twist.)
What exactly your beast mode brings to the table hasn't been specified but I would assume it involves feats of great strength, durability, and so forth: At one point in the trailer, for instance, we see Kyle catch what appears to be a large boulder-club that's being swung at his face, after which he uses it himself to turn several nearby zombies into goo.
He also seems unexpectedly eager to fistfight a zombie that looks like four Lou Ferrignos stuffed into a sausage casing—not the sort of guy one would typically want to throw hands with.
The Beast was originally envisioned as DLC for Dying Light 2, but Techland eventually decided that it had evolved too far beyond the base game to work within those limits and thus opted to turn it into a standalone game. That's mainly why it's taken so long to get here, but the good news for patient fans is that Dying Light: The Beast will be free for owners of the Dying Light 2: Stay Human Ultimate Edition: A Techland rep told PC Gamer the game will appear in their libraries automatically when The Beast launches on August 22. For everyone else, it's up for wishlisting now on Steam.
