Summary
Techland announcedDying Light: The Beast,the latest entry in its zombie franchise duringGamescom’s Opening Night Live, following anominous live action teaser trailerbeing shared by the event’s host Geoff Keighley the day before with the message “The Beast is coming.“Dying Light: The Beastsees the return of the originalDying Light’s protagonist, Kyle Crane, a former member of the United States Armed Forces who was hired and trained by the Global Relief Effort (GRE) to infiltrate the zombie-infested city of Harran and hunt down a man named Kadir Suleiman (aka. Rais), a former colonel in the military, and retrieve a file he stole from the agency.
Crane was only mentioned by name inDying Light 2, which told a different story following Aiden Caldwell, a member of an outcast group known as the Pilgrims who was on a mission to find his lost sister, Mia, instead.
[Warning: The following story contains spoilers forDying Light,Dying Light: The Following, and Dying Light 2.]As the story unfolded, it became clear that the reason the GRE was so hellbent on retrieving this file was because it contained evidence that the organization planned to weaponize the Harran Virus and profit from people’s suffering. In the game’s finale, Rais informed Crane that he made a deal with the GRE to give them the file in return for an evacuation, and after a showdown atop Rais' tower,Crane killed Rais and turns his back on the GRE, instead opting to take the information he had gathered to a doctor in Harran called Allen Camden, who believed he could use it to create a cure.
Why Kyle Crane Isn’t In Dying Light 2
Although mentioned by a recurring character from the previous game, Dying Light’s Kyle Crane does not make an appearance in Dying Light 2: Stay Human.
Dying Light: The Following Saw Kyle Crane Become Infected
With An Option Of Two Endings
The last players saw of Kyle Crane was duringDying Light’s story expansion,The Following. This campaigncontinued on fromDying Light’s endingand saw Crane on a mission to find a way out of the quarantined Harran, venturing into the countryside. Here, he learned about a mysterious cult called “Children of the Sun” who, as their name would suggest, seem to worship the Sun.
It’s later revealed that the leader of Children of the Sun is asentient Volatilecalled The Mother, who was tranquil in daytime and feral at night. The Mother used an airborne serum in her rituals that seems to make her followers invisible to the infected, butafter attending a ritual and inhaling some of this blue vapor, The Mother informs Crane that it will cause him to very slowly begin to transforminto what she is.
By the end of the expansion, players were presented with two options, to either help the Mother bring about “the coming of the God of the Sun” and ending the Harran virus by detonating a nuclear warhead at the cost of thousands of lives, or he can refuse the Mother and attempt to take the remaining serum in liquid form, stubbornly believing it to be a cure. This led to two endings, one in which the screen went white and Harran was destroyed, and another, more sinister one whereCrane seemed to escape Harran as a sentient Volatileas the sun was beginning to set on a new town. Seeing as there’s no way in which Crane could have survived the former option, it’s clear which endingDying Light: The Beasthas deemed to be canon, and Crane will be able to use some of his newer mutated abilities in the new adventure.
Dying Light 2: All Endings Explained
Techland’s Dying Light 2 has multiple endings based on all of the choices the player makes throughout the game’s massive branching story.
Dying Light: The Beast Takes Place 13 Years After Dying Light: The Following
Kyle Crane Has Been Captured And Experimented On
Dying Light: The BeastseesKyle Crane escaping captivity after 13 years of enduring experiments, likely at the hands of the GRE, suggesting that he was caught not too long after escaping Harran. From here, Crane finds himself in the once popular tourist destination of Castor Woods, having to navigate new factions and threats, with both humans and a new mysterious creature out to kill him.
After these years of experimentation,the zombie DNA and Crane’s have become intertwined to the point that he is able to unleash a beast-like power, making him far more powerful than he was inDying Light. While it’s unclear exactly what these new powers will entail, it’s possible that it will resemble that ofDying Light 2: Stay Human’s protagonist, Aiden Caldwell, who was infected by a volatile, and had to be wary of spending too long in the dark before he turned.
In some scripted sequences, where Caldwell had been in the dark for too long, he did begin to harness the strength of a Volatile, unleashing a flurry of brutal attacks on those he encountered. It’s likely that asDying Light: The Beastwas originally intended as the second story DLC forDying Light 2: Stay Human, that Crane may have a more regular way to tap into these abilities.
Considering Crane did opt to put the people of Harran above the GRE in a bid to find a cure, and also didn’t give up and detonate the nuclear warhead in the new canonical story, he is considered a hero. While Crane having zombie DNA could make him a threat, an official press release from Techland featured some quotes from voice actor Roger Craig Smith about his return to the role of Kyle Crane where he stated that “Even though he’s gone through a terrible time, there’s still plenty of legendary hero left in him.”
Dying Light: The Beastis available for free to those who ownDying Light 2: Stay Human’s Ultimate Edition, but for those who didn’t pick up the sequel and just want to continue Crane’s story, it will be available as a standalone title for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Techland has confirmed it will reveal more story details - including the release date - later this year to further explore Crane’s newest mission and the various survivors he will be assisting, but in the meantime, players can wishlist the upcoming title now onSteam,Epic Games Store,Xbox, andPlayStationto stay up to date.
