We’re mere weeks away from the (delayed) release of Dying Light: The Beast. This long-awaited game has been dubbed ‘Dying Light 3’ by many, including Techland’s franchise director. It’s an almighty iteration of the ten-year-old zombie apocalypse series that welcomes back Kyle Crane, who hasn’t been seen since the first game debuted in 2015.
Recently, Techland published a blog post diving into the evolution of Kyle Crane between Dying Light (2015) and Dying Light: The Beast. Time hasn’t been kind to Crane, and he’s been brought back to the players in a twisted, animalistic state – but he’s also a hunk and a complete thirst trap.
Why?
Crane Is No Old Man
In the post published on the Pilgrim Outpost, Techland explained that they didn’t want Kyle Crane to resemble an old man in Dying Light: The Beast:
We experimented with different approaches, and quickly discovered that details like graying hair or baldness are not an option as they made him feel like someone else or not as heroic as we envisioned him.
While that’s a kick in the gut for any graying or balding folks out there, it’s indicative of the desire to keep Kyle Crane young-ish and virile. That’s easily represented in the recent screenshots posted by the team, which could have been pulled straight out of a pin-up calendar featuring our man Kyle Crane:
According to Techland’s artistic experts, designing the new Kyle Crane was all about reflecting the decade-plus of abuse he’s suffered at the hands of his captors:
His model went through multiple refreshes, until we reached a look that felt authentic. The goal was to show, in his face and body, what over a decade of imprisonment and torture did to him. His body carries scars and marks left by experiments. We didn’t just design random wounds – we thought carefully about what kinds of experiments he might have been subjected to, and what kind of traces they would leave behind.
Everything from the hue of Crane’s eyes to the veins on his arms has been painstakingly crafted to reflect the new era of this legendary character, played perfectly in The Beast by Roger Craig Smith. The character model features a ‘duality’ that shows players there’s still something human inside the brute that is Kyle Crane.
Techland revealed that Kyle Crane will evolve as the game unravels, becoming less of a monster as the story unfolds and he finds something of his former self after breaking free from his torturers and exacting revenge.
Dying Light: The Beast will be released worldwide on September 19. Are you picking up a copy? Let me know on the GPlayr forum.
For more GPlayr coverage, check out the news that Bethesda still can’t talk about the next Starfield expansion