The unique Dying Gentle’s story ended with protagonist Kyle Crane struggling a depressing destiny; both blasted to atoms by a nuclear bomb or twisted into an contaminated. However that, it seems, wasn’t the finish of his story. Techland’s new entry in the collection, Dying Gentle: The Beast, seems to lock in the latter of these endings as canon, revealing Crane was held captive for 13 years, subjected to experiments by a villain identified solely as The Baron. Now free, Crane seeks revenge for the trials and tortures which have turned him into the titular beast. However, if what I’ve seen of this new Dying Gentle is consultant of the whole recreation, it’s not the beast powers that change the recreation – it’s the weapons.
Dying Gentle: The Beast started life as DLC for Dying Gentle 2, however developer Techland modified course after a few of its work was leaked. The venture bloomed into a full, standalone recreation (though in case you did purchase Dying Gentle 2’s final version you get The Beast for free – Techland promised DLC and intends to fulfil that promise). Maybe due to this origin, The Beast feels very acquainted. A lot of what I noticed in the 45-minute hands-off demo was very a lot a continuation of the 2022 zombie smasher, from the strong parkour, to the world design, to the ‘comply with the yellow cable’ puzzles that activate UV-protected protected homes. This actually doesn’t seem to be a ‘full’ sequel, however there does look like sufficient recent concepts to justify its transition to a standalone recreation.
The new map is extra rural, with one thing of a ‘village’ really feel. Sure, there are nonetheless buildings and rooftops to leap and vault throughout, however these are surrounded by dense woodland. The demo confirmed Kyle creeping by way of tall grass in an effort to keep away from nighttime horrors (which, as soon as once more, are a lot stronger than the zombies that seem throughout the day). Kyle notably doesn’t appear to undergo from the identical an infection Adien did in DL2 – there’s no immunity gauge ticking down on the HUD – so he can seemingly keep out in the darkish so long as he desires. His personal mutations imply he can see the illuminated skeletons of approaching foes, Batman: Arkham detective vision-style, which ought to support with stealth encounters.
The most vital new concept, although, is a extra distinguished use of weapons. Should you’ve performed Dying Gentle 2 with its latest Firearms replace then you definitely already know a little of what to anticipate – the pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle featured on this demo had been all the identical as these added to DL2 earlier this yr. However they appear key to the expertise right here, not simply a highly effective accent. The Baron’s henchmen are all paramilitary sorts with physique armour and rifles of their very own. Which means fight encounters with them are very, very completely different from the melee scraps with zombies and raiders that Dying Gentle has beforehand nearly solely survived on. The Techland worker taking part in the demo for us used grenades to flush out entrenched gunmen and flanking techniques to snipe others. These encounters had been prolonged, too; Kyle appears capable of carry greater than sufficient ammunition to chew by way of a number of squadrons.
Techland’s franchise director, Tymon Smektala, emphasised that Dying Gentle hasn’t been became a shooter. However I’d estimate almost half the demo was performed as an FPS. I don’t assume that’s a unhealthy factor, although, supplied the fight encounters, related stage design, and weapon suggestions all show profitable. It’s a sensible manner to offer a new spin on Dying Gentle’s in any other case largely unchanged components. Not having the ability to play myself means I can’t say how good all this really is, but it surely at the very least regarded like a competent shooter – hardly Name of Obligation, however strong sufficient.
The search for The Baron led Kyle into an underground lab the place some form of large creature had torn its manner out of a cage. A scientist there revealed it might be lured by a particular fuel, and so a cylinder of it was loaded onto a flatbed truck and pushed to a junkyard. Sure, driving returns from Dying Gentle: The Following, though the truck doesn’t look fairly as enjoyable as the enlargement’s buggy. Nonetheless, having the ability to hit and run zombies seems as pleasant as ever, as their undead our bodies burst and splatter in opposition to the headlights.
Releasing the fuel in the junkyard summoned the Behemoth, a hulk-like freak with an inflated well being bar and the energy to hurl automobiles. Firearms had been efficient at whittling that HP down, however when ammunition ran dry it shortly turned clear that melee weapons wouldn’t reduce it. And so, with simply a couple of minutes of the demo left, Kyle let the titular beast out of its cage.
In beast mode Kyle turns into stronger and sooner. He can choose up stone blocks and hurl them at enemies, in addition to carry out a floor pound that sends damaging ripples by way of the concrete, Hulk model. Simply tearing by way of the Behemoth’s remaining well being, the battle concluded with Kyle ripping the monster’s head from its shoulders in a gory victory transfer. Protected to say beast mode seems very highly effective, but additionally fairly just like the contaminated powers Aiden had in Dying Gentle 2. In contrast to Aiden, although, it looks like Kyle can remodel into the beast freely relatively than solely at particular story moments.
I’m stunned that Techland left the titular energy to the very finish of the demo. It meant there was little room to correctly discover why the beast is so central to the recreation, a lot in order that I do marvel if it really is as necessary as the title suggests. As an alternative, I left extra involved in how weapons and soldier enemies will change the general rhythm of Dying Gentle. Hopefully they’ve been neatly woven into the marketing campaign and really feel absolutely built-in relatively than awkwardly tacked on. If that’s the case, The Beast might properly show a worthy standalone recreation relatively than simply a respectable DLC bought individually.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.