Techland’s Dying Light: The Beast, the third installment to the acclaimed Dying Light franchise, comes out today. I love the survival-horror genre, and fondly remember getting into the boots of GRE Agent Kyle Crane deep in infected Harran; back when the first game of the franchise came out in January 2015. With Dying Light: The Beast just around the corner, it’s about time for a recap on the story over 10 years later.

Dying Light recap

The year is 2014. We find ourselves in Harran, a city-state in the Middle East.

We take control of Kyle Crane, a GRE Agent. His mission from the GRE was to drop into the quarantine zone inside Harran, and locate the Colonel. We are told by the GRE before dropping in that the Colonel had taken sensitive data which he was using to bargain with the GRE – Crane was contracted to recover it. Landing in Old Town, Crane is introduced to the state of life in Harran immediately. Bashed around the head by one of Rais’ thugs and then bitten by a Viral in his first few moments on the ground.

Crane was saved by survivors from the Tower. A faction of survivors living inside the quarantine zone, whom Crane allies with and helps in order to continue his clandestine search for the Colonel. Infected and constantly in need of Antizin (a GRE suppressant for the virus), Crane had to cooperate with the madness inside the walls to survive. After many trials and tribulations, it is revealed that Rais, the leader of another faction is the Colonel that Crane was sent to find and retrieve the stolen data off. Through his journey in Harran, it is further revealed that the GRE wanted to weaponize the virus and that the data Crane was sent to recover was in-fact proof of it. When Rais realizes Crane’s allegiance to the GRE, the file is publicized to the world, and Crane fails his mission.

However, throughout the game, Crane meets doctors who are working on a cure – something more permanent than Antizin. Crane’s new mission is to that of the people of Harran: to ensure the cure is developed. The Doctor leading the research is killed by Rais and his men, and the data of his research is stolen by Rais in an attempt to bargain a way out of Harran with the GRE. Rais challenges Crane to a final showdown atop one of the towers, where Crane eventually kills Rais.

Despite the GRE offering a way out of Harran provided Crane give them the research, Crane refuses. Determined to help the people in Harran, Crane journeys to a doctor trapped deeper inside the quarantine zone, handing over the research data so that a development for a cure could continue.

Dying Light: The Following recap

Research on the cure proved more difficult that thought. Antizin ran out inside the quarantine zone faster than expected and the airdrops into Harran had stopped shortly after Crane arrived. The Tower hears tales of a community outside Harran’s city limits was resistant to the infection. Intrigued and desperate, they send Kyle Crane to investigate.

In the countryside, Crane meets survivors who follow the Mother, the head of the Children of the Sun. In the farmlands Crane learns that with a blue substance, followers and members of this religion were ignored by the infected. To get closer to learning about this mysterious substance, Crane helps the Children of the Sun until he is welcomed into their organization.

After battling the remainders of Rais’ gang, who sought to control the substance and overthrow the Children of the Sun, Crane builds up enough reputation with the group to be invited to speak with the Mother.

In the meeting with the Mother, she reveals that the cure Crane is looking for isn’t actually a cure at all. The blue substance is actually a failed bioweapon created by the military, which the Mother uses to protect her followers. The catch being it doesn’t just protect people, it transforms them into something else. Her identity is then revealed to be a form of Volatile – a sentient version which can control themselves during the daytime.

The Mother offers Crane two endings that the player can choose from here; one is a nuclear option, which annihilates both Crane and the Mother along with Harran – saving the world from the future. The second option is to reject the Mothers request to nuke Harran, where she then forces Crane to ingest the liquid which transformed the Mother and tries to kill him. Crane kills the Mother instead, and then leaves the facility – making it out of Quarantine zone walls and into the open air, finally succumbing to the transformation.

The Beast awakens

As we are taking control of a half-beast half-human Kyle Crane in the new game, we can assume that the canonical ending to Dying Light The Following was rejecting the Mother’s request, ingesting the Volatile vial and escaping the walls of Harran…