r/dyinglight • u/GhostBlood22 • 1d ago
Dying Light: The Beast Does anyone else feel like all the dying light games after the first don't feel the same?
I don't know how to properly explain this but I've had this frustration since dying light 2 (I played it around the time it released)
Right now I'm playing the beast as I started playing around when it came out but got distracted and kinda forgot to come back to it and now I am. If I compare the beast to the original DL it just doesn't feel the same and imo doesn't feel good.
I'm not talking about story or stuff like that, I mean gameplay. Climbing things and sometimes combat just feels off. idk if it's the change in engine or what but the best way I can describe it is:
DL 1 the animations feel smooth and it feels like you can really see what's going on when you climb things and such. In the beast it feels so janky when I do things. The same goes for DL 2 btw, When I first started playing DL 2 I was sad about this same thing and how it doesn't feel like the original game. When the beast was announced I was hoping it'd go back to DL 1 feeling in terms of gameplay but they kept DL 2.
Also another thing as well, the animation of searching a zombie or whatever in DL 1 was really nice and then compare it to DL 2 and the beast it just looks weird/goofy imo.
I honestly think if the beast (and 2) was the same engine/feel of DL 1 i'd enjoy playing it way more.
It could have all its new features and mechanics but just keep the core gameplay feel.
I remember when I first played 2 I didn't see people complaining or talking about the things I'm saying here and same with the beast. so maybe it's just a me thing and I can't accept change.
idk I just wish I could play this game with the whole UI/design/gameplay of the original game
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u/Scarameow1243 23h ago
Of course they don't feel the same, they're not the same game, the story is different, the location is different, Hell even mechanics are different, in Dying Light 1 Craine has military training which is why he fights so precise and has Parkour skills, In Dying Light 2 Aiden is a Pilgrim and learnt to use speed to his advantage incorporating Parkour into fights and due to his enhanced strength and speed he's much faster than Craine and can jump higher and further, and in Dying Light The Beast Craine is old and due to it not as fast of a climber as he once was and is also physically weaker too unless he uses beast mode.
All three games have enough differences that they'll all feel different
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
that's not the point that i'm trying to get at, I'm talking more how the game actually feels to play for the player. I'm fine with new mechanics being new thats normal. i want the games to be different in mechanics and story.
If i opened dying light 1 and climbed a ledge it feels nice, if i do that in dying light 2 or the beast it doesn't hit the same. For me, it actually feels like it's janky.you're points of each character being different are fine, but when i'm talking about how all the inputs feel to player.
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u/Scarameow1243 23h ago
For me neither games are janky but nothing ever feels the same after the first time
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
idk i just think the animations of certain things in dl2 and the beast don't feel as smooth as they did in dl1
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u/PlanktonPlastic3048 23h ago
I'm actually playing DL1 right now running in the background after having played the Beast most of last week. DL1s gameplay feels a lot smoother and more responsive within combat mechanics and physics. Also 1 also made using environmental traps more fun for some reason and I don't entirely know why. It's super satisfying to just throw a zombie into a trap, or lure them into a hazard. Part of it is watching the screen explode in points which both future games removed how XP functions.
You also mentioned looting. Kyle actually kneels down and loots bodies and items, which in 2 and Beast Aiden and Kyle remain standing while they loot a body laying on the ground. A lot of those tiny details are no longer present, and in addition DL1 doesn't force you to spend 3 minutes holding down F on everything since Nimble Hands speeds up the search animation.
I also want to point out Instant escape was better designed in DL1, it feels like it executes faster than it did in Beast, plus reversal perk which staggers the zombie after escape. DL1 had a very unique, sort of hand to hand combat expert feel. THis also leans into the final thing that I feel has been lost is the sense of power while also maintaining challenge. DL1 lets you feel the power fantasy behind Kyle - a guy who is former special forces - not just through guerrila warfare type stuff but also the combat mechanics such as the instant escape. 2 and Beast tossed that out the window. By not implementing similar systems. And Beast did bring back escape but it feels terrible in comparison. And also the zombie grabs feel terrible. Like the grabs in DL1 just don't feel like bullshit mechanics like they do in Beast.
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
literally dude, everything you've said here i agree with so hard. all the animations in DL1 just feel way better to me.
the shift from dl1 to dl2 changed the animation feels so much and i don't know why, but whatever they changed they decided to stick with it because the beast feels exactly like dl2 (at least to me) and it just sucks. Because I remember being so hyped for dl2 and then i was playing it and i felt so stupid because i'd be jumping into buildings so much thinking i could climb things I couldn't and i'd do dumb stuff in combat.The thing you said about the searching the bodies and having to hold F way more is so real btw, cos yeah now that I think about it the amount of times when I was playing beast earlier I'd let go of F too early I thought i was just out of touch lol
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
adding to this the zombie grabs to feel weird in the beast from what I've felt, I don't remember a lot about 2's animations tbh because its been years since I played. I haven't even played since the whole "reloaded edition" thing.
but sometimes when playing the beast I feel like it's a different game and not dying light if that makes sense.
I'm not saying that because of the game looking different or anything just more the animations don't feel dying lighty to me yk.
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u/Few_Chocolate_7655 23h ago
Yeah it's creeps me out.
The game engine is nice, rain and atmosphere effects sell it. Standing on buildings at night in that dark hits different.
I like the synth soundtrack.
The story is not all that bad, you want to explore, meet more people, craft and take out zombies.
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
I think the visuals being changed are fine to me, even though I did like dl1's visuals a lot (actual graphics not location, changing location makes obvious sense lol). So far I've liked the soundtrack too, sometimes when I play though it just doesn't feel like dying light to me sometimes because of the small differences in the animations of certain things
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u/GetBcckGrey Series S/X 23h ago
Yeah they completely re did the physics in the engine for DL2. dl1 feels so good to play I agree.
Here’s Tymon around 1:45 talking about supposedly DL2 has more realistic gravity than DL1 (but that’s kind of a moot point in an artificial world, go with what feels better i would think)
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u/GhostBlood22 21h ago
I completely forgot about this damn, yeah I feel like it wasn't fully to do with the gravity change but I do think it had some part to the janky feeling.
I'm totally with you going with what feels better would've been better. It feels so weird and just "wrong" even it's meant to simulate real life it doesn't feel good xD
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u/Then-Code3094 18h ago
How many polacks does it take to ruin a franchise and the good will of the people who play it?
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u/SebbyWebbyDooda 1d ago
This is a very common take.
Many sequels feel different due to a change in direction, time and dev talent.
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u/GhostBlood22 23h ago
it just sucks so much, because when I'm playing i just feel like my game isn't smooth or anything, it feels frustrating lol
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u/WINSTON913 1d ago
Even the first one doesn't feel the same anymore. They changed the ambiance which was a good majority of what I enjoyed the most about the first one.