The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Dying Light: The Beast.
Dying Light: The Beast is a return to form in more ways than one, with it not only bringing back the first game’s lead character, Kyle Crane, but also reuniting the series with its roots after the second entry took arguably too sharp of a turn. With the return of Crane in Dying Light: The Beast comes a revenge tale that sees the aging protagonist pursuing his former captor and tormentor, the Baron, after the villain performed experiments on him for 13 years. Due to the experiments, Crane has superhuman abilities that briefly turn him into a beast, granting him astounding strength and agility in the process.
While it was initially believed that Dying Light: The Beast was solely named after Crane himself, it turns out that it was a bit of a double entendre. In his pursuit of the Baron, Crane discovers another individual coined “The Beast” with powers similar to his own that have seemingly consumed him, leaving little of himself left — until Crane confronts him and quite literally beats the beast out of him. Once the Beast comes to, it is revealed that he is none other than Aiden Caldwell, the protagonist from Dying Light 2: Stay Human. Effectively, this puts the future of Dying Light in a similar position to Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man series, after its most recent installment introduced multiple protagonists that will presumably be playable in the next entry.
Dying Light: The Beast's Ending Hints at a Two-Character Future
A Marvel's Spider-Man 3 Comparison Raises Expectations
It hasn’t been confirmed yet whether this will even be a feature, but it can be assumed that Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 will have multiple playable characters — potentially including Silk (Cindy Moon), who was introduced at the conclusion of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Players were able to play as both Peter and Miles in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, swapping between them at their leisure during the open-world/free-roam parts of the game. As such, assuming Peter comes out of his supposed retirement in Marvel’s Spider-Man 3, players will get to swap between him, Miles, and Cindy during portions of the game that don’t require specific characters.
With Dying Light‘s Kyle Crane and Aiden Caldwell now united and apparently teaming up for the next entry, it’s possible that players could have the opportunity to swap between the two characters as they play through the story. Both protagonists now have special abilities that make them unique, although Caldwell’s abilities in particular haven’t been disclosed in the way that Crane’s have. With that in mind, assuming the next Dying Light game will allow players to use both Kyle and Aiden at will, each character would likely have a distinct playstyle to make playing with one or the other more worth it for certain situations.
Kyle and Aiden's Shared Future Could Reshape the Series
This could effectively redefine the Dying Light series as its fans have known it, giving them more freedom over their approach to gameplay than they’ve ever had. Until Dying Light: The Beast, the franchise’s gameplay and exploration largely came down to the weapons, gear, and materials players found and used, with this entry introducing far more distinct abilities than any game in the series has ever featured. Now, with Kyle and Aiden standing side-by-side on the frontlines, there could be an even greater emphasis placed on ability-based gameplay.
Of course, this is all purely speculative, as Dying Light 3 is still years away, but the shot of Kyle, Aiden, and Lydia at the end of Dying Light: The Beast‘s story suggests multiple playable characters will be in the series’ future, just like with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and potentially Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. In fact, Dying Light: The Beast is highly similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which introduced Miles as a playable character in the series before including him alongside Peter in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. While Crane was already a playable character, the way this entry sets up a partnership between him and Caldwell raises certain expectations for the future of Dying Light.