At its core, Dying Light: The Beast is a simple revenge tale, seeing the first game’s protagonist return after being captured and tortured for 13 years. With his eyes now on the Baron, his captor and tormentor, he is all vengeance, using his new Beast powers to propel his journey forward and finally give his nemesis a taste of the creature he helped create. Even with Dying Light: The Beast‘s main narrative being all about revenge, though, there is far more story that players can find on the side, so long as they regularly detour from the path set before them.
Revenge stories tend to go one of two ways: either they feature underbaked, one-dimensional protagonists whose motivation for revenge masks or completely strips them of their humanity, or they can be conflicted in their pursuit of vengeance, with that inner turmoil resulting in some deep character development. Dying Light: The Beast‘s revenge narrative falls on the former side of things, portraying Kyle as someone purely motivated by revenge, with almost no conflict taking place within him. However, that’s where the game’s side quests come into play, as they show the side of Crane and many other characters that the main story never does.
Dying Light: The Beast's Side Quests Carry Its Most Human Storytelling
Kyle's Humanity Shines Beyond His Revenge Story
Throughout Dying Light: The Beast‘s main story, Kyle Crane is little more than this rage-filled anger machine bent on killing the Baron and ending his perverted torture of innocent people. With the narrative revolving around that one thing alone, then, there is very little room for Crane’s humanity to surface, especially considering the personal side of his journey that sees him wrestling with the inhuman Beast inside that the Baron helped create. Should players spend time on the game’s side quests, however, they might be surprised to see just how human Crane can be.
In these moments, Crane is exposed as a compassionate individual who will stop at nothing to help people, even if it means retrieving a special keepsake for a dying woman from her home that has long been ransacked and abandoned. There are moments when Dying Light: The Beast‘s side quests even encourage Crane to soak in the view of Castor Woods, offering a brief respite and a time of reflection amid the zombie apocalypse. No matter how ludicrous or seemingly unnecessary the request may be, Crane accepts them and vows to fulfill them, showing his heart and humanity in the process.
Side Characters Reveal the World's Beating Heart
It’s not just Crane’s character that Dying Light: The Beast‘s side quests help develop either, as the world and its other inhabitants come to life in a big way when these quests are completed. There are characters in Dying Light: The Beast‘s two main hubs that players might never even know exist without completing their side quests, and it’s characters like these that make Castor Woods feel like an actual living, breathing world doing whatever it takes to survive. In fact, the characters at the heart of some of the game’s side quests, like Starchild, are more interesting than many of those only met within the main story.
Given how much character development happens during Dying Light: The Beast‘s side quests, it could be argued that they aren’t really all that “side” in the end. Rather, they’re essential to truly seeing and understanding Kyle Crane and the many characters he interacts with. By completing every side quest in the game, players can get a much stronger grip on the humanity still left in Dying Light: The Beast‘s decaying world, but that’s just it. As side quests, they’re not only not required to finish the story, but that means they’re missable too. Given their importance, however, players should do whatever they can to not miss them.