Dying Light The Beast is set to be the latest installment in The Dying Light series. The franchise has built a strong reputation for combining survival horror with open-world exploration.
With 2025 being a great year with many fun games so far, Techland is set to make waves by bringing back a familiar face and introducing a brand-new setting. Many fans are now curious about when and where this new installment takes place in the franchise’s timeline.
Dying Light The Beast: Where Does It Take Place?
Dying Light The Beast takes place in Castor Woods, a once-thriving tourist destination now overrun by zombies and hostile factions. The game is set 13 years after the events of Dying Light: The Following, bridging the gap between the first game and Dying Light 2.
This new location moves away from the large cities of earlier entries, instead offering a mix of natural landscapes, abandoned towns, and eerie forests. Castor Woods itself is designed with variety in mind.
Players can explore dense forests, national parks, steep hills, riverbanks, industrial zones, and even farmland. The town once drew visitors for its beautiful scenery, skiing, and outdoor activities, but now it serves as a dangerous playground full of infected and hidden secrets.
Its different districts, including factories, villas, worker housing, and a historic town center, make it feel like a lived-in world that fell apart after the outbreak. Each area offers its own challenges and exploration opportunities, ensuring the setting never feels repetitive.
Kyle Crane’s Return And The Timeline
The most surprising reveal of Dying Light The Beast is the return of Kyle Crane, the original protagonist of Dying Light. He was last seen in The Following, where players were given two possible endings.
One saw Harran destroyed by a nuclear blast, while the other hinted at Crane becoming a sentient Volatile. Dying Light The Beast confirms that the latter ending is canon. After escaping Harran, Crane was captured and held in captivity for 13 years, during which he was experimented on with zombie DNA.
These experiments left him changed, giving him beast-like powers that players will be able to use throughout the game. This places Dying Light The Beast directly between the original Dying Light and Dying Light 2.
It also helps in filling in a gap in the series’ timeline. While Dying Light 2 only mentioned Crane by name, Dying Light The Beast brings him back to the center of the story.
Castor Woods As A New Setting
Unlike Harran or Villedor, Castor Woods is not a sprawling city. It is a valley surrounded by mountains, forests, and rural landscapes. This change of scenery creates new opportunities for gameplay.
The national park areas allow for vertical climbing and parkour challenges. The industrial zones and farmlands provide tighter, more dangerous spaces filled with the infected.
The developers drew inspiration from real-world European landscapes, including the Swiss Alps and Poland’s Table Mountains National Park. The setting also takes cues from the eerie atmosphere of Twin Peaks, adding a layer of mystery and strangeness to the abandoned tourist town.
Castor Woods is more than just a backdrop this time around. It is full of secrets, strange characters, and unexplained events that add to the horror-focused tone of the game. These tight corners and on-the-toes encounters are bound to remind you of some of the most popular horror games.
Story And Characters Connected To Castor Woods
The story in Dying Light The Beast introduces both new allies and dangerous enemies. Kyle Crane must face the Baron, a powerful antagonist whose relationship with Crane adds depth to the narrative.
Other survivors, such as Olivia, bring out different sides of Crane, showing his humanity despite his beast-like transformation. Castor Woods also plays a central role in shaping the story.
Its mix of abandoned tourist sites, crumbling factories, and hidden cult-like groups reflects the decay of society after the virus spread. The town feels alive with both danger and opportunity, giving players a sense of constant unease as they explore new areas in Dying Light The Beast.
