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Ready for your next quest within Dying Light: The Beast? Meet you over there of the map in about… Ten minutes of travel? Fifteen? Really, however long it takes to arrive walking or driving, as Dying Light: The Beast seems to despise simplicity and desires Kyle Crane to struggle even further than before.

The lack of quick transport within the newest entry, the recent addition within a long-running series of zombie-slaying first-person games, is undoubtedly intended to promote discovery, however, its effect in my experience is encourage frustration. Although carefully considering the reasons that explain this expansive undead adventure does not need to have a fast travel option, every one fails — much like the main character, as I push him over a structure quickly.

Key Factors the Omission of Instant Movement Fails to Impress

To illustrate, you might argue that the title’s free-running is fantastic, and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but that doesn’t mean I want to run, jump, and climb nonstop. Admittedly, the game offers cars that are available, yet cars, route access, and energy stocks are scarce. And I concur that stumbling upon new locations is what makes an open-world game compelling, but when you have journeyed through a location multiple times, there’s little left to find.

Following my initial trip to the city’s historic district, I sensed that this game was deliberately increasing my transit period by scattering goal areas during similar tasks.

As soon as one of the side quests led me to a hazardous location in Old Town, I opened my map, looked for the nearest car, located it, headed for the historic section, used up my fuel, checked my map once more, ran the rest of the way, and, eventually, experienced an enjoyable moment with the undead in the hazardous area — merely to realize that the subsequent mission goal directed me back to my starting point, across the way of the game world.

The Argument for Quick Transport

I need to recognize that this game does not feature the most expansive landscape ever created in an open-world game, yet that is a stronger argument to support quick transport; if the lack of it annoys me on a smaller map, it would definitely bother me on a larger one.

Understandably, it would help to arrange quest objectives in a certain order, but is it truly about regarding “promoting discovery” if I feel compelled to reduce my travel time? It appears rather that I would be “reducing hassle” as far as I can. Additionally, if I feel invested in a storyline and wish to discover the next development (which is positive, designers!), I cannot desire to accomplish further task targets first.

Workable Alternatives for Fast Travel

There is a single point I can imagine advocating for preventing fast travel: You don’t get a straightforward way out. And I must confess, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the brief panic I feel as soon as the night arrives – but surely there are solutions regarding that. To illustrate, fast travel from Dark Zones might be banned, or quick transport spots could be positioned beyond secure areas, compelling you to take a brief sprint through the dark before getting to a safe place. Perhaps even better, the game could enable instant movement among quick transport spots solely, thereby you minimize travel time without the possibility of sudden movement.

• Instant movement could be restricted to automobile spots, for instance,
• require virtual currency,
• or be halted by surprise incidents (the risk to be attacked by surprise enemies).

Certainly, it is just reasonable to enable new fast travel points following discovering their vicinity.

The Best Reason supporting Quick Transport

Maybe the most convincing point in favor of quick transport, though, is choice: Even if a quick transport mechanism implemented, users who choose to journey exclusively on foot and by car would still have that possibility, while gamers with limited time to enjoy, or with less thirst for automobiles and climbing, could use that period on different game tasks. It, from my perspective, is the real sense of independence one should expect from an expansive adventure.