Dying Light: The Beast – Exploring Castor Woods | IGN First

Hello, my name is Katarzyna Tarnacka-Pulico and I'm the art director for Dying Light the Beast.

In Dying Light the Beast, we wanted to create a world that feels rich, alive and full of different places to explore.

The map offers a wide range of environments from lively town to dense forest, steep hills, riverbanks, swamps, farmlands and even an old industrial park.

Our amazing team of artists spent countless of hours hand-crafting the detailed and immersive world of Castor Woods.

The town is built on a slopey terrain, which really makes it different from the areas of Villador and Dying Light 2 Stay Human.

We wanted to make sure that the environment feels dense and diverse.

In this video, I would like to invite you on a quick tour of some of the places you'll visit in the game.

I will focus on how the game looks, but rest assured, each of those district environments also shape and change the gameplay experience.

And let's start with the tourist town of Castor Woods.

It was once a lively, busy place surrounded by beautiful mountains, forests and stunning national park.

People used to come here to relax, go skiing and enjoy the nature.

This type of landscape is very close to our hearts because some of us come from similar charming towns located in mountains, so we took inspiration from what we know and love.

As you walk through the old town, you'll find abandoned restaurants, pubs, city facilities or souvenir shops, all explorable with their own hidden stories.

From the town, tourists could easily venture into the nearby national park.

This vast forested area is filled with breathtaking viewpoints and rock formations inspired by real-world Table Mountains National Park in Poland.

You'll come across mountain lodges, picnic areas, and the park rangers' headquarters.

Tourism was the heart of Caster Woods, but not its only industry.

Let's head over to the industrial park.

Several factories once operated here, providing jobs to the local community.

Even though some were abandoned before the pandemic, buildings, silos, warehouses and production hall still stand.

They offer fantastic opportunities for exploration, looting and parkour.

Like many towns built around the turn of the 20th century near factories, worker houses were constructed nearby.

Simple residential blocks surrounded by playgrounds, grocery stores and green spaces for recreation.

Another key area of Casterwoods is the farmlands, inspired by traditional European countryside.

Here, residents produced and sold local specialties to visiting tourists.

Although this area is now partially flooded, you can still see how carefully crafted each farmhouse and its surroundings are.

Then there's the historic Villa District with its unique architecture, where Custer Woods' wealthiest residents lived.

You'll also find few hotels, guest houses, and restaurants here.

Every home has a unique garden and small details that hint who used to live there.

Of course, there's so much more waiting for you to discover.

I am incredibly excited about the many small stories that we packed into every corner of Dying Light The Beast.

The team responsible for this game is the group of the most experienced and amazing artists on board, and I'm very proud of their work.

This world feels so different from the urban setting of the previous Dying Light game.

and we're inviting you to spend a lot of time in this zombie apocalypse.

So we wanted to make sure that even with all this decay, it's still a beautiful zombie apocalypse.