Dying Light The Beast reveals 11 weeks of freebies and its most-requested new mode

Of all the games to release this year, Dying Light The Beast has probably surprised me the most. It's not that I thought it would be a bad game, I just thought that releasing amid the likes of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, and Battlefield 6 would leave it flying under the radar a little. I thought it might be a game we'd grow to love, to look back on in a couple of years' time and say, 'that was an underappreciated gem,' or suchlike. But no. It hit the ground running, immediately finding a place in our best zombie games list, and it isn't showing any signs of losing steam. Techland has now announced an 11-week roadmap of post-launch content, including community challenges, a higher difficulty setting, and New Game Plus.

Dying Light The Beast is already an excellent game - more excellent than I think most people imagined it'd be. Paul's review gave it a very commendable 8/10 score, and per its Metacritic average score, it's the top-rated new zombie game of the year. However, as it showed with the previous two Dying Lights, Techland will bring plenty to the game post-launch, and this new roadmap is the first step for The Beast.

Let's talk about the community bits included in it first. Call of the Beast is an initiative that sees Dying Light The Beast players work together in order to unlock rewards every Thursday for the next 11 weeks. We'll be set a goal each week and, provided we succeed in completing it, we unlock exclusive rewards. Some of these are just cosmetic skins, but new weapons have also been promised as a part of the rewards.

If the community completes 17 of the 22 goals, we'll get our hands on a legendary reward at the end of the event. If we complete 20, then everyone will get all of the rewards, regardless of participation.

While there's not much information about near-future updates, Techland teases that New Game Plus is inbound. The developer knows it's an important thing the community wants to be implemented, and it's great to hear that it's on the way. It's all well and good asking us to unlock new gear for the next 11 weeks, but if we've already maxed out our power, there's not much else to do.

A new Nightmare difficulty mode should else help cure any potential boredom - although it sounds like something I'll try once but immediately nope out of, only to return to more comfortable climes.

More executions, ray tracing support on PC, and quality of life improvements are also in the pipeline and will be welcome additions.

If this has got you thirsty for gore and carnage, check out our list of the best horror games. Make sure you stay up to date with the latest Dying Light The Beast docket codes, too. Don't want to miss out on those freebies.

If you're heading into Dying Light The Beast, check out our community Discord server, where staff and readers compare tips on how best to decapitate zombies.