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Ready for your upcoming mission inside Dying Light: The Beast? See you across the way of the game world in roughly… Ten minutes? Fifteen? Truthfully, whatever the duration to get there by running or vehicle, because this intense game clearly dislikes simplicity and aims for the main character to suffer even further than before.

The lack of instant travel inside Dying Light: The Beast, the recent addition in an enduring franchise of zombie-slaying first-person games, is clearly meant to foster adventure, but all it does in my experience is to cause annoyance. Although meticulously examining the arguments for which this open-world zombie survival game shouldn’t include quick transport, all of them disappoint — much like Kyle Crane, when I rush him off an edifice hurriedly.

The Reasons the Omission of Fast Travel Disappoints

As an instance, one could claim that the title’s movement system is superb, and I’d wholeheartedly agree, yet that does not imply I wish to run, jump, and climb constantly. True, this adventure includes automobiles I can use, however, transport, road access, and energy stocks are scarce. And I would agree that discovering unseen places is what creates a sandbox title engaging, but when you’ve traversed an area multiple times, there is not much remaining to explore.

Subsequent to the first time I went to the urban Old Town area, I got the feeling that Dying Light: The Beast was purposely lengthening my transit period by dispersing objective locations during similar tasks.

Once an optional task guided me to an unsafe area in the historic zone, I checked my map, searched for the closest vehicle, located it, headed for Old Town, ran out of fuel, opened my map again, hurried the rest of the path, and, eventually, had a great encounter with the undead in the hazardous area — just to discover that the subsequent mission goal returned me to my starting point, on the other side of the game world.

The Reasoning in favor of Fast Travel

I need to recognize that Dying Light: The Beast doesn’t have the most expansive landscape ever created in an open-world game, but that is even more reason to argue in favor of instant movement; if its absence bothers me on a reduced landscape, it would certainly bother me on a larger one.

Naturally, it would assist to plan task targets in a specific sequence, but can we honestly say regarding “promoting discovery” if I am obliged to minimize my transit? It appears rather that I would be “reducing hassle” to the greatest extent. Additionally, if I feel invested in a storyline and want to know what happens next (which is a good thing, developers!), I cannot desire to complete additional mission goals initially.

Possible Fixes regarding Instant Movement

There is just one argument I can think of supporting banning instant movement: You avoid a straightforward way out. And I must confess, I do not desire to lose the brief panic I encounter whenever night falls – but undoubtedly there are workarounds for this. To illustrate, instant movement from unsafe zones can be restricted, or quick transport spots could be placed away from protected zones, obliging you to make a short run through the dark before getting to a safe place. Maybe even more effectively, Dying Light: The Beast could allow instant movement between fast travel locations exclusively, thus you reduce travel time without the option of instant teleportation.

• Fast travel could be restricted to car locations, for example,
• require virtual currency,
• or get disrupted by surprise incidents (the risk to get assaulted by unexpected fiends).

Naturally, it is only logical to activate new quick transport spots after exploring their surroundings.

The Best Reason for Quick Transport

Possibly the best reason in favor of fast travel, however, is freedom: Even if a fast travel system implemented, gamers who like to journey exclusively via walking and vehicles would still retain that choice, however, users with reduced availability to play, or with less thirst for vehicles and free-running, could allocate that duration on additional virtual pursuits. This, in my view, is the true feeling of liberty one should expect from an expansive adventure.