Dying Light director compares Assassin’s Creed Shadows to housework: «I sit down to play and know I’ll never finish it»

The director of Dying Light makes fun of Assassin’s Creed Shadows — saying that it’s like cleaning the house. And, to be honest, few people enjoy housework.

The head of the Dying Light franchise, Tymon Smektala, does not hide his thoughts about large-scale open-world games. In an interview, he directly calls Ubisoft’s new release a routine and explains why he considers smaller projects to be a much better approach.

In his opinion, the problem is that such games are becoming too big and complex for the average player, who simply does not have time to see everything. From this point of view, we can agree that some projects are too slow, although they are undoubtedly great. The easiest example here would be Red Dead Redemption 2, which requires at least 3-4 hours a dayto enjoy the process.

According to him, even though the player receives a certain return on the money spent, it does not necessarily mean that they will complete the title. Often it comes down to the fact that the user enjoys the mechanics or story only partially — that’s all.

And at this point, he did not miss the opportunity to praise his project — Dying Light: The Beast. According to him, the game will last about 20 hours and this is a conscious choice. However, he did not add that additional tasks and secrets will take another 20-30 hours, that is, — 50 in total. Meanwhile, the main storyline Shadows lasts 30-40 hours, which is still twice the size of The Beast. Because of this difference, Smektala considers shorter and more coherent experiences more important than giant maps that are difficult to navigate.

He also gave the examples of Alan Wake 2 and Control — games that can be completed in 15 hours, but which leave vivid impressions and give a real AAA experience. According to him, this approach is the right one: instead of endless content, we have a dense structure, moderate duration, and gameplay that keeps your attention until the very end. And it is worth recognizing that the intricate plot of two intertwining titles is not even close to being a hackneyed cliché.

It should be added that Techland doesn’t have the resources of Ubisoft or CD Projekt RED, but that doesn’t stop them from focusing on quality rather than scale. Smektala claims that Dying Light: The Beast has to justify «every pound, every dollar, every euro, every yuan» that the player will spend on the game. We’ll find out after the release on August 22, 2025, whether he lied to users.

Source: Games Radar