Dying Light: The Beast - Beast Of The Bunch (Review)
- James Stephanie Sterling
- 2 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Dying Light: The Beast
Released: September 18th, 2025
Developer: Techland
Publisher: Techland
Systems: PC, PS5 (reviewed), Xbox X/S
I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with this series. I found the first game intensely mediocre and even when they fixed the second I still found myself irritated with much of it (why does every fast travel point unlock with the exact same long and tedious puzzle?). Despite this, I keep coming back to them.
If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that the series’ flaws can be uniquely intriguing.
Dying Light 2 was one of the absolute worst games of its year for a single reason - Techland decided the parkour system around which the entire series is built should be governed by a tyrannical stamina meter that made basic navigation unbearable. It took them years to finally patch out that bullshit but the improvement was immediate and dramatic.
Dying Light: The Beast thankfully starts on the right path. Not only is parkour fixed, it’s a better presented game overall, streamlined in comparison to what came before without trimming any actual meat. It’s definitely got its problems, but the series is finally starting to come into its own. More importantly than that though…
Crane is back! The one and only Kyle Crane, yes that Kyle Crane, is back! I love how the game’s store description hypes up Kyle Crane’s return, because it really makes Kyle Crane sound like a big deal, which Kyle Crane is because Kyle Crane is back, and this time… it’s Kyle Cranesonel!
Who the fuck is Kyle Crane?
That’s what I, someone who has played Dying Light more than once, wondered. I’m not saying the first game’s plot is so unmemorable that I can’t recall a single thing that happened, because in fairnes I almost remember one thing that happened, but yeah, Crane’s the main guy from the first one. I’m so excited that he’s back!
The Beast is a cocktail of the original game and its sequel, bringing back much of the former’s flavor with the latter’s refinements. The new alpine setting of Castor Woods feels like an attempt to recapture the way fans felt about Harran, and the ploy largely works. It’s a far more striking location than Dying Light 2’s, which very much became a generic city beyond the promising starting area.
Quaint tourist trap villages, fancy towers, and picturesque nature trails make up much of Castor Woods, bringing with it a different atmosphere than what came before in a positive way. It’s all quite pretty as well - Dying Light’s never been shy about contrasting the horror elements with a vibrant visual style, and it really pays off here.
Crane has been locked away for a good few years, subjected to horrific experiments by an absurdly evil doctor calling himself The Baron. Now he’s out for narratively classic revenge, gathering allies and strengthening himself by taking down a menagerie of Baron-brand monsters to consume their mutant juice. It’s a solid plot with a nice punchy script, and the Baron’s a perfectly villainous prick.
Being more of a standalone than a full sequel means Crane has several abilities unlocked already, so you can do things like wall run or bounce off ledges from the outset. You’ll access guns significantly earlier and more commonly than prior entries, though their tendency to spawn runners with their noise still ensures limited use.
Kyle’s skill tree can quickly get you to a flamethrower and new grenade types, the former proving itself to be an absolute treasure. Things unlock frequently, and after a bit of early game hell it really opens up. Turns out Dying Light is a lot more enjoyable when it doesn’t jealously withhold all the cool toys.
You’ll mostly fight the old fashioned way via a series of craftable and upgradeable melee weapons. They frequently need repairing as always, but walloping a zombie’s head concave or slicing the fucker off at its knees provides some delicious player feedback.
Repairs are nowhere near as prohibitive as they were last time, which is balanced by crafting and upgrading being less easy. The requirements for making almost anything includes wires, a common resource that feels rare due to how much gets consumed. You even need wires for throwing knives now, causing me to ditch my bread and butter from Dying Light 2.
While the parkour is free from mechanical tyranny, Techland’s preoccupation with stamina meters borders on obsessive - it’s still a major part of fighting and it truly adds nothing. Dying Light is at its best when you’re yanking zombies with ropes, whirling axes around, and landing hilarious dropkicks, not when you’re carefully rationing all of those things.
There really doesn’t need to be a stamina system anywhere in this series, especially since every enemy - zombie and human - can do whatever it wants for as long as it likes. I don’t see the fun in being unable to fight or dodge properly when a bunch of common bandits can duck and weave around your offense like it’s the fucking Matrix.
While we’re on the subject, why do regular ol’ bandits have superhuman reflexes in Dying Light’s world? Why can a random guy sidestep a dozen throwing knives like they’re nothing? I’ve seen enemies avoid an entire stamina bar’s worth of offense before and it just makes the game look stupid.
I guess it’s a crude way of encouraging tactical play, but it’s a bit hard to concentrate on elegant parries when a gang of these assholes are throwing shit, feinting their attacks, and doing impressions of The Flash. It’s especially silly here, given how Crane is literally supposed to be the superhuman one.
When you’re not beset with stamina woes, ninja bandits, or zombies spamming that fucking magnetized grab attack they do, smashing your way through Castor Woods can be quite entertaining. The thing about Dying Light as a series is that it really does have good fundamental systems which Techland undermines with a bunch of roadblocks and caveats.
The series has never been able to work out if it’s a gritty survival experience or an arcade action game, and splitting the difference doesn’t work. They really should focus on the arcadey shit though, since gameplay is just better primed for big dumb fun.
Muscle memory will get you for a while if you’ve played a lot of the previous title. As well as some parkour changes, healing has gone from holding a D-pad button to holding the same one you use for looting, reloading, and interacting. If you’ve got a fast healing item equipped, it’s far too easy to waste it while trying to search bodies.
Bodies are also weirdly difficult to loot if an enemy falls in one of Castor Woods’ myriad bushes. Despite being unsolid decoration, greenery seriously screws with container detection, making things either impossible to loot or only searchable if looked at from hyper specific angles. Some of the loose loot is strangely placed around the world, a few items being jammed so deeply behind furniture they can’t be picked up.
The Beast is a bugger for a softlock, too. More than once I’ve gotten stuck in a piece of terrain. I’ve also had quest events fail to trigger, forcing me to quit out and lose some progress. For a less hazardous but more common annoyance, if you receive a random distress call from a player requesting co-op, you can’t turn your flashlight on or off - accepting the call uses the same button and gets priority.
Vehicles are now part of proceedings. You can only access SUVs, which need fuel and can’t navigate enough of the world to ever replace running around, but they’re a welcome addition. Their handling is pleasantly smooth and it’s fun to smash into enemies, plus it’s really cool when a zombie mounts the hood and starts angrily headbutting the windshield.
You know what I like best about this game? It’s a simple thing, but they brought back runner zombies that creepily beg for mercy. In the first game, hitting the fresher infected could cause them to briefly cower and even vocalize fear before snapping back into a snarling monster. It was a fantastic touch that was severely downplayed in the sequel, so I’m glad to see the idea return.
Zombies provide more of a threat than they did in Aiden’s story and they look even more fucked up. There’s been a noticeable visual upgrade, showcased with grotesque glee in the procedural damage your enemies display. While it’s been present through the series, the physical ruination you wreak on enemies is significantly grosser. Faces are caved in and skulls are cracked open in ways one could best describe as juicy. It’s impressive in its own gruesome way.
The Beast also returns to a more grounded look after Dying Light 2’s slightly exaggerated art direction. Weapon effects aren’t as aesthetically extreme anymore, which is certainly good when it comes to elemental mods - having your flame axe brightly lit and loudly hissing whenever drawn was a huge distraction. I do miss the bombast when an effect triggers on an enemy though.
In a manner similar to Aiden, Kyle Crane has a tendency to Hulk out, though it’s significantly more prominent. Beast Mode is charged during combat and automatically triggers to give him enhanced speed and the power to literally pull mobs apart like paper. If there are barely any enemies when it triggers, a few runners thoughtfully spawn so it’s not a total waste.
Beast mode has a dedicated skill tree with points earned from the Baron’s unique Chimera monsters. Chimeran boss fights range from frustrating to pretty damn neat, and their defeat lets you unlock new moves and abilities for Kyle’s tantrums. This includes a manual trigger for Beast Mode, which turns it from a fun aside to a core part of gameplay.
Unlike prior games, there’s less emphasis put on the difference between day and night. It’s still there, with lethal Volatile zombies upping the threat level when the Sun’s down, but I wasn’t as tempted to explore past bedtime. Dark Zones aren’t more dangerous during the day anymore, each one being a self-contained stealth area where you have to take out patrolling Screamers.
I don’t mind this too much, mostly because it used to be really annoying to fill your map up with night activities you’d have to come back to. You’ll still get double XP if you want to risk the night, but most of the time I preferred to just sleep through it so I could get on without Volatile harassment.
A big thing I miss from the last game is an atmosphere of post-apocalypse society with new towns forming and factions attempting to govern. I miss stumbling on random survivor groups telling stories or playing guitar. It’s implied that even that fell apart by the time Crane got out, and Castor Woods very much brings desperate desolation back into focus.
For its many flaws, Dying Light 2 had a sense of hope and emerging culture that made it more unique than any of its gameplay. Still, if you were yearning for another bleak and miserable world, there’s plenty of it here.
A positive point I want to add is the music, which clearly aims for a “legally distinct” version of the 28 Days Later soundtrack but stands on its own regardless. Not since Crysis 2 have I enjoyed a main theme that plays so repeatedly throughout a campaign. It’s used so much you’d think it was the entire score, but when other tracks pop up they’re all really good.
Anyway, you better like that main theme as much as I do if you pick this one up, you’ll hear it every time you drive.
Despite my writing way more than I intended, you know what you’re in for if you’ve played an hour of any one of these games. Perfectly serviceable open world busywork that passes the time but has a certain mileage to it. At times I was engrossed, at others I was bored and playing through mere compulsion.
Dying Light has a routine and it doesn’t really deviate. Go to a mission area, try a door to find it’s locked, climb around to an alternate entrance, take out zombies, pull a switch or two, on and on it goes. The change of scenery is nice, and it’s not as bloated as its larger predecessors, but this installment has a firmly established pattern that has a set mileage depending on your tolerance.
Honestly though, that extra tightness helps. The nebulous tasks are way quicker than the utterly tedious ones from past games, with way fewer of those dire puzzles where you drag a length of cable around to power up electrical outlets. Dark Zones are less sprawling, safe houses are quick jobs to unlock, and you can acquire rewards at a decent clip.
Dying Light: The Beast benefits from a more focused approach than the series usually has. Its obligatory suite of repetitive jobs still wears thin during extended play, but overall I enjoyed this one more than the prior outings. It’s a leaner game with a better story and some nice touches. Some of the series’ long running flaws still need ironing out, and without them we could have a legitimately great game.
On a personal note, it’s really nice to see this series improve as it has over time. Despite being a vocal critic of its shortcomings, I want to love Dying Light, and if this represents where future games are going, I may just get what I’m hoping for.
7.5/10
