Dying Light: The Beast Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

If there were ever to be a zombie apocalypse, I want to be in Kyle Crane’s shoes. You remember him from 2015’s Dying Light. Since then, Crane has aged 13 years more, locked up in an underground lab and undergoing unethical experiments at the behest of “The Baron.” Yes, even with the torture and needles poked through my arms, I still want Crane’s impressive parkour and hard-hitting punches on my side. Still, even with close-to-superhuman acrobatic and skull-crashing moves, beastly zombies mightier than you could easily strip away what’s left of your health. Predominantly in the dark of the night, when the Volatiles come out to hunt. 

All of this should be familiar to anyone who’s played Dying Light or the sequel, Dying Light 2: Stay Human. Not much has changed in the fundamentals of the gameplay system. Yet, there are new features and changes that might skew your decision to play the new game. With the myriad latest games spitting out of every store on every major gaming platform, Silent Hill f, Ghost of Yotei, Hades II, to name a few, you want to be extremely cautious of how you split your time between games. 

Should the newest entry in Dying Light warrant a roughly 20 to 40-hour playtime off your schedule? Or is it best left hanging in the background? Let’s find out in our Dying Light: The Beast review below.

Goody Two-Shoes

Thirteen years have passed by, trapped in an underground lab, and having all sorts of experiments done to you. It’s all been a torturous experience that has left you half-human, half-zombie. And just when your life as a lab rat seems to have borne fruit, you’re set free into the zombie-ridden outside world, your torturer claiming they have no more use for your body. Naturally, you’re hellbent on revenge. But first, an adventurous exploration of Castor Woods, the new location of Dying Light: The Beast, where you run into human survivors needing your help. 

Kyle Crane is an intriguing protagonist, I admit, with complexities I can only attest as being human. He’s frustrated, of course, and often grumpy. Yet, he still has a soft touch for others needing help. He’ll often stray away from his path of vengeance to lighten up another’s day. And it’s these facets that flesh out his character well enough to connect with him and care for his exploits. 

What’s been disappointing is the antagonist, known only as “The Baron.” He rules over Castor Woods with his private army and has tortured and experimented on more people besides Crane. An evidently big, bad boss you’ll build up to taking down. Yet, his character development leaves a lot to be desired. His background, motivation, and true nature are shallowly explored, leaving the story lacking.

Not just the antagonist but the overarching narrative as a whole. It’s a pretty silly and often predictable tale that will quickly wear on you. You might actually enjoy a better gaming experience when you skip the dialogue and cutscenes because exploring Castor Woods is where the true beauty of Dying Light: The Beast is at.

Into the Woods

It sure does look stunning. The lush green forests and intricate woodsy areas, with cliffs and lakes littered every few miles ahead. It feels like the European countryside brought to life in all its detail and color. And naturally feels serene to drive through. Oh, yeah. You definitely don’t want to be running into zombie hordes while admiring the sights. So, definitely hop into one of the trucks, ensuring you have enough fuel, and rummage through all of the zombies in your path. If not for survival, then to get to places quicker. 

There isn’t fast-travel, but with the trucks and smaller-scale map, there isn’t any real need for one. You’ll hardly feel wasted traversing across Castor Woods, connecting safehouses, side quests, and scavenger hunts. And it all comes with the bonus of a truly breathtaking world. True Dying Light fans, though, will be looking to parkour around the vistas, and Dying Light: The Beast doesn’t disappoint on that end, either. 

You explore a mix of forested regions and quaint villages. And all have taken a significant step in providing puzzle-structured walls and rooftops to parkour around. You’ll hop from rooftop to rooftop, climb cliff sides with ease, and close huge gaps slinging around your grappling hook. It’s all pretty smooth and fluid, feeling like a monkey that can see five steps ahead of all of the obstacles they need to jump on and manuever around. 

Much like Assassin’s Creed, perhaps even more fast-paced and frenetic, parkour feels damn near the best part about Dying Light: The Beast. If Stay Human’s parkour felt overpowered, The Beast’s is more realistic and dynamic, with hundreds of animations for sprinting, jumping, climbing, and swinging through branches that give it a more grounded, weighty feel and momentum.

Brain Spatter

Is there anything more fun than punching through zombie heads? Ripping their legs from their abdomens, and watching their disgusting gore spatter across the screen? This is the satisfying gameplay fans come looking for in Dying Light, and The Beast delivers beyond measure. All of the shabby baseball bats, blades made from road signs, wrenches, and more melee, makeshift weapons you pick up in the environment slash through zombies with a punchy and satisfying hit feedback.

And you can further craft elemental damage onto your melee weapons, giving them bursts of fire or poison that wipe out groups of zombies in a snap. Weapons have a durability limit, this time. So, you’re going to have to upgrade every so often before they completely break apart. Or resort to gunfire across the diverse shotguns, pistols, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, sawblade launchers, and more. But ammo is pretty limited, which you might then supplement with the bow and crossbow, also pretty handy for taking out ranged zombies. 

You definitely have more than enough tools to squash the brain-eating abominations hunting you down. But none, I argue, comes close to bare knuckles. Something about squishing your fists through flesh, and watching the fibres and blood ooze out of flailing bodies. Even with limbs taken apart and gaping holes through the gut, the zombies remain resilient, charging toward you until they are completely ripped apart.

It’s all a damn satisfying loop that never gets old, an aspect that Dying Light has perfected since the days of Dead Island. But in Dying Light: The Beast, it’s only going to get better for you when you unlock Beast Mode.

Hulk Smash

When you inflict or sustain damage, you rack up Beast points, which fill up a Beast meter. Unleashing it will make you faster, stronger, and more powerful. And for a short while, immune to attacks. So, you have absolutely nothing holding you back from hulking out. Mere fists punch through zombies’ heads and guts with ease, and throughout a bunch of them without losing health or stamina.

Upgrade your Beast abilities, and you can jump higher, scream to stun zombies around you, and more superhuman abilities. It could easily overpower you, making fights much easier and dull. But Dying Light: The Beast has perfectly balanced the meter to only become available when you desperately need it. So, you still remain always on the brink of dying, settling into that cyclic panic whenever groups of zombies descend on you.

And let’s not even get to nighttime, when the Volatiles come out to hunt. Even your Beast transformation is no match for these baddies, who’ll rip you apart if they catch up to you. Yet, the loot you can gain from nighttime provides that elusive risk versus reward ratio that cements Dying Light: The Beast’s best survival horror elements. Areas like Dark Zones hold the most loot as well, but are also zombie-infested. Or the military convoys with rare loot but surrounded by savage zombies.

Verdict

What was initially meant to be Dying Light 2: Stay Human’s DLC expansion has grown to become a worthy standalone entry, arguably much better than any of its predecessors. It’s a more realistic and grounded take on zombie survival that makes for a truly terrifying experience surviving deadly abominations of nature. You’ll certainly survive the onslaught, with the numerous and versatile combat and parkour abilities, but often by the skin of your teeth.

That tension entering a Dark Zone or facing those damn near unbeatable Volatile zombie types of the night remains intact in Dying Light: The Beast—the M.O. of the series we’ve come to love and adore, but with a touch of Beast mode. Ripping apart zombies with your bare hands will never grow old.

The story itself may be mediocre. But the gameplay more than makes up for it, delivering a satisfying survival horror experience that perfectly balances access to the tools and resources you need to live while also constantly putting you on the edge of your seat, cautious that any misstep might be the gruesome end for you.