Dying Light might be one of the most underrated series to emerge and thrive over the past decade. Techland has released two very entertaining zombie games and spent years supporting them with compelling updates and DLC to lure players back in. Dying Light: The Beast originally started out as DLC, part of that long tail of Dying Light 2 support. But now, it has transformed into an entire game of its own. This expansion-turned-standalone game is a series celebration of sorts, combining the best parts of the two games that came before it.
The gorgeous visuals and visceral melee combat of Dying Light 2 have now been fully melded with the thrilling gunplay, protagonist, and driving mechanics of the first game in the series. Toss in some new Fury abilities that allow the player to go toe-to-toe with the most powerful zombies physically, and The Beast has enough of a distinct gameplay identity to make it feel distinct. After going hands-on with what was shown in The Beast’s latest gameplay video at Summer Game Fest Play Days, I think fans of the series should have no worries about this game delivering exactly what they want from Dying Light.
If you’ve played a Dying Light game before, The Beast will feel intimately familiar to you. Techland definitely didn’t do anything to drastically shake up the zombie franchise’s core formula; it’s simply offering more of a good thing. Fans of the first games should be happy to know that Kyle Crane returns as the main playable character in The Beast. Kyle isn’t doing so hot, though, as he’s on a revenge quest to track down the “Baron” who experimented on him.
My demo started with Kyle setting off to find said Baron. I started in the “Old Town” area of Castor Woods, a town full of buildings for me to parkour up and over. Parkour has always been one of Dying Light’s most distinctive features, and while The Beast doesn’t do much to refine it, parkour still feels great. I eventually left the town and explored the more rural parts of Castor Woods before nightfall, and I had to find a safe house to clear out and spend the night in. I played it stealthily and was able to secure the room and get some sleep without having to fight any threatening zombies.
I eventually went to a stronghold where Kyle thought the Baron was, stealthily parkouring and taking down enemies scattered before finding some more powerful weapons, like a flamethrower. This turned the tide against the human opponents I was facing, and I ultimately found a scientist and learned that I needed to take on a Chimera zombie by using a special gas canister I found at the stronghold. Narratively, The Beast is more like the first Dying Light in that players don’t make choices to impact the story, although that structure feels fitting for a game that features the same protagonist.
I transported the gas canister to an arena using a vehicle, activating it, and fought the Chimera zombie that showed up to cap off the demo. It was a particularly tough fight, as the Chimera hit hard and I needed to constantly dodge its attacks. This fight also exposed me to The Beast’s marquee new mechanic: Fury. After dealing or taking a certain amount of damage, players can activate Fury to use several different abilities. In my demo, it simply let Kyle Crane punch a lot harder, allowing him to take on even the toughest zombies. While the skillsets of Dying Light characters have always felt fairly grounded, The Beast seems set to change that, and that’s very exciting.
Outside of that Fury mechanic, The Beast did mostly just offer standard Dying Light fare, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Beast blends aspects of previous Dying Light games to create something that offers the best of both worlds. The weighty melee combo and improved visuals and parkour of Dying Light 2 are all on display, while the better protagonist, solid gunplay, and driving from Dying Light 1 are on offer in the same package. You can feel that this is a franchise that Techland has spent a decade refining, and they are now delivering everything good about it to players at once.
Dying Light: The Beast will come out for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on August 22nd.
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