Dying Light: The Beast Review: Sticks The Landing, For The Most Part

Dying Light: The Beast is an excellent continuation of Kyle Crane’s story, though it doesn’t always stick the landing.

I have fond memories of 100% completing Dying Light over several sleepless nights. It felt like it came out at just the right time, as zombie games were getting old and something fresh and inventive was needed to soothe the fatigue. Parkouring across Haran did exactly that.

It’s been many, many years since we last saw Kyle Crane though, and the years haven’t been kind to him… After enduring 13 years of torture and experimentation by the new villain, The Baron, he finds himself in Europe with some monstrous new abilities, which he’ll need to face the new type of infected, the Chimeras.

Kyle’s new beast-like powers are a great addition to his arsenal. They’re activated once you’ve filled up your Beast meter, which can be done by hitting enemies, getting hit by enemies and executing perfect dodges. His melee attacks become swift but strong punches and sweeps, and further upgrades allow him to slam the ground, throw chunks of debris and more. I loved how dynamic this made combat, as the meter isn’t built for ranged or stealth attacks so sometimes I’d purposefully trigger a horde of infected just so I could cut them down and build my meter before an upcoming boss battle.

The boss battles come in the form of Chimeras. These are special infected engineered and mutated by The Baron’s experiments and usually have some sort of gimmick or special ability for Kyle to overcome, whether it be a smokescreen, ranged attacks and some other surprises… It felt like a zombified retelling of Shadow Of The Colossus, and while I was always excited to take on my next Chimera I do think more could have been done to spice up their battles. Hopefully this is something considered for the next game in the series as conceptually it’s a strong idea.

They say it’s about the journey rather than the destination though, and the Dying Light series has always strived to make traversal as fun and engaging as possible. Dying Light: The Beast does more of the same. Kyle Crane’s time as a captive hasn’t slowed him down one bit and has retained most of his skills from his debut game. The Old Town section of the in-game map is the perfect playground to familiarise yourself with the movement, with bars to swing from, poles to vault off and even some building interiors to dive through for a quick shortcut. Smaller towns and an industrial area offer less options for climbing but can still be fun to traverse. Unfortunately I found there to be just a bit too much wide-open space, and while Castor Woods is a gorgeous area to explore, sprinting across a field and occasionally hopping a fence or a car just wasn’t the same as soaring across rooftops. You can find cars to get from A to B quicker, and while they control great and are great time-savers, I don’t think anyone plays a Dying Light game to get behind a steering wheel…

Dying Light: The Beast also suffers from unresponsive controls much like previous instalments. There were several moments where Kyle would seemingly refuse to grab a very obvious handhold, and sometimes he’d even get stuck on the edge of a rooftop allowing whatever was chasing me to catch up and tear me to shreds. It’s not a game-breaker by any means but loss of momentum is death in a game like Dying Light, and having my flawless freerunning cut short but something out of my control was quite frustrating.

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One of the best things Dying Light: The Beast has going for it is the side content, and I’d actually go as far to say that some of it is better than the main story. Rather than being simple fetch quests the side missions enrich your experience by bringing you closer to the survivors you’re trying to save. You’ll track down the culprits behind some sadistic serial killings, reunite families and explore what it’s like trying to stay human without Kyle Crane’s immunity to the infected. They were really compelling and I’d urge you to play them all, especially for the XP and unique rewards for completing them.

The last thing I want to touch on is the day and night cycle. In Dying Light I loved venturing out into the dark and purposefully initiating a chase between safe areas. Dying Light: The Beast is the first game in the series to send a shot of fear down my spine when I saw the sun going down. Even with Kyle’s enhanced abilities the Volatiles still pack a punch, and despite my best efforts I could only narrowly escape them when I found myself within their sights. This is another area of the game that suffers with all the wide-open spaces, as being caught in the dark away from Old Town is practically a death sentence, as there’s hardly anything to climb to get away from the horde. The night continues to be one of Dying Light’s greatest gameplay mechanics, though I’ll be sticking to daylight for the foreseeable future.

Dying Light: The Beast is a must-play game if you’re a fan of the series, and gives a hero’s welcome to the protagonist that started it all. The new beast powers are a great addition to your arsenal and make combat more interesting, and the parkour is as fun now as it was all the way back in 2015. The game is only held back by a map with too much open space, and janky parkour that halts your momentum at the worst possible moments.

Pros: Beast powers add depth to the combat, Kyle Crane’s return couldn’t have come sooner, Chimera fights are exciting, when it works parkour is as fun as ever

Cons: Open-world perhaps too expansive to really enjoy the parkour, suffers from the usual janky and unresponsive controls

For fans of: Dying Light, Dead Rising, Dead Island

8/10: Excellent

Dying Light: The Beast is out now for PlayStation 5 (version tested) Xbox Series X/S and PC. A review code was provided by the publisher, Annapurna Interactive. Read a guide to our review scores here.