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As a standalone release, Dying Light: The Beast attempts to address the qualms of fans underwhelmed by Dying Light 2: Stay Human, returning to what worked in more popular predecessors. In doing so, the horror-action game settles into a familiar formula, at the expense of adding much new and exciting.
Given it was initially intended to be DLC, The Beast is deserving of a separate release. The new setting, Castor Woods—a European tourist haven completed with an Old Town—is a sizeable map with plenty to see and do. Taking me an estimated twenty hours to complete the main quest line, The Beast doesn’t skimp on story, with Kyle Crane returning as the protagonist to progress the narrative beyond Stay Human.
Storytelling is more than serviceable too. Playing mostly solo, usual twists and turns kept me interested enough even if they were mostly predictable by the end. The dialogue was a little lacklustre, the voice performances suffering as a result, but there’s reason enough to ask your co-op partner to not talk over a cutscene.
The game’s villain, the Baron, was a little one-dimensional but an otherwise memorable cast of new characters introduced worthwhile side stories that kept me engaged as I gathered XP, unlocking a skilltree of largely familiar abilities.
Unsurprisingly, a large emphasis is placed on your Beast abilities, developing one of the few innovations introduced in Stay Human that’s been preserved. Taking down experimental Chimeras of the Baron’s rewards you skill points specifically used in unlocking new Beast abilities. After dealing or receiving sufficient damage, you can unleash your Beast powers for a limited time, punching harder, running faster and jumping higher.
Taking down these Chimeras makes up much of the gameplay loop in the first couple of acts of the game, extracting GSB from their remains to strengthen yourself enough to enact revenge on the Baron. Whilst the first few Chimeras make for unique boss fights, variety in combat encounters continues to subside the further into the game you progress.
Combat and parkour mechanics are however as strong as ever, and continue to make the series as enjoyable moment-to-moment as it ever has been. Whilst the glider introduced in Stay Human is absent, usual traversal mechanics including ziplines and a grapple hook make a return. The map design—melding medieval towns with complex cave systems, rocky escarpments, rolling countryside, dense forests and industrial centres—makes for a fun playground to flex your parkour skills.
Whilst vehicles are back, there’s a distinct lack of variety and customisation. I only ever encountered the 4WDs of park rangers. Whilst they’re fun to drive, the game lacks any of the upgrade and customisation the buggies in The Following had.
Here I’ll commend Olivier Deriviere’s score. The soundtrack was pleasantly memorable, distorted synths kicking in at just the right moment to make a frenetic drive or hasty escape of a Volatile at night all that more tense. One particular track felt terribly reminiscent of something from 28 Days Later that perfectly complemented the sound of zombies ricocheting off my front bumper.
As for visual presentation, again I was left wanting a little more. Whilst I can’t fault the games optimisation—comfortably maintaining 60fps in performance mode on a base PS5—the game does not feel it pushes details and characters beyond the quality of what we’ve seen in Stay Human or the Enhanced Editions of prior games.
Should this be a necessary sacrifice to keep the game running smoothly in co-op however, it’s worth it. The ease with which friends can drop in and out of your game, progressing their character and story where it aligns, is very welcome. Even with my misgivings, I’d gladly replay chunks of the game with friends.
I’d forgive some of my gripes had I not encountered so many bugs. Frequently, I’d be asked to eliminate enemies already cleared from an area, forcing a game restart. In a more frustrating example, what should have been one of the more interesting missions in the game was spoiled for me and my co-op companion when a state that was meant to make us imperceptible to zombies wasn’t working correctly. Only by comparing my vision to recorded gameplay of another did I realise I was encountering a glitch, again corrected by a system reboot.
Whilst I expect these bugs to be fixed soon, a lack of save management system, or even a reload checkpoint option, made these bugs more troublesome than they otherwise could have been.
