Dying Light: The Beast Review – Always Angry

It was a pleasure to see Kyle Crane again although I wish that meeting had been under better circumstances. Despite that, my time with Dying Light: The Beast was a complete blast, and the Castor Woods are full of entertaining ways to kill, and be killed. Nothing comes cheap in Techland’s latest outing, and Crane’s latest adventure is all the better for it.

The Beast is an engaging new adventure, and features a survival horror gameplay loop that puts the onus of balancing time between various activities, both narrative and otherwise, on its players. Despite his newfound powers at the hands of The Baron, an antagonist whose cold-hearted apathy is a sight to behold, Crane is still human enough to feel the pain of each swipe, bite, or punch from the Infected, who have become quite vicious in the thirteen years since he last saw them.

Thankfully, he hasn’t forgotten the valuable parkour skills that Rahim taught him during his time in Harran, and guiding him around the world is probably among my favorite parts of the experience. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t shine in other areas but the traversal mechanics in this game showcase just how much of pride and effort Techland has poured into this title.

You leap, swing, and scurry around both indoor and outdoor environments with ease, blazing a path to your next objective thanks to a system that blends very well with environments designed to support it. Movement’s been de-floated and deepened: no stamina drag, tighter physics, and a bigger library of climbs and hand-offs that keep the flow seamless. Castor Woods is laid out like a momentum maze: stacked rooftops, logging rigs, and even hop-in trucks let you stitch routes across wide, forested gaps.

"The traversal mechanics in this game showcase just how much of pride and effort Techland has poured into this title."

We begin the tale with Crane, a prisoner of the Baron, enduring unspeakable horrors at the villain’s hands. His situation seems bleak until things go south at the Baron’s lab, allowing him the chance to regain his freedom, helped along by Olivia, a mysterious woman who wastes no time in inviting herself onto Kyle’s list of allies.

She guides him through the facility before meeting him in person, cautioning him against a blind rampage against the Baron’s superior forces. Things get quite intense from there on, and Crane’s quest for revenge against the man who forced him to endure the horrors of the last thirteen years quickly becomes a compelling story that kept me curious to find out what happens next quite consistently.

Kyle’s new Beast Mode is introduced quite quickly in these early hours, and is a constant presence in his journey. Olivia tasks him with hunting down and killing Chimeras, a new enemy type that more than earns its terrifying reputation, and gathering potential allies who can help him in the fight ahead. It’s Dying Light as you remember it, and the people you meet are every bit as memorable as the ones from previous titles, each coming with unique backstories and presenting moments that are quite haunting and reflective of the dire circumstances that the world finds itself in thanks to the THV virus.

"Crane’s quest for revenge against the man who forced him to endure the horrors of the last thirteen years quickly becomes a compelling story that kept me curious to find out what happens next quite consistently."

You’re more or less free to explore Castor Woods as you please at this point, and its map is littered with things to do. However, actually doing them is no walk in the park. Taking on hordes of Infected is almost a death sentence in this game, and luring one or two away from the pack to safely dispose of before repeating the cycle all over again is going to save you a lot of frustration, if not time. The world is quite well-designed, as one would expect from a Dying Light title, balancing the survival and horror elements of its formula with aplomb to make it one that you could spend hours in without even thinking about taking a break.

The game’s combat system starts out serviceable, but gets better once you’re able to get your hands on better weapons, either by finding them out in the world, or by crafting them at workbenches in your safe zones. I must give a special shout out to the way Techland made good use of DualSense 5’s haptics, with each swing of my weapon causing my controller to rumble away in my hands. However, your melee weapons aren’t going to last forever, and hanging on to them means that you’re going to be diving into your inventory menu to repair them, using up valuable resources to do so every time.

That’s quite a bummer since most resources are quite scarce, and new weapons and upgrades require a ton of them.Don’t be surprised if you’re left without a weapon or low on ammo just as a swarm of Infected comes crashing in, forcing you to bolt before you’re torn apart. Firearms can hit hard in a pinch, but keeping them viable is tricky, ammo is scarce, and you’ll need to hunt down blueprints and scavenge supplies just to craft enough. And remember, all of this is just during the day!

"The world is quite well-designed, as one would expect from a Dying Light title, balancing the survival and horror elements of its formula with aplomb."

At night, things get worse. A whole lot worse. The Volatiles are back, and are absolutely terrifying. They come at you with everything they have, leaving you with no other option but to turn tail and run once you’re spotted, unless you’re close to activating your Beast Mode and standing a chance at taking them down.

The Beast Mode mechanic is quite a nice touch. In the game’s opening hours, landing hits on enemies adds a bit to your Beast meter, while taking damage reduces it a little on higher difficulties. Filling it up lets Kyle go ballistic on any Infected unfortunate enough to get in his way, but things get really interesting after you take down a couple of Chimeras and harvest their blood for GSB, a stimulant that grants them their power and allows Kyle to tap into his own newly found power.

That’s because taking down Chimeras nets you a point to invest in your Beast Skills, and one of the early unlocks on this upgrade path lets you unleash Beast Mode at your whim. It’s where the game’s combat came together for me, allowing me to strategically fill up my Beast meter by cautiously fighting off a few Infected at a time, harvesting them for resources that let me fill up my inventory with healing items and useful supplies and keeping my weapons good and ready for the challenge ahead.

"Firearms can hit hard in a pinch, but keeping them viable is tricky, ammo is scarce, and you’ll need to hunt down blueprints and scavenge supplies just to craft enough."

This careful preparation is a part of the gameplay loop, and is almost a prerequisite before diving into any of the story or side missions, which are quite challenging. I began the game on the hardest difficulty and quickly dropped down to normal, where I spent the majority of my time with The Beast. There’s no shame in dropping further down to easy mode considering that you don’t lose valuable XP every time you die, a penalty imposed on you in other modes. You could choose to bring a friend along via multiplayer co-op if things get too intense.

You’ll need every bit of XP you can scrape together even on normal difficulty, since Kyle’s skill trees all pull from the same pool of points. I gravitated toward the combat tree, the Drop Kick alone is worth it, but the other branches add plenty of useful perks, each layering in small but meaningful upgrades that make surviving the Castor Woods a little easier.

Each mission feels distinct and unique, and even side content like looting convoys, reactivating safe points on the map, or visiting Infected infested locations for more rare components felt varied enough to keep things entertaining. It isn’t just the new enemy types that make it so, though their variety is one of the game’s strengths, but also the way each location feels carefully crafted to sustain the tension. You’re pushed to investigate every nook and cranny, or risk leaving behind something you’ll really need later.

"You’ll need every bit of XP you can scrape together even on normal difficulty, since Kyle’s skill trees all pull from the same pool of points."

The Infected come in all shapes and sizes, and you can expect to find them lurking wherever there is anything of value to be found. I found the Goons to be particularly bothersome, their hulking size and brute force causing me to be very careful with my dodges and strikes. The quicker ones among the Infected are also quite troublesome in the field, often coming with a whole pack that can throw off your timing often enough for them to be considered a serious problem.

Dying Light: The Beast does what it sets out to do very well , and its performance on the PS5 felt incredible. Although I personally prefer a better framerate to graphics on my games, its Quality mode is also a great option considering how vibrant the game’s environments are in the day, and how suffocating they are at night. The game’s audio design is another highlight, the soundtrack and voice acting proving to be quite effective for their respective purposes.

I wish that Kyle had a tad more charisma despite the narrative grounding of his character justifying his gruff demeanour. His story is a lot more personal, and very dark this time around, and Roger Craig Smith does a seriously good job of conveying his barely suppressed rage and the burning desire to settle scores with The Baron. He could stand to crack a smile or a snarky remark from time to time, though.

"The quicker ones among the Infected are also quite troublesome in the field, often coming with a whole pack that can throw off your timing often enough for them to be considered a serious problem."

Overall, Dying Light: The Beast is quite the entertainer, and is very easy to recommend to both newcomers to the franchise, and veterans alike. Those of you who’ve played the previous games will likely have an easier time with the opening hours. That said, it’s still fairly easy to get up to speed even if you haven’t, just don’t start on the hard difficulty like I did.

This is a survival horror title that’s quite fun to play and captivating enough to keep you invested in its story. It’s safe to say that Dying Light is back, with a bang.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.