The Horror of Night is Back

Gameplay

Story

Soundtrack

Visuals

Genre: Zombies

Developer: Techland

Publisher: Techland

Franchise: Dying Light

Release Date: 18 Sep

Growing out of previous bad decisions

BY: Sabber, Mohamed

02 OCT 2025

Techland promised a return to formula with the third game in the series, Dying light: The Beast. The first game, which is highly revered by many set up high expectations for the follow up to
that Dying Light 2. That game was a real head turner. It had succesfully turned many heads…away.

In The Beast, Techland continues the story of the original game and brings back what made the
first game what it was. The Beast, originally planned as a DLC for Dying Light 2, is one of
the better games in the series. Yet, it is not
free from missteps.

Crane can not escape vengeance

The Beast takes place in the valley of Castor Woods, hosting a town surrounded by rural nature. Your only desire is to get your revenge on The Baron. But to be able to do that you need to get past his private army.

Once again, you are playing as Kyle Crane from the original. For thirteen years, you have been a captive for the main antagonist of The Beast The Baron, treated as a lab rat undergoing many gruesome experiments and torture.

During an experiment something goes wrong and chaos erupts. You jump on the chance to escape guided by an unexpected ally over
the radio. Once you make it outside you find yourself far away in the Swiss Alps.

So you start looking for survivors and helping them in order to get their favor, so they would help you get your revenge on The Baron.

You become the beast

The Beast succeeds in doing the most important thing the second game failed at making the
night dangerous! Volatiles and darkness are a legitimate threat in this game, as they were in
the first game.

The biggest change in this game is Beast Mode.
It is an ultra powered state that Kyle enters for a short period of time after filling up a gauge.

Attacking and killing zombies fills up the gauge.
A point of concern around this new mechanic
was whether it would ruin the game balance by being overpowered.

But it has been implemented in a way that does not affect balance at all. You will still spend a lot
of time using melee attacks on enemies it
mostly unlocks at the end of a fight.

Anatomically accurately disgusting

But there is some intense gore in there, not a lot of gore model variety but enough super detailed gruesome gore.

The bosses are uniquely interesting with each having a gimmick, but they are serious bullet sponges. Another thing that stands out in this game is gore, it is intense. Whether that is to
be considered good or bad depends on the
player and what they can stomach.

At first you have little control over when it can trigger; later on, as you improve Beast Mode
via ability points, you get more control over it.
The points are acquired by defeating unique
boss enemies called Chimeras. You come across them in story missions, which prevents Beast Mode from getting too powerful too
early in the game.

You do not feel as badass

Dying Light: The Beast is easily a strong entry point for players who did not play the original. It is a good, fun game that relates to the original. But for players
who played the original, like me it does
not hit quite the same. A stark point of comparison for me was in the parkour.
It feels much heavier when parkouring.
The original had weight
too, but felt agile.

Parkour in the original was the best and fastest way to get around, in this game you only have the town to parkour around with the rest of the map being flat landscapes.

It is more like The Following DLC for the original, but getting around in a car is not as efficient. Cars can be found at certain locations, but if you are not careful they will quickly explode.

The map itself is not too massive to walk around, but you do not get the adrenaline from jumping across rooftops that the original gave you.

Techland succeeds in making it up for fans

Techland delivers on the larger part for what they promised in The Beast. It follows well in the steps of the original while still being able to stand as its own game.

The story, like in previous entries, mainly serves as a motive to justify the action. Crafting requires too much looting though, and you do need to craft.

Parkour felt as if out of focus in the overworld.
But the combat is satisfying, the horror of the night is back, the visuals are decent and the performance was stable.

Taking about 20 hours to finish the main story line for USD 60 Dying Light: The Beast is an easy recommendation for zombie games fans.