21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Dying Light: The Beast adds more monstrous ways to thrive in a brutal but luscious parkour paradise
Kyle Crane's return is so far shaping up to be a worthy entry into the Dying Light franchise, with the setting of Castor Woods and new monster powers being the stars of the show.
Techland's next open-world zombie slash-a-thon keeps things familiar for the better, wrapping it around a new location and a fresh combat system to make roleplaying a monster an absolute blast.
It's somehow been 10 years since the original Dying Light rose up from the ashes of Dead Island to become one of the most popular (and surprisingly consistent) zombie games ever. Rather than look fully ahead for its next entry, however, Polish developer Techland also finds itself equally willing to peer back, choosing to combine elements old and new to make a concoction that all series fans will likely adore.
Dying Light: The Beast, as a DLC expansion-turned-full game, not only does this by having a beastlier version of the first game's protagonist return, but by also bringing a renewed focus on making the game scary again thanks to some truly tense night-time scenarios and bigger, more dangerous Volatile enemies to face. All this, mixed in with some truly monstrous ways to dispatch the undead, is already helping the game's parkour paradise premise come alive like never before.
Having enjoyed 2022's Dying Light 2: Stay Human well enough but preferring Kyle Crane's original 2015 adventure, I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good to be back in the character's shoes for this third full instalment. The hero of Harran he may be, yet a lot about him has changed since the end of Dying Light: The Following's canon ending.
This most noticeably comes in the form of voice actor Roger Craig Smith's much gruffer tone of voice, way more F-bombs, and a new infection type that has seen Kyle gain new monster powers where he can occasionally hulk out. The latter of which might suck for him personally as a character, but works brilliantly for us as players since trying to successfully navigate a world where thousands of undead flesh-eaters roam is no longer about merely surviving, but viscously thriving too.
My three-hour preview session kicked off shortly after the game's beginning, with Kyle fresh off escaping the clutches of a villain known only as the Baron, who has had him caged up like an animal for the past 10 years. Kyle chooses to use his newfound freedom not to find a nice beach somewhere (if any still exist) and retire, but rather by forming new human connections and setting up a base of operations in the luscious, more naturalistic region of Castor Woods. Turns out it's the perfect place to loot weapons, tools, and gear while Kyle works out exactly how to claim his revenge.
Such narrative machinations so far aren't adding to a story that's anything particularly spectacular. But hey, these opening hours do well to get you up to speed with the stakes quickly – regardless of if you're familiar with the way Dying Light works or not. Better yet, it does all this while making you question: is the 'beast' referred to in the game's title Kyle at all, or something else entirely?
Unleash the beast
From a pure mechanics perspective, I was initially surprised by just how similarly Dying Light: The Beast plays to previous entries. Simply put, this isn't some grand reinvention of the open-world zombie-slaying formula that has worked so well before, but it does mean that Dying Light 2 aficionados will feel right at home with what it means to engage in Techland's fun and well-formed parkour system all over again. There's still plenty of reasons to run, clamber, and (in some instances) swing through this playground-like world.
Offering a sharp change of tone to these usual antics, though, is of course the new setting of Castor Woods. Touting plenty of greenery, swamps, and open woodland that contrasts nicely with its built-up areas, already the location is making a claim to be my favourite to ever feature in a Dying Light game. Because whether it was exploring the old town district situated in the centre to set up camp at town hall or leaping over swamp shacks in search of a contact, moving through this incredibly diverse map elegantly was never a chore. Once again, Techland has clearly taken the time to make Castor Woods a beautiful, dangerous, but also fun world to move through – and I already can't get enough.
I got the sense during my session that Castor Woods won't be as large as Dying Light 2's Villador, but that's okay given the level of variety it offers, and the ability to explore its more cut-off areas via truck. Yes, The Beast marks the first time since The Following's buggy where vehicles are also a viable option. Unlike Kyle's buggy from before, however, he's able to jump into most cars, all of which only have a limited amount of fuel, meaning you can't come to rely on them too much.
Cars effectively being just another currency in Dying Light: The Beast also ensures that you're never discouraged from performing the core act of climbing for too long. I say this as someone who got a great kick out of ramming down endless hordes of biters on the road in the few instances I was required to drive to get to the next mission marker. Being able to switch between first- and third-person view on the fly while in vehicles is also an improvement I quickly came to appreciate, helping driving here feel more flexible and less of a chore than in, say, Far Cry 5.
The monster within
Third-person view is something you'll get accustomed to quite a lot in The Beast when out of vehicles too, as the camera regularly switches between the two perspectives during cut scenes. At first I was worried this might make you feel less aligned with Kyle Crane as a character, when in fact it has the opposite effect. Actually being able to see Kyle, and all the concerning ways this beastly virus is taking over his body, works far better to make him feel like an actual character, rather than just some disembodied voice merely made up of wavy hands and springy legs.
Finally, there are obviously the beast abilities themselves, which are so crucial to the experience of this third game that they've been given their own skill tree. That said, unlocking points for it is kept totally separate from the three other strands, requiring you to take down mission critical bosses called Chimera. I fought a handful of these grotesque nasties during my demo, and taking them down was almost always made easier once I'd dealt enough damage to activate beast mode itself.
You're not fully invincible in beast mode, but being able to wail on unwitting enemies with your bare hands as the screen swells is something I found to be pleasingly cathartic. Dying Light's melee combat is usually meticulous in that you're trying to dodge while trying to find a gap in an enemy's defence to land the perfect hit. Beast mode, meanwhile, is the complete opposite, and the fact it just activates by itself in the early hours – whether you want it to or not – is a neat way of having it neatly tie to the narrative as Kyle slowly gets to grips with what he has suddenly become.
So far then, Dying Light: The Beast seems to be striking that perfect balance of leaning into what worked previously, but coating it in some exciting new traversal and combat systems to help make this visit to Castor Woods feel like its own distinct adventure. Following my demo, I was left curious as to what new Beast abilities are waiting to be unlocked in the late game, in what other ways Castor Woods could potentially open up, and whether or not the beast in the title is all it seems. In other words, there's plenty of secrets still to discover in this third zombie-fuelled go-around, all of which I can't wait to discover.
