Dying Light: The Beast review – animal attraction

Dying Light: The Beast – more than DLC but less than a sequel (Techland)

Techland’s mix of zombie horror and open world parkour gets a new almost-sequel, that introduces a very different setting and some unique abilities.

In the generally accepted mythos of the undead apocalypse, there are two types of zombies: fast and slow. The slow ones stand about or shuffle towards you with a vague intention of eating your brains, while the fast ones run at you, often shrieking in some sort of virally induced rage. The Dying Light series has both, with the twist that after dark you’ll find a greater concentration of the fast variety, along with even more dangerous Volatiles, that you can do nothing but run away from.

It makes for nerve-racking moments when you lose track of time and your exploration of the game’s open world has taken you a long way from a safe house, the sun dipping below the horizon and suddenly leaving you with bigger problems than inventory management. It’s the conceit (inspired by classic novel I Am Legend) that gave the first two games in the Dying Light series much of their tension and that still applies in The Beast, which sits somewhere between a standalone expansion and a full sequel.

The Beast started life as downloadable content for Dying Light 2, a game that despite not being a live service title has still been incredibly well supported, with events, regular updates, and themes for Halloween and Christmas that have kept it feeling fresh. As development of The Beast progressed Techland decided it was significant enough to be a separate title, although it will still be free for players who own the Ultimate Edition of Dying Light 2, which was originally due to include DLC.

This outing marks a change of pace for the series. Dying Light’s mix of survival horror, free running, and melee combat has previously been set in colourful and vertiginous cities, complete with minor skyscrapers from which its grizzled hero, former mercenary Kyle Crane, could launch himself on a paraglider. The Beast has quite a different feel. Set in the rural valley of Castor Woods, it has only a small town, outlying buildings and industrial areas, along with woods, caves and a fair amount of open countryside.

To help navigate that, you can now commandeer forestry service pick-up trucks, and while they initially seem flimsy and tend to run out of petrol, you can fix both those issues with perks as Kyle levels up. Rolling around on four wheels also offers the cathartic ability to barrel through crowds of zombies who might otherwise have caused you trouble. The cars’ handling model is thoroughly ordinary, but they do make longer excursions less fiddly, or at least they do if you can avoid rivers, which instantly swallow your vehicle whole.

In this outing, Kyle is out for revenge against series bad guy the Baron, who’s been performing experiments on him. After years of abuse Kyle’s escaped, but having been injected with so much mutant DNA he has a new special power. Landing blows on enemies now charges an energy bar, which when full lets you enter Beast Mode, making you briefly invulnerable while you pummel and dismember zombies and bosses with your bare hands.

Upgrading those powers means hunting down Chimeras – giant mutants whose blood you use to expand your skillset, prolonging Beast Mode and the things you can do while in its enraged state. Along with using your car as a weapon of mass destruction, it provides moments where you become the force to be reckoned with, making a pleasant change from all that running away.

You’ll still be doing a lot of that, though. The franchise’s trademark parkour endures and even though Castor Woods’ environments are quite a bit flatter than its predecessors’, there’s plenty to climb, its buildings linked either by dangerously long jumps or convenient sets of three telephone wires that let you sprint across gaps without falling into the ravenous crowds of infected below.

The change in scenery brings a shift in palette, which is now more sun bleached and less multi-coloured. It still looks lovely, its slightly ramshackle roofscapes of terracotta tiles and rooftop air conditioners framed against a backdrop of snowy mountains. The changing light of the day/night cycle lends variety to its ambience, as does the occasional rainstorm, which also affects driving conditions.

Sadly, there are also bugs. From minor issues, like being repeatedly nagged to spend non-existent skill points and weeds floating a metre above the surface of the river to a safe house that won’t activate despite you having shot and battered every nearby enemy to death. We’ve also had the game freeze entirely, and need to be restarted, on more than one occasion.

Always keep an eye on the time (Techland)

Although not a bug per se, there are also occasional annoyingly placed checkpoints, an early and quite tricky side mission forcing you to repeat an entire conversation, with optional questions, before being allowed to retry the bit that repeatedly gets you killed.

The other thing you’ll notice is that it takes place on a smaller map than Dying Light 2. As a piece of DLC it would be spectacularly generous, because although the landmass isn’t as massive, it’s densely packed with activities and things to investigate. However, as a full price game you can’t help comparing it with its forebear, which offered considerably more to explore.

There’s still a lot of game here though. Between upgrading Kyle, and his weapons and equipment, you’ll also be undertaking plenty of gripping traversal puzzles, usually involving trying to break into a large, seemingly impregnable building whilst doing your best not to get eaten by the hordes of biters – as Dying Light calls its zombies – washing around its base.

There’s a pleasing, slow build of power and perks as you pump yourself up in anticipation of the final showdown with the Baron, as you hunt Chimeras for their DNA and complete side quests to level up. As before, its free running initially feels a bit stilted until you get into its rhythm, at which point you start to feel quite nimble, leaping from rooftops or tottering along thin planks as you scale a tower.

Even back in 2022, Dying Light 2 felt like a throwback to a previous generation, and that’s even more true of The Beast. Its solid voice-acting, laconic humour, and often thrilling action feel well aligned with the rest of the franchise but now everything feels even more old-fashioned. Despite the shift to a more bucolic setting, you can’t escape the feeling that what the series really needs is some reinvention.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £59.99
Publisher: Techland
Developer: Techland
Release Date: 18th September 2025 (XO and PS4 – TBA 2025)
Age Rating: 18

Think Mirror’s Edge with zombies (Techland)

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