The Dying Light series quickly earned its place in the pantheon of great zombie games by blending brutal first-person combat with satisfying parkour movement – all set within dangerous open worlds. The series has thus far delivered on offering a slick and thrilling survival experience, but with the upcoming Dying Light: The Beast, we see developer Techland return to its roots for a more focused concept that lets an amped up returning protagonist Kyle Crane loose in an even more hostile setting.
I got to spend over four hours playing the opening of Dying Light: The Beast, getting reacquainted with Kyle Crane as he comes to grips with a more feral world after the events of the second game. Playing The Beast was very much like a turbo-charged version of the original game, so much so that you may as well call it Super Dying Light. So with that, here are six of the most exciting and game-changing upgrades that the upcoming sequel brings to the table.
1. A More Focused Story, and the Return of Kyle Crane
Dying Light 2 took a bold step towards building an RPG-style story with game-changing events defined by your choices. While certainly ambitious, it didn’t quite reach its full potential in the broader sense. For The Beast, we instead see a more defined story about the return of Kyle Crane, who has undergone some horrific experiments following the shocking ending of the Dying Light 1 expansion The Following. Now hellbent on revenge against the mysterious antagonist known as The Baron, Crane has to relearn his skills as a survivalist while leveraging some powerful abilities to level the playing field.
The Beast draws inspiration from Dying Light 2 and does more to make Kyle a more central figure within his story. Along with new third-person cutscenes, there are now more opportunities to help build Crane’s understanding of the state of things in Castor Woods. Several interactions with key characters also play out in Mass Effect-style chats, which can give you more insight into plot developments and to pick up on Dying Light lore. I really appreciate the more focused take on storytelling and character growth from these moments, especially with Kyle Crane front and center. And it’s a cool opportunity to catch up on what’s changed in the world following the events of Dying Light 2.
2. You Hit the Ground Running
Dying Light: The Beast does well to show its teeth early, making the point that this is a more brutal take on the series. Many of the combat encounters in the opening show how aggressive and imposing the infected can be, with even the common foes managing to get the jump on me when I let my guard down. Fortunately, Kyle Crane is a far more capable survivalist than before. So much so that many abilities locked off in different skill trees from previous games, such as the parkour-based high jumps and pulling off counter grabs, are a part of Crane’s core kit and can be used immediately. Furthermore, you can even use new takedowns on weakened enemies, which act as glory kills for the lesser and more elite infected.
I certainly appreciated being able to do so without having to endure much of a retread of the familiar power grind back to securing vital skills. This made me feel a bit more confident to face down foes armed with a hammer or machete, thanks to some amped-up beast powers running through Crane’s body. That said, I still sometimes felt overwhelmed by combat encounters and had to make tactical retreats often to heal. But thankfully, new skills that can be unlocked can help level the playing field, such as the return of the flying drop kick and the array of new beast powers that Kyle can unleash.
3. A More Organized Way to Acquire New Skills
The previous games featured skills spread across the combat, parkour, and survival trees, with your playstyle defining growth for each. Dying Light: The Beast ditches the specialized leveling system in favor of more traditional leveling, with earned skill points spent across the different combat and traversal branches at your leisure. This helps to even out character growth, with The Beast avoiding the lopsided growth that could occur in the first two Dying Lights.
However, the special Beast skill tree will require some more effort to unlock, as only by defeating the various Chimera bosses hidden throughout Castor Woods, which reveal themselves during story missions and hidden locations. Once you defeat one, Crane will acquire a sample of the Chimera, which will expand his more powerful skills.
4. Going Beast Mode
Dying Light: The Beast finally grants players new abilities and skills that have been long-teased throughout the series. As a powered-up state that goes into effect once you’ve dished out or sustained enough damage, Crane will automatically enter beast mode, amping up his melee strikes and agility in ways that let you cut loose against common and elite foes alike. Additional Beast powers add new abilities like a running jump, a ground slam, and even the ability to pick up boulders and toss them at foes, just like those annoying bruiser enemies from earlier games.
The Dying Light series has always balanced that sense of power with feeling vulnerable in a fight, but entering beast mode offers up a satisfying burst of strength that not only comes in clutch, but can also lead to a fantastic finish to a fight. The developers even likened the mode to acquiring a power pellet in Pac-Man, which will turn your enemies into weaklings in no time. And while beast mode can come in handy, it’ll unfortunately activate the moment the meter is filled, which can lead to some awkward moments where the action is winding down and you’re still pumped up.
5. Re-embracing Survival Horror by Adding More Danger
One moment that instills a sense of dread for every Dying Light player is right when nightfall hits. In that moment, the game transitions into a full-on survival horror experience as the powerful, volatile infected come out to play. While Dying Light 2 eased the tension of nighttime gameplay to make it more approachable, this ultimately came at the expense of its larger experience. This was later patched with further updates, and The Beast fully embraces the original vision of survival during the night.
Even with Crane’s enhanced beast powers and arsenal of weapons, I still found myself rattled when it came to trying to find safety during the evening. During one particular instance, I found myself trapped on the rooftops of the Old Town district, and I was surrounded by three volatile infected that were actively on the hunt for me after I mistimed my jump and landed into the streets below. The volatile are more aggressive and intelligent than ever, and the nighttime is seriously unsettling to explore. Still, The Beast manages to strike a great balance with making you capable of surviving the odds, but totally vulnerable when left to fend for yourself.
6. This Is Not an Expansion, but a Proper Sequel
A prevailing worry other fans, including myself, had with Dying Light: The Beast was that it was going to be a more bite-sized follow-up, but after my hands-on time, developer Techland had proven me wrong with the upcoming standalone game. The scale of The Beast is much closer to the original Dying Light, which the devs have stated was the sweet spot when it came to playing the more aggressive take on their open-world survival game.
What makes Dying Light: The Beast work well, based on my limited time with it, is that it combines the best aspects of both the original and the first sequel. It adopts a more thoughtful approach to presenting its main narrative and characters from the second, while retaining the more confident and hard-hitting, tense action from the original. Without the decision paralysis that could come from Dying Light 2’s complex narrative, The Beast goes all-in on Crane’s revenge story that’s chock-full of the thrills and scares that the series is all about – and that seems to be what fans are most looking forward to with the next entry in this series.
