I’ve been obsessed with the world of Dying Light since the second game. This is arguably the premiere open-world zombies game, with both gameplay and narrative to back that claim up. I’ve been patiently waiting since its reveal to play Dying Light’s The Beast, which was an expansion turned standalone game. After close to an hour with it, I’m sold on the vision Techland has brought to the franchise, and I can’t wait for this newest twist.
If you’re unfamiliar, The Beast has integrated Kyle Crane back into the limelight. Our favorite GRE agent has been captured by a villain known as the Baron, who controls the region of the Castor Woods and has decided to run all kinds of experiments on Kyle. Over ten years pass, and Kyle finally escapes, but his physiology is affected by what’s been done to him. Now, he’s on a path for revenge, to kill the Baron once and for all.
Dying Light: The Beast interview — Chat with Franchise Director Tymon Smektała
Dying Light has quickly become a favorite series of mine. After reviewing Dying Light 2 Stay Human, it’s clear Techland has an understanding of not just a great zombie game, but making great gameplay. The technical achievements they’ve found along the way, the updates that have continually raised
My demo began in a courtyard to get my bearings. If you’ve played any Dying Light game before, this will all be familiar to you. Sprinting around, climbing, parkour, and any other movement feels fresh and fluid, although you’ll want a good running start in order to jump gaps effectively. One of the first things I noticed while using those mechanics was how much more forgiving the climbing seems, with plenty of ledges to grab hold of and mantle over.
After making my way through the ragged buildings to the road, I headed towards a safe house. Before I got there, I definitely dealt with my fair share of shamblers. The zombies are still relatively the same, as is your arsenal for fighting them. Melee combat is still your best friend, and you’ll pick up all sorts of blunt and sharp instruments to make the undead more dead. All of your favorite tools are on the tactical wheel as well, with grenades, Molotov cocktails, noisemakers, and throwing knives part of the armory I was privy to in the preview.
New to this game is Kyle’s rage ability. This will remind you a bit of Kratos from God of War when you use his special ability, screaming bloody murder before brutally and repeatedly slamming zombies into the ground, wall, or just mashing them to pulp with your fists. Kyle’s condition is brought on by those experiments mentioned earlier, and this isn’t the end of that ability.
If you don’t want to fight with the infected, you can sneak by, assuming they don’t see you. Darkness isn’t necessarily your friend given the undead get more powerful at night, but crouching in a bush can grant you a reprieve. Dark it is too, with my needing to pull out a flashlight just to see anything. My favorite new feature is wiping felled zombie blood on yourself to camouflage your scent, allowing you to walk past unnoticed. At least, until the cooldown runs out.
From here, I secured a safe house. It seems you’ll have to put a little work in to unlock them, closing metal window shutters and locking doors before turning the electricity on. It may not function the same way every time, but I had to head down to the basement, kill a few shamblers, and put a new fuse in before I headed to bed. This also opened up the crafting table, allowing me to build a new barbed wire-wrapped bat prior to heading back out on my mission.
It was raining for a bit as I left the safe house, and these new weather effects actually matter. If you use an electrical weapon, it’ll spark further through the water conduction. Beyond that, driving a vehicle will also be more treacherous, with handling becoming more difficult. Speaking of vehicles, you’ll be able to drive them around more freely, but be mindful of your fuel and any damage taken. You’ll also not want to run over zombies willy-nilly, as it’ll cause additional damage to the vehicle.
My quest for vengeance led me to a trainyard, which also had a group of soldiers. You’ll want to be more on your guard around any humans, as they can not only fight back with weaponry and are smarter than the average zombie, but can climb better as well. After all, they lived this long too, didn’t they? I did a lot of sneaking around after parkouring above them in order to take them out without getting into a big fight, which works pretty well if you pay attention to your surroundings. This is also easier to do via your augmented bestial vision allowing you to sense what’s around you, a bonus brought on by your mutations.
Exploring, I stumbled upon a very large and rusty busted cage. That means something in there was big. After Kyle forced a scientist to blab the details at shotgun-point, it was time to grab some gas and head to a site to draw this new-to-me-horror into the open to take it out.
Projectile weaponry came into play in this section, and I’m happy to say it works as well as it has through Dying Light 2’s Firearms update. The assault rifle sports a lot of kick, but if you hit your shots, zombies fall quickly. It’s hard for me to pick between the shotgun and the bow as my favorite; the shotgun tears through undead flesh but takes awhile to reload, while the bow is silent but doesn’t have the same power. There’s a good balance between melee and ranged weapons, as well as greater risk/reward when going loud, and it works beautifully.
The best part of the demo arrived next: the boss fight. The massive Behemoth zombie looks like Abomination from the Hulk to a degree, just a bit more scabby and dead. In the arena that was set up, I spent my time dodging attacks and inflicting as much damage as I could in between them. Striking the final blow was gorgeously vicious, with Kyle wrecking the Behemoth with his bare hands. He also took a DNA sample… that he injected into himself. If things go the way I’m thinking they will, boss fights are about to have some Skyrim dragon slaying energy to them.
My time with Dying Light: The Beast went about as expected, but my expectations were high. Killing zombies is satisfying, but Techland knows how to raise the stakes and make encounters intense while letting you feel… well, like a beast. Kyle’s journey in The Beast is only just starting, but I certainly can’t wait to see where it ends. Dying Light: The Beast arrives August 22, on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series consoles.
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