Welcome back to another blog, the show where we give you some straight-up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. The original Dying Light is a classic of the open-world zombie genre. Whatever it was that developer Techland was doing with that game, it just worked.
In 2022, they followed it up with Dying Light 2: Stay Human, and to make a long story short, it didn’t work out nearly as well as the first. It’s not a terrible game or anything, but it didn’t live up to the promise of the original. They made a lot of unnecessary changes that took away from what made the original game so unique and fun. The past few years, Techland has kinda desperately attempted to update the sequel to fix its weaker elements, but even with them doing stuff like making the night more dangerous and adding in certain guns years later, it’s… It feels a little tacked on and half-baked. Like, there’s a difference between getting the recipe right and putting more frosting on the cake.
It wasn’t the game many fans of the original, including myself, wanted, and after all those years, they still never really fixed the jankier, less-polished elements of the second game.
A Return to Form
With Dying Light: The Beast, the development team seems dead-set on giving fans of the first game what they want. The first game’s protagonist, Kyle Crane, is back, once again voiced by Roger Craig Smith — AKA Chris Redfield and Sonic the Hedgehog. The Volatiles are back in force, with night meant to be scarier than ever. Guns are back, parkour is less floaty, vehicles are around, there’s a more linear story. In pretty much every way, The Beast is billing itself as the true follow-up to the original game and its highly-regarded expansion, The Following.
Even as a sometimes-reluctant defender of the sequel, these sound like… They’re welcome changes. But the big question is, “Does the game pull it off?” After all, The Beast was originally going to be the second DLC for Dying Light 2 before getting massively expanded after a big data leak spoiled their original plans. At the end of the day, this thing is still built on the bones of Dying Light 2, so can it really be that much better?
Hi folks, it’s Zaid, and that’s what we’re talking about today — Dying Light 2: The Beast. And I’m happy to report Techland pulled it off. The Beast is much closer to the original game, for better and for worse — mostly, though, for the better. And while this game is still very clearly built off Dying Light 2 and retains some disappointing elements of that that I’ll get into later, it’s much bigger and better than a simple expansion pack.
Story and Setting
The plot, like pretty much every Dying Light game, is pretty thin. But at least here, it stays focused and it doesn’t interrupt the action so much. Kyle Crane returns as a haunted man trapped and experimented on for years by the Baron — your classic Euro bad guy with a turtleneck. These experiments have transformed Crane into a half-man, half-monster who can become the Beast, gaining superhuman strength and agility to manhandle the zombie hoard for a few satisfying seconds while the power is active, giving Roger Craig Smith a second opportunity to voice the Werehog. (laughs)
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just like bringing up Sonic Unleashed, it’s gotten a bit of a reevaluation, and at least semantically, it bears a resemblance to this game. I’ve brought it up literally every time I’ve brought up Dying Light 2. This is Roger Craig Smith as the serious Werehog. (laughs) No, it’s really not — you’re a guy who wants revenge, and essentially, you have superpowers now.
I was initially worried about that in terms of it being overpowered, but the game actually does a really good job limiting how strong this ability is for a while. Most of the upgrades are gated by story progress so you can’t get too strong too early. And I make fun of the game for bearing a passing resemblance to Sonic Unleashed, it also bears up more than passing resemblance to Jak 2. You know, the sequel to Jak and Daxter — you’re a grouchy guy, you can go Super Saiyan, you’re fighting an evil baron who lives in a big castle. Simple but effective. Drives the action, doesn’t bog things down. There’s not a bunch of dickhead characters who constantly betray you like in Dying Light 2. It keeps things simple and that is to its benefit because nobody’s playing Dying Light for the plot. Like, even the first game’s story is pretty sloppy and awkward at times.
The stories are more or less there to provide you a motive to do all the cool things, and this one hits the right beats. It’s not annoying to sit through… It’s not too annoying to sit through. Sometimes, it is annoying but it’s not so annoying. But that means it is a significant step up from Dying Light 2.
Castor Woods and Exploration
Another improvement is the game’s setting — Castor Woods, a formerly idyllic rural village in the Swiss Alps. This is just about the perfect location for an open-world adventure. It’s big enough where it feels like there’s a lot of ground to cover, but the actual size is relatively small. If anything, it’s less spread-out than the map from The Following. The original Dying Light, there wasn’t fast travel and it’s the same here, so there is, of course, the threat of being caught at night out wandering around, but getting around also doesn’t take so long that it feels tedious — most of the time.
I mean, sometimes, it’s gonna get a little old returning to the town hall for the umpteenth time, but for the most part, the map is really well-designed. It’s fun to explore, a lot of visually interesting and varied places to visit. I mean, it’s got a lot going for it, Castor Woods.
The visual standout is, of course, the actual town. It’s very dense, lot of interiors to parkour through while being satisfyingly vertical and visually interesting. Out of the more rural sections of the map, you can steal a car, you can go for a joyride. The vehicle — it’s also gonna be handy to have, but it’s not a requirement this time.
The game doesn’t do something like The Following where you have a single vehicle to customize and upgrade. You’re free to just grab any pickups lying around the map. Cars can be damaged and can run out of gas, so that’s a concern, but the whole vehicle system is not nearly as complex as it was in The Following, and I think that suits the game more. I think it’s just… It’s honestly better. The vehicle complexity thing was, if anything, maybe one of the only things I didn’t particularly like about The Following. It was kinda the whole thing and there’s a lot to like about The Following, but I feel like if there was one thing I would change, it’s that. I don’t know, it’s tough to talk about ’cause it’s… It does a great job, but at the same time, it’s… It does a great job while being anchored in something that I wouldn’t have done. I like this system, is what I’m saying.
Combat, Nighttime, and Beast Mode
How you actually move around and fight, it feels similar to Dying Light 2, especially the combat — like, it’s mostly the same, mechanically-speaking. Parkour feels similar, only it’s a little heavier and more deliberate than the floaty jumping in the second game. Not a massive change but it’s noticeable.
And I’ve waited a while to get to this, but yes, night is actually dangerous again in The Beast. I don’t… I still do not know why Dying Light 2 ditched the most terrifying, memorable and honestly unique part about the first one. Like, the night is its identity. The game is called fricking Dying Light, it’s about how when the light dies, everything gets crazier, okay? And then, the second one is just like, “Oh, it’s night in the open world, everyone, there’s not as much light, is there? The light died, it died.”
Not fully, though, ’cause I mean, you can see a lot better this time around than the first time around. It’s more like the first one, is what I’m saying before I get too far into that little bit. You don’t need bits to know that this is better than Dying Light 2.
When you’re caught out at night, it’s dangerous. Volatiles patrol the streets and if they get a sniff of you, they aggressively pursue you. And when that happens, the only real thing to do is make a mad dash back to a safe zone ’cause it’s pointless trying to fight these things. There’s too many of them, they give you basically nothing in terms of rewards, it’s just a big resource sink — which is honestly how it should be. Like, getting into combat at night shouldn’t feel good, it shouldn’t feel like something you go towards, you’re trying to do. You should feel rewarded for not getting into combat at night, and to some extent, you definitely are.
It’s possible to sneak around at night. You don’t have the vision cones in the UI, though, so it does make keeping track of various Volatiles’ location a little bit hard, and that means you will bumble into one of these guys by mistake at some point. There’s a bit of a risk-reward system going, very similar to the original’s. You get double the experience at night, there’s Volatile nests and special vaulter zombies, lots of loot to kill. They only come out at night but it’s mostly risk, not that much reward. There’s certainly not all of the zombies out at night — as I said, it’s a resource sink other than a few of them, and the only real reason to go out at night is during the rare mission that can only be completed at night. It’s just not worth the effort otherwise, and I like that. I know it might sound like that’s a negative, but it’s not. I like the system. They succeeded in making the night feel dangerous.
Beast Mode, Firearms, and Combat Balance
It still doesn’t quite get as dark as the original game. Maybe that’s something with the Dying Light 2 engine — I don’t know why they can’t seem to get that part right in any game after the first. But again, it’s better. It’s honestly so much better that it’s not something I would regard as too big of a critique.
I mentioned the Beast transformation earlier, though, and since we’re talking mechanics, I wanna elaborate that a little bit more. As you kill enemies and take damage, you get a red meter under your health bar. It builds up. Once it fills up all the way, you automatically transform into a killing machine for a few glorious seconds.
This was the mechanic I was easily the most worried about in terms of this game. I thought it might completely ruin the delicate balance of the game, make things way too easy — and this is just not the case. When you do transform, it takes a while to build up and it feels rewarding. You can stop worrying about zombies for a second, just clean house. It’s great. It’s, like, a full-ass old-school charge meter with a special move at the end. Like, it’s delightfully video-gamey. Rare enough not to make things too easy.
Kind of annoying that it triggers immediately when your meter fills up, so it could happen at the tail-end of a fight. And I do also think the lack of control keeps Beast mode from being too powerful early on. You eventually do learn to control it and you can trigger the move at will, but it still never completely overwhelms everything else. You still mostly use melee weapons and the occasional firearm for dealing with zombies and the Baron’s military forces.
On the topic of firearms, I would say I think they’re pretty well-done here. The game gives you a lot of guns early on, but the limiting factor is ammo. Like, you’re pretty short and the firearms that you do get aren’t always that effective against certain enemies. So guns are far from an I-win button in the way that they were in the first game. They come in handy sometimes, but you’re never just running and gunning like it’s a first-person shooter. You’re limited by the rarity of ammo and I think that’s a pretty good compromise.
Side Content, Crafting, and Boss Fights
And, I mean, take it all — it’s overall just a fun game. Doesn’t overstay its welcome. You can get through the main story in about 20 hours. If you wanna do everything, you could probably easily double that number. There’s a lot of the usual side quests, collectibles — they’re worth doing. Like, the side quests are surprisingly high-quality. They usually take you to some new locations or have you do something that’s actually genuinely interesting, not just… It’s not just a boring fetch quest. And for the most part, they feel on par with the main quest in terms of variety and quality.
Some of the side stuff isn’t great. The Dark Zones are the boring Dying Light 2 versions. They’re basically small rooms with a few zombies in them rather than the mini-dungeons that they were in the first Dying Light. Another way this game is clearly an extension of Dying Light 2, though, is there’s tons of material to loot. Like, you go through a metric ton of crafting materials. You really have to be a pack-rat to have all the crap the game wants you to have to build new weapons and consumables. Like, everything takes a ton of resources. So if you’re trying to upgrade weapon blueprints or just build a few grenades, it’s gonna cost a lot of stuff that you probably don’t have.
Also like with Dying Light 2, most of the best stuff has to be crafted. It’s generally a system I don’t like as much as the original game. It’s just too much crafting for what should be a zombie action game. Doesn’t ruin the game but it’s just an area where the sequel’s DNA is still showing.
Another big kind of completely new thing about The Beast, though, is how it emphasizes boss fights. To power up your Beast form, you need to take on Chimera enemies who are all unique fights with a health bar and everything. It’s a cool idea, and I like how each one of these guys has their own grotesque design and special abilities. But they’re all massive damage sponges that, while there are positive elements, aren’t massive fun to actually fight. I didn’t find them bad or annoying — I like the idea of them — but as much as the game tries to make them a big deal, they don’t stand out that much. If anything, that’s the problem with them.
Gore, Graphics, and Final Thoughts
One thing that does stand out is the updated damage models — ’cause man, this game gets violent. You can decimate a zombie by cracking them on their head a few times, and it’s sickening how far the game goes with it. Honestly, I probably can’t show a lot of this stuff. It’s pretty gore-oriented. Like, there was stuff we couldn’t show in the Dead Space footage when we were talking about the remake of that game — it’s way more here, or at least it feels like it’s more. I don’t know. It’s got takedown kill animations — they’re basically this game’s version of a Glory Kill — and they’re very over-the-top, satisfyingly so if that’s your thing.
I’ll say the way you can slice and dice zombies isn’t necessarily quite as impressive as something like Dead Island 2. The variety of damage isn’t quite as high, but it is very gross. There’s a lot of variety on display — maybe not quite as impressive but also not fully built around it — and for what it is, it’s quite nasty.
Unfortunately, while the graphics are pretty impressive, the game still has that Dying Light smear over the whole thing that makes it look weirdly blurry and washed-out at times. It’s definitely a big step up over the predecessor, but it does have some of the ugliness of that previous game, especially when you’re in some of the denser locations like the Old Town. It also has certain elements ported directly over from the sequel like these winches that you can use to get down buildings quickly, and, I mean, they have the same janky animations whenever you use ’em.
For all the ways The Beast tries to improve the animation quality and overall polish, there are still odd parts that stand out as less polished than they could be.
Ultimately, though, this is a huge step up from the previous game. It does a lot to ground the game in the design principles of the original Dying Light, makes improvements here and there that are legitimately, like, taking the series forward. At times, you’re gonna be saying to yourself, “It does feel like an expansion pack for Dying Light 2.” It’s clearly built on that game. It’s not starting from scratch. It’s not a total overhaul. But it’s a lot better — like, a lot better.
If we stay going in this direction, the next Dying Light game is gonna be great. This is a great game. In all seriousness, I would call this a great game. I just wouldn’t call it the overhaul that everybody is asking for, and that’s partly because this thing fully started as an expansion pack and there’s just unavoidable aspects of starting a project from that point — particularly in the engine. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a whole lot better — it is.
This game is worth checking out if you’re not totally burnt out on zombie games, ’cause this one is very fun and it does not overstay its welcome. You’re always making progress and advancing the plot. You’re unlocking cool new weapons and abilities. The setting probably is my favorite of the whole franchise. And what made the first Dying Light work so well is it’s this careful balancing act between power fantasy and horror. The Beast walks that line even finer by introducing the Beast powers. And while overall, I’m not completely sure it works as well as the original game, it is a big step up from the second game in some respects. It does have improvements over the original game and it’s just an all-around fun open-world zombie game.
I think fans of this series, particularly fans of the original game, are going to appreciate where this game goes. But what do you think? Leave us a comment, let us know. And as always, we thank you very much for reading this blog. We’ll see you next time right here on Aura Riot.