Review in Progress: Dying Light: The Beast (PS5) – This Could Be the Zombie Series’ Peak

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Dying Light: The Beast, originally downloadable content, is now available as a standalone release from Techland. This third installment in the zombie-killing series returns with the original hero, Kyle Crane, and places him in the new environment of Castor Woods. It emphasizes horror elements, making it feel more like the very first game. The result is a post-apocalyptic adventure that’s both familiar and consistently enjoyable, at least based on early impressions.

Good news for fans of the series: Kyle is back, and he’s more powerful than ever! After being subjected to over ten years of cruel experiments by The Baron, he manages to escape into the nearby nature reserve.

This energetic parkour enthusiast (voiced once more by Roger Craig Smith) now has the DNA of the undead running through his veins, making him a unique combination of human and monster.

The story follows a damaged hero seeking revenge, tracking down the Baron’s failed zombie creations in an attempt to combine their blood with his own. Hopefully, Kyle and his allies will become powerful enough to defeat the Baron and his forces. In terms of gameplay, this setup introduces a new and interesting world along with a variety of unique, monstrous abilities.

Longtime fans will especially appreciate the game’s setting. Castor Woods is a beautiful wilderness area with forests and mountains. While it’s not quite as large as the map in Dying Light 2 or as packed as the original game, it offers a great balance of open spaces and a detailed city called Old Town, making it a really enjoyable place to explore.

Castor Woods blends the atmosphere of the original Dying Light with the expansive, vehicle-focused gameplay of its The Following expansion. Picture rustic log cabins, peaceful streams, and the remnants of a once-thriving community – and you’ll have a good sense of the area.

The game features the usual open-world environments – places like abandoned asylums, power plants, and town squares – which can feel a bit predictable. However, we actually found this reassuring. While the map didn’t offer any big surprises, it felt familiar and comforting, like a classic video game experience.

Okay, so getting around the map is done with that first-person parkour system we all know. Honestly, it doesn’t *feel* massively improved, but they’ve added a bunch of cool new animations for jumping and climbing, which is nice. Still, swinging across gaps and leaping between rooftops is a blast! And let me tell you, drop-kicking zombies off buildings? That will *never* get old. Seriously, never.

One of the key changes in The Beast is the addition of more flat areas. Techland wants players to use more than just parkour to get around, and this also gives the zombies a better chance against you.

We found some areas of the map a bit boring to cross on foot, but luckily there are ranger jeeps available. They don’t last long – the fuel runs out quickly after about a minute – but they’re great for skipping those tedious stretches, and it’s fun to run over zombies with them!

Exploring and navigating the map feels much scarier at night. The Beast really increases the tension with completely dark nights, unsettling sounds, and incredibly fast zombies-called Volatiles-chasing you relentlessly.

We really enjoyed this feature in the original game, and it’s great to see Techland expand on it. The changing of day and night, signaled by your watch, creates a genuinely tense atmosphere, and the stealth and chase scenes that follow are definitely the most exciting parts of the game.

Outside of avoiding the incredibly strong Volatiles, fighting in this game feels very similar to past installments – and that’s a good thing! You’ll mostly be using melee weapons to slash, chop, bash, and stab both zombies and other people.

Okay, so the combat is *brutal* – and I mean that in a good way! It’s seriously satisfying how gory everything is. Fights feel really dynamic, and honestly, even on normal difficulty, you can get totally swarmed if you’re not careful. Stamina is HUGE, especially if you crank up the difficulty. You can’t just mash buttons; you’ve gotta think about where you are, use all your moves, and focus on *what* you’re hitting – it’s not just about raw power.

The recent update to Dying Light 2, called Reloaded Edition, has made guns a bit more useful in the game’s ‘The Beast’ area, but they’re not the main focus. You’ll occasionally encounter enemies carrying rifles, submachine guns, and pistols, and these weapons feel satisfying to handle.

In the past, it was clear guns weren’t meant to be a core part of the experience, and the controls felt awkward. Now, the gunplay is much better – it’s not as polished as Call of Duty, but significantly smoother and more impactful, especially with the DualSense controller’s feedback.

Close-combat weapons are still the main way to fight, which is what you’d expect. You can fix up and customize your favorite weapons like machetes and sledgehammers, letting you create different builds for dealing with zombies. While fun, the weapons in Dead Island 2 felt a little more visually interesting and dynamic.

Let’s talk about Kyle’s Beast Powers. As you fight, he’ll build up a rage meter. When it’s full, he enters a powerful frenzy, making it much easier to destroy zombies with some really brutal animations. You can upgrade these powers using a skill tree, and you earn points for doing so by defeating the tough boss enemies found throughout the game.

Beast Mode isn’t a brand new feature, but it definitely changes how battles play out. Right now, it activates automatically when the meter fills up. Sometimes it’ll kick in at an inconvenient moment, and other times, it’ll happen at just the right time.

It’s satisfying and fun to battle waves of zombies, and even challenge a powerful Volatile when it’s enraged.

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2025-09-18 19:08