Dying Light: The Beast—The true successor to the original Dying light.

"Developed by Techland and released in late 2025—Dying Light: The Beast is a survival horror game with an emphasis on zombies, action and parkour. Originally planned as the second DLC for Dying light 2: Stay Human, it soon outgrew its original plan and became a proper main entry into the franchise. It follows the core principles of the original Dying Light released back in 2015, going back to its roots and focusing on horror and zombies—contrasting heavily with the parkour heavy, light hearted angle that the sequel took, it even features the original protagonist; Kyle Crane. As usual, everything will be broken down into subsections down below:"

Story(Spoiler Free):

"The protagonist from the original Dying Light—Kyle Crane, is back. Who after escaping the Harran and country-side quarantine zone as a half-human and half-volatile hybrid, gets captured by a ruthless scientist for his unique biology. The scientist promptly named 'The Baron' experiments on Crane for 13 painfully long years, driven by the desire to study the virus and use his findings to 'evolve' himself and humanity to a better species.

We follow Crane as he manages to breaks out of the Baron's lab with some outside help, slowly getting back on his feet alongside helping survivors and finding information about the Baron. Crane now fuelled by the prospect of revenge, gets stronger by fighting and killing the unholy creatures unleashed upon the world by the Baron. Leveraging his new inhuman body to get stronger and faster than any human could ever dream of."

"That sums up the general story without any spoilers. To my surprise, this game had a serviceable story, a step up from the second game, not good but not bad either. Dying Light: The Beast has a clear, snappy and engaging story with believable motivations and real consequences. The thing I especially like is that it's lot more personal this time, a lot more sincere, focused, because the main driving point is Crane's revenge and him learning to control his inner demons, his inner 'beast' if you will. The characters are iffy, some are extremely well-written and or likable (Crane, Starchild, Olivia, The Baron" and some are just plain forgettable or irritating (The Sheriff, The telepathy lady etc). All in all, the premise is good, characters could be written better.

Graphics and Art-Direction:

"The Beast was originally planned as a DLC for Dying Light 2 and so there isn't a MASSIVE improvement in the graphics—but there is a noticeable difference. For starters, the lighting has been improved significantly, reacting better with the environments and character models.

The character models have been overhauled for the better, the humans are a massive step up from the previous entries, with better geometry and facial animations, making them feel more 'alive'—Our boy Crane, really got the glow-up treatment because he looks better than ever, both as a character and from a technical viewpoint, the attention to detail with how his body is sculpted is pretty impressive, he even has a scar from when Rais threw a machete at him!.

The Zombies and by extension their sub-classes, also get a visual upgrade. With vividly detailed anatomy peeking through their decayed and deformed bodies. I just wish there was a bit more model variety but that can be fixed in a future update."

"Even the setting of the game is pretty impressive, the game is set in Castor Woods—a fictional European tourist destination founded in a valley between mountains that has fallen to Zombie outbreak. Featuring a town, an industrial district, a national park and even farms making it feel like an actual lived in space. It's genuinely beautiful, especially during the sunrise and sunset."

Music:

"Absolute cinema. From the main menu theme to the final boss theme, Techland's composers cooked hard with this OST. I remember the first time I stepped out of a safe zone and walked into the deathtrap that is Castor Woods and I was just hit with this atmospheric, sombre music that made me just stop and take in my surroundings. Instant Classic, I'm already feeling nostalgic."

Gameplay and Combat:

"Ruthless but rewarding. In the beginning every action feels just so suffocating, even a simple shambling zombie will be enough to kill you. But slowly, as Crane finds his strength, his actions get faster and his attacks stronger, and by the end of the game, it feels so rewarding to be able to mow down hordes of zombies and special infected, when at the beginning you could barely fight one zombie and survive. It felt like the original Dying Light in this regard. The nights? ~terrifying~, I haven't been scared while playing a game in a long, LONG time. Volatiles are unforgiving, and that's how they should be—unkillable apex predators.

Of course, I encountered some bugs and game breaking glitches; like when I couldn't reestablish a safe zone due to an indestructible box covering my way or when Crane was stuck in a walking animation, not being able to run or sprint (this happened multiple times) but these weren't common enough for it to degrade my experience much—but I will be docking points for them because well... they were annoying."

"All in all, a great experience. I'm looking forward to the next release."

Dying Light: The Beast—A return to form, built brick by brick from learned mistakes, a worthy story for the return of Crane, The Beast who couldn't be broken—8.5/10