Dying Light: The Beast review: The real monsters are exactly who you'd expect

Dying Light: The Beast continues the series' delve into the zombie apocalypse, and is sure to please long-time fans of the series, even if the whole package has more rough edges than smooth.

The zombie apocalypse continues in Dying Light: The Beast, and this time you’ll be traversing the idyllic hills of a large European mountain town overrun with infected. Much of the game is an evolution of what’s made the series work in previous installments, with some notable new additions that spice things up. There are also as many returning frustrations as there are quality updates, making the whole experience something of a mixed bag.

A tale of zombies, grudges, and long-awaited revenge

Dying Light: The Beast sees the return of the protagonist of the first game in the series: Kyle Crane. He’s spent the time between then and now being experimented on by a shadowy group led by a man known only as The Baron. These experiments have given him superhuman abilities and a deep-seated need for revenge.

That revenge becomes possible after he escapes the Baron’s clutches to find himself in the European resort town of Castor Woods, itself long-overtaken by the infection that rendered most humans mindless zombies.

You’ll spend much of the game’s main story exploring Castor Woods, gathering allies, settling old grievances, and collecting a host of weapons to take on not only the zombies but the Baron’s military-style henchmen.

The story itself is relatively well told, and I spent much of it trying to predict where the functional-but-not-groundbreaking narrative was trying to go. Dying Light: The Beast leans heavily into zombie apocalypse tropes, so there aren’t too many surprises to be had with who you meet or how they act. That said, most of the major narrative beats didn’t follow how I would have called them. Sadly, I was able to predict the most important ones.

None of that means the story wasn’t enjoyable to watch unfold. I just wish it had been a bit less reliant on the tropes and cliches of the genre. The writing also isn’t as strong as it could be. I found myself asking, “Why didn’t they just do that in the first place?” several times during my playthrough, and more often than not, the reason was that the plot demanded it.

The side quest stories were much better written. They often acted as shorter, character-focused vignettes where gameplay was only a vector for telling the story rather than the other way around. Dying Light’s optional content showcases why the people’s struggles should be the driving narrative force of a zombie story, something its story campaign frequently misses.

A game of rooftops, blades, and bullets

Playing Dying Light: The Beast feels similar to previous titles, focused as it is primarily on using parkour to clamber up walls, jump between rooftops, and dash around the zombie hordes. While I found navigation to be mostly satisfactory, it felt quite a bit clunkier than how the systems worked in Dying Light 2. That was especially true of climbing up things, which would almost always obliterate any momentum you had.

Controlling your character while hanging was also inconsistent and clunky. The number of times I ended up on the ground, needing to do an entire platforming section again was just too damn high.

When the parkour worked, however, it was very satisfying. Being able to follow the five Ds of the zombie apocalypse — dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge — and outmaneuver enemies was always a good time. The parkour systems were also generous enough that precision was only rarely a high priority.

Combat saw a modest step forward compared to the parkour, and not just because you can use guns in Dying Light: The Beast. Fighting in melee always felt fluid, and the sound effects when you chopped or slammed into zombie flesh were chunky and grossly enjoyable. Some zombies did take quite a few more hits than was probably necessary, and human enemies could somehow tank unarmored headshots, but The Division this is not. Two bullets to the brain were always enough to put down any human foe I fought.

Fighting zombies could get particularly annoying, given their penchant for using their lunging grab attack from point-blank range. If you don’t see it coming (and you often won’t), it feels unreactable and frustrating to deal with.

The gunplay in Dying Light: The Beast was adequate but nothing extraordinary. Don’t go in expecting Destiny or Call of Duty-style handling. This game doesn’t even come close. For what it is, though, gunfights in Dying Light: The Beast are a welcome departure from the running about and whapping things with sticks the previous games forced on you.

I also liked that guns and melee weapons had specific use cases rather than one being the sole answer for everything. Humans = guns. Zombies = melee. You always wanted to have at least a sidearm packed away in case you ran into a patrol of guys in military outfits, because the best way to fight a guy with a gun is to also have a gun.

Dying Light: The Beast also introduced cars to the franchise for the first time. Like the guns, they handled…fine. Not amazing, not horrible. Just fine. They were also fairly durable even without the character perk that reduced damage, though I’m not sure how I would have completed a late-game mission without said perk.

The various character upgrades were all nice to have, but I rarely found myself using what they offered. I was more interested in the passive bonuses than anything I needed to make an input to use. The same was true of the vendors and gear sets in the game. None of the bonuses or goods they offered felt like they made enough of a difference, as what you found in the wild or started the game with was more than usable.

Looting and crafting were par for the course, as well. Don’t go into Dying Light: The Beast expecting the depth of a Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance. Much of what you find in the wild is crafting materials and recipes, with the occasional piece of gear to spice things up. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to buildcraft in the game, but, as with the skills and perks, I didn’t ever feel like I needed to. So I didn’t.

Don’t fear the infection

A lot of the fun you can have with Dying Light: The Beast is what you make of it yourself. Exploring the world, unlocking the safe houses, finding cool new weapon modifications and crafting recipes, and generally getting lost. Nothing about the experience was groundbreaking, nor was it as enthralling or immersive as other open-world games. Instead, it was good fun you can enjoy in short or long bursts, whether you want to sink your teeth into zombie hunting or chilling as you wander the wilds and urban spaces of Castor Hills.

This review is based on a Steam copy of the game provided by the publisher. Dying Light: The Beast is scheduled to release on September 18, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.

Review for
Dying Light: The Beast
7
Pros

• A beautiful, well-realized world
• Some fun new additions to the formula, including guns and vehicles
• Well-written side content and an enjoyable, if trope-y, story campaign

Cons

• Clunky, at times unintuitive, parkour
• The same annoying zombie attacks the series has always had
• Only just-adequate gunplay and vehicle mechanics