Dying Light’s original story ends with protagonist Kyle Crane suffering a terrible fate; either being blown to atoms by a nuclear bomb or being turned into an infected. But that, as it turns out, isn’t the end of his story. Techland’s newest installment in the series, Dying Light: The Beast, seems to wrap up the latter of those endings as canon, revealing that Crane was held captive for 13 years, experimented on by a villain known only as the Baron. Now free, Crane seeks revenge for the trials and torture that turned him into the titular beast. But if what I’ve seen in this modern Dying Light is representative of the game as a whole, it’s not the beast’s powers that are game-changing—it’s the weapons.
Dying Light: The Beast started life as DLC for Dying Light 2 , but developer Techland changed course after some of its work was leaked. The project has blossomed into a full, standalone game (though if you bought the definitive edition of Dying Light 2 , you get The Beast for free — Techland promised DLC, and it intends to keep that promise). Perhaps because of that origin, The Beast feels very familiar. Much of what I saw in the 45-minute hands-free demo felt very much like a sequel to 2022’s zombie smasher, from the solid parkour to the world design to the “follow the yellow cable” puzzles that activate UV-protected safe and sound houses. It certainly doesn’t feel like a “full” sequel, but there seem to be enough fresh ideas to justify the move to a standalone game.
The modern map is more rural, with a sort of “village” feel. Yes, there are still buildings and rooftops to jump and leap across, but they’re surrounded by dense forest. The demo showed Kyle sneaking through high grass to avoid the Nightmares (which, once again, are much stronger than the zombies that spawn during the day). Kyle doesn’t seem to be suffering from the same infection that Adien did in DL2 — he doesn’t have a resistance meter on his HUD — so he can apparently stay in the gloomy as long as he wants. His own mutations mean he can see the illuminated skeletons of approaching enemies, a la Batman: Arkham’s detective vision, which should facilitate in stealth encounters.
The most vital modern idea, though, is the more apparent apply of weapons. If you played Dying Light 2 with its recent Firearms update, you’ll already know what to expect – the pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle in this demo were the same ones added to DL2 earlier this year. But they feel central to the experience, rather than just a powerful addition. The Baron’s minions are all paramilitary soldiers with their own armor and rifles. That means that the fights with them are very, very different to the melee zombies and marauders that Dying Light has previously relied on almost exclusively. A Techland employee playing the demo for us used grenades to flush out dug-in gunners and flanking tactics to snipe others. These fights were also long; Kyle seems to be able to carry more than enough ammo to tear through multiple squads.
Techland’s franchise director, Tymon Smektala, emphasized that Dying Light wasn’t transformed into a shooter. But I would estimate that almost half of the demo was played as an FPS. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing, as long as the combat, related level design, and feedback on the weapons are successful. It’s a clever way to bring a fresh perspective to the largely unchanged Dying Light formula. Without having played it myself, I can’t say how good it all is, but at least it felt like a competent shooter – hardly a Call of Duty, but solid enough.
Kyle’s search for the Baron leads him to an underground lab where some sort of giant creature has emerged from its cage. One of the scientists there discovers that it can be lured away with a special gas, so they load a canister of it onto a flatbed truck and take it to a scrapyard. Yes, the ride returns from Dying Light: The Following, although the truck doesn’t look as cold as the expansion’s dune buggy. Still, the ability to hit and run from zombies looks as fun as ever as their undead bodies explode and splatter in the headlights.
Releasing the gas in the junkyard summoned the Behemoth, a Hulk-like monster with an inflated health bar and the strength to throw cars. Guns were effective at reducing HP, but as ammo ran out, it quickly became clear that melee weapons wouldn’t cut it. And so, with just a few minutes left in the demo, Kyle released the titular beast from its cage.
In Beast Mode, Kyle becomes stronger and faster. He can pick up blocks of stone and throw them at enemies, as well as perform ground slams that send devastating waves through the concrete, Hulk-style. Easily shredding the Behemoth’s remaining health, the battle ended with Kyle ripping the monster’s head from his shoulders in a bloody victory move. It’s safe and sound to say that Beast Mode looks very powerful, but also very similar to the infected powers Aiden had in Dying Light 2. Unlike Aiden, however, it seems that Kyle can freely transform into the beast, and not just at specific story points.
I’m surprised Techland left the titular power until the very end of the demo. It meant there was little room to properly explore why the beast is so central to the game, so much so that I wonder if it’s actually as vital as the title suggests. Instead, I came away more interested in how the weapons and enemy soldiers will change the overall rhythm of Dying Light. I hope they’re cleverly woven into the campaign and feel fully integrated rather than clumsily tacked on. If so, The Beast could prove to be a worthwhile standalone game, rather than just a respectable DLC sold separately.
Matt Purslow is a senior features editor at IGN.
