Dying Light: The Beast Review by Panda – The Past Doesn’t Change

First Things First

Hello PGN, Panda here with my first impressions of Dying Light: The Beast. Just a quick heads-up: other members of PGN will probably share their own impressions later on, so don’t get confused if you see multiple takes floating around.

A Sequel That Wasn’t Meant To Be

Dying Light: The Beast—let’s be honest, it’s basically Dying Light 3. Originally planned as DLC for Dying Light 2, it got expanded into a full release after fans kept asking about Kyle Crane and all those Easter eggs in Dying Light 2.

This time, you play as Crane himself—mutated into something in between human, zombie, and volatile. He’s got a brutal “Beast Mode” ability where you tear through enemies in seconds. It feels amazing to use, but it’s balanced by long charge times and a 3-second vulnerability when you revert. Basically, high risk, high reward. It reminded me of rage mode from Dead Island.

Looks Aren’t Everything

I was told the graphics would be a big step up from Dying Light 2. On my AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8GB), the game defaulted to low settings—so at first it didn’t impress me at all. Even after cranking it to the highest settings, it still didn’t blow me away. Probably looks much better with 4K and ray tracing, but honestly, graphics don’t matter much to me. I play games like Doom, Minecraft, and TCG Card Shop Simulator—I care more about gameplay than shiny visuals.

Fighting With Weight

Combat feels heavier and more realistic than before. Swinging a heavy weapon takes time, leaving you open to hits, and spamming attacks doesn’t save you. Guns are available right from the start this time (instead of being locked behind zones like in Dying Light 2). They sound and feel good, with proper recoil—but they’re loud, so you have to be careful when and where you use them, especially at night.

Weapons in general break down like this:

• Light blades (katana, tanto): quick, lots of hits, but low durability.

• Heavy weapons: slower but powerful, demand good timing.

• Throwables (molotovs, grenades, knives, C4, coins): great for crowd control if you gather zombies together.

The mix works well and pushes you to think instead of button-mashing.

Back Behind the Wheel

Vehicles are back, which is good because the map is huge—bigger than Dying Light 2’s. Driving feels smooth, and zombies can even climb onto your car to mess with you. No customization this time, which is a shame, but smashing into a wall just to fling an enemy off your hood never gets old.

In Dying Light 1’s DLC The Following, we first got vehicles with the buggy, and it was customizable. That’s missing here, but at least driving still feels solid.

Power, Control, and the Baron

I’ve made it to the power plant section, so here’s what I know:

• The Baron (Marius Fischer) is the main villain so far. He’s arrogant, cold, and reminds me of a Far Cry villain—probably my favorite antagonist in the series already. He’s bankrolling experiments to weaponize the THV virus.

• Kyle Crane gets captured, tortured, and experimented on before escaping during chaos at the lab.

• Along the way, he meets Olivia, a scientist who knows a lot about his condition. Personally, I’d rather see Crane lost and figuring things out on his own instead of being told what to do by yet another voice in his ear—but we’ll see how her role plays out.

The story already feels longer than Dying Light 2’s, but so far I haven’t noticed the branching choices that made Dying Light 2 unique. Maybe that comes later, maybe it was cut.

Going It Alone or With Friends

It supports up to 4 players, but I’ve been playing solo. Personally, I like to take my time, explore, and play at my own pace instead of rushing through with friends.

Final Thoughts

After 7+ hours, I’m enjoying Dying Light: The Beast. The combat’s solid, the world is massive, and the villain is promising. But honestly? It doesn’t feel like a whole new game. It feels like what Dying Light 2’s DLC was supposed to be.

Score: 7/10
Fun and worth playing, but more “extended DLC” than true sequel where techland hasn’t learned from the past of milking Dying Light until it runs dry.

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