Bee Barnes
What Is Dying Light?
Techland’s most recent release, Dying Light: The Beast, came out on September 19, 2025. (Available to play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.) It’s the 3rd installment in the Dying Light series, which is an FPS, zombie survival, parkour, action game where the player sprints through hordes of undead, jumps and scales buildings like Spider-Man, and whales on super-zombies with a delightful array of weapons. It’s a hoot, frankly.
At least, the first game was. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of players really didn’t like Dying Light 2: Stay Human. To put things mildly. I’m also sorry to admit I am one of those people. I just couldn’t get into the sequel.
But I’m not here to talk about the sequel today. No, I’m here to talk about The Beast. Although originally planned as DLC for Stay Human, Techland created so much content that they decided to make it its own installment in the series. I’m so glad they did.
I’ll say it now: Dying Light: The Beast feels like a return to form. It’s everything I love about the OG game, with all these great immersive aspects sprinkled in, which makes this a very satisfying game to dive into. I’m not going to discuss the story in this review. I’m enjoying it enough that I think I want to leave that up for players to discover on their own.
Instead, I’m going to talk about the mechanics. All the bits and bobs, what I do and don’t like, and what fixes I’m hoping to see. Let’s jump in.
Is It Playable?
I play on PS5 and I reliably maintain 60 FPS. The only stuttering I’ve ever had is in the main menu. For some reason or another, the main menu stutters like crazy. But the second my campaign loads, I get a near-flawless performance.
I had one issue during the initial interaction with Olivia. (or not-Jade, as I keep calling her in my head.) She gave me a fresh change of clothes, but I wasn’t able to equip them or leave the menu. I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to resolve it.
The Combat
First, the combat. I am relieved to say the combat feels mostly solid. Hitting zombies feels good again. It feels very much like the first game, where your attacks had impact and oomph. For me, and many other players, that was lacking in the second game early on. I’ve read users on Reddit report that Techland patched the combat, but by that point, I was back to the original Dying Light.
At the time of writing (9.23.25), I have 34 hours in the game. I have not finished it, because I spend a lot of time farming zombie kills to level up so I’m stronger at night. Because the night still terrifies me. I say that now because, in all likelihood, Techland will patch these issues out soon. (Exactly what I wasn’t interested in waiting for before, will I ever be consistent?)
My main issue is the magnetic pull zombies have, and I’m not talking about their skills of seduction this time. I’ll have Krane just out of the range of their fingertips, and all of a sudden, they’ll fly towards me like I’ve got my own gravitational pull and they’ve got me! I’m struggling with the depth, and that’s not something I’m used to struggling with.
The zombies are more agile in other ways, too. For example, they can climb taller objects than in the first game. I can’t recall how high they could climb in the second. Some will also hit the superhero landing if they fall, rather than eating cement. The thing is, I miss the old fumbling undead. I miss leading zombies off the edge or getting them to push each other off the top of tall buildings. While I can still do that, they often don’t crash land on their skulls, and those skulls don’t pop like water balloons anymore.
Also, kicks take stamina now. Dying Light 1 didn’t have that. I could can-can dance up and down the road, no problem. But now I get winded 3 kicks in. Just like real life! I know that’s a mechanic brought over from Stay Human, but I just don’t think I’m a fan of it. I feel like Krane, with all the experimentation that’s been done on him, should be able to kick just as much as he used to. His agility shouldn’t be reduced; if anything, I feel it should be at least above average.
The Parkour and Map
On that note, let’s jump into parkour. I really like the bestial traits they’ve given Krane. When he leaps, he claws into the wall a bit and even has some hang time. That skill was something you had to unlock before. But now it’s something you start out with. That feels like solid character development. Which is another reason I’m frustrated with the kick stamina, but I’ll stop harping on that point.
The parkour feels good. It feels like Dying Light. The Beast Mode is such a cool mechanic. It gives players the ability to go berserk and tear through entire hordes of zombies like you’re batting at wet tissue paper. At first, the ability is uncontrolled. Meaning, you dish out or receive a certain amount of damage until you fill up the rage meter. Then Krane loses his mind. Your vision becomes black and white, and all you can do is turn the zombies into jelly at your feet. Later on, you can unlock the skill to control the ability, but honestly, I really like the period of time that you’re a ticking bomb, just waiting to go off. It really grounds me in the feeling that we – and Krane – have really lost control of things. The world has passed us by, and we have changed. Probably for the worse.
I sort of wish the days were a bit longer, but that’s probably just me. I feel like I don’t have enough time to run around from one objective to another during the day. Gee, maybe the game is trying to tell me something. Issue being, I’m a total chicken at night. I can’t see shit, and that makes me super paranoid. I’m constantly clicking R3 to use my survivor sense.
I have close to 400 hours in the first Dying Light game. I know Harran like the back of my hand. I’m practically that Rainbolt geoguesser guy here. I’m PointCrow, but instead of Hyrule, it’s Harran. Which means learning a whole new terrain, leaping from new building to new building, and getting stuck like an adventurous cat in a tree, is both terrifying and exhilarating. My brain keeps trying to supply a map of Harran while sprinting through hordes, only to lead me to a dead end where I have to rip and tear my way to freedom. Unfortunate, but exciting.
All that to say: the map is freaking huge. There are a handful of biomes, and each area covers a massive expanse. Each biome is home to a specific chimera and zombie variants. Every time I think I’ve got the map fully opened, there’s a new spot I find not long after. I also love that I can climb so many more different types of terrain than in the first game. I’m scrambling up stone walls, using vines and roots to reach new areas.
The Dialogue
Next, let’s talk about talking. In the OG game, the player didn’t have the ability to affect the story. Stay Human introduced players to dialogue options. Not that Techland invented that by any means, but they listened to player feedback and provided it in the sequel. If I recall correctly, it was a bit slow in the beginning. Stay Human required a lot of talking in the introduction scenes and tutorial, and that made the game feel slow to me.
That ground the game’s momentum to a near halt, and that was one of the reasons I dropped it. I wanted Dying Light 1 again, but they gave me something new and different. How dare they! No, in all seriousness. I think Techland nailed the balance this time around. The dialogue options are there, but you’re not forced to go through a ton of them right away. Within the first half hour of gameplay, you speak to Olivia, and she is our first dialogue tree.
From there, you can choose to speak to other survivors or ignore them. Well, most of them. There are some mandatory quests in the beginning that require you to speak to NPCs, but it’s not a waste of time at all, and you’re not bogged down with side-quests from the jump. I think having a less populated central hub helps with that. Stay Human felt way too crowded from the start. I like building up survivor encampments over time. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished more than just mowing down zombies (which is my favorite thing to do).
Co-op & Multiplayer
The co-op is a hoot. I haven’t figured out – nor put much effort into learning, frankly – how the mic works, so I don’t know how to talk to my teammates when I have them, but the classic jump-and-squat chat seems to work well still. From time to time, and you can adjust the frequency, an option to call for help will pop up on a death screen. There are other ways to join games, but I haven’t tried them. I don’t tend to play multiplayer or co-op. I’m more of a single-player kind of person.
I host, and not only that, I host in video games, too. It’s ridiculously easy to set up. Hit a button, wait a few minutes, and bam! You’ve got buddies! I like to call them to help me run through the particularly scary sequences. Because I’m a coward.
I don’t know if I’ve just been incredibly lucky, but I also haven’t dealt with a single troll. No one’s been griefing; everyone’s been super helpful and on target. I don’t know if it’s just a matter of time before that happens or if Dying Light fans are just Built Different.
Let’s Talk Ratings
Overall, I’m really happy with this game. I’m excited to track down every chimera, unlock every skill, and memorize this map until I know it as well as I do Harran. I think that alone says a lot. As slow as the opening scenes were, this feels like Techland took everything back to formula. Cue Norman Osborn meme, but this time in a good way. If you enjoyed the first Dying Light game, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy this too because it feels so much like it, with some solid quality-of-life updates. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
