PC Review | Dying Light: The Beast

Dying Light: The Beast drops players back into a post-apocalyptic city where survival depends on parkour, combat, and quick thinking. The game doubles up on action this time around, and amplifies tension with a deadly night cycle where the most dangerous infected, the Volatiles, stalk you. Traversing rooftops and dark alleyways, players must scavenge weapons and resources while avoiding sudden ambushes. Co-op multiplayer adds unpredictable chaos, turning every mission into a shared test of skill and strategy. Dying Light: The Beast doesn’t just ask you to survive the night, it dares you to sprint straight through it with a horde of monsters on your heels and a half-broken wrench in your hand. It’s part horror, part parkour, and entirely chaos in motion. Every rooftop becomes a lifeline, every shadow a potential death trap, and every decision a gamble between bravery and stupidity. Just when you think you’re safe, the game reminds you that safety is a luxury you can’t afford. It’s not just about staying alive, it’s about doing it with style, panic, and the occasional scream.

Things I liked!

• Audio / Sound Design & Voice Work | The voice acting and audio presentation are great! The dialogue is believable enough to keep you invested, and the ambient sound cues (zombie groans, environmental effects) help build tension. Guns sound realistic, as do melee weapons when they thud against the skulls, legs, ribs, and arms of the hordes of zombies. Music is a key part of generating the tension during play as well. Especially at night when you are being hunted by the Volatiles. The music really ramps up and makes the encounters extra stressful (in a good way).

• Parkour / Movement & Traversal Mechanics | One of the standout features is how fluid and engaging movement feels. Jumping between rooftops, climbing structures, sliding, and navigating urban terrain make traversal part of the fun rather than a chore. I was concerned at first since Dying Light: The Beast did show a lot of forestry which made me question if parkour was even going to be viable, or if the team at Techland had just given it an after thought. But I am glad to report that parkour is very much at the forefront of the franchise still.
  
  
• Day-Night Cycle Tension | The shift between day and night is a clever system: daytime is safer, but night brings danger and urgency. This dynamic forces players to balance risk vs reward when exploring further after dark. Volatiles are often found skulking around every corner, and if spotted, it forces you to run into the nearest safe spot, or you get creative and outrun them. I found myself mostly resting until morning to save myself from the increased blood pressure and stress the game brings during these intense moments. If you do have to travel at night, I recommend sticking to the rooftops, and making sure your UV flashlight is equipped.
  
  
• Co-op / Multiplayer Interaction | The real magic of Dying Light: The Beast shines when you step into co-op. While the single-player campaign delivers plenty of tension and thrills, teaming up with friends transforms the experience into something far more unpredictable and alive. Missions that might feel routine on your own suddenly become thrilling group efforts. For example, I drew the attention of a group of infected while my friend scrambled up onto a rooftop to complete an objective. There’s a constant sense of shared chaos and camaraderie. You’ll find yourself racing to objectives, scavenging supplies together, or laughing as an ill-timed explosion sends zombies, (and sometimes teammates) flying. It adds a fresh sense of energy and purpose to the game that many will find rewarding when teaming up with others.
  
  
• Beast Mode | The newest addition to Dying Light: The Beast is the implementation of “Beast Mode”. This allows Kyle to enter into a blind rage of sheer power, tearing common enemies to pieces and dealing immense damage to bosses. This is triggered by killing enemies and building up rage before letting it all out. You can run faster, jump higher, and as mentioned, deal a lot of damage. You can also upgrade this part of Kyle by allocating Beast Points to your character, allowing for a much more controlled and refined approach to using “Beast Mode”.

Mixed & disliked!

• Repetitive Missions / Structure | The core mission types tend to repeat themselves often. There are fetch quests, clear zones, rescues, and evidence gathering. Usually these end with you defeating a Chimera which is just another boss battle to earn another power. Over time, this can make the gameplay loop feel stale. The variety isn’t always enough to sustain player engagement. I found what helped was to tackle Dying Light: The Beast in small sessions, about an hour each time. This can be mitigated somewhat as I mentioned previously if you play in multiplayer with a friend.

• Frustrating Difficulty Spikes | The difficulty can feel uneven at times, shifting from manageable skirmishes to brutally punishing encounters without much warning. Early missions might lull you into a rhythm, only for a sudden spike in enemy aggression or a boss fight to overwhelm you completely. These abrupt jumps can break immersion, turning what should feel like organic tension into frustration. While some players may enjoy the unpredictability, others will find the balance inconsistent and occasionally unfair, especially when death feels more like a design flaw than a personal mistake. Techland does try to mitigate your demise a little by highlighting that you are in a higher level area, so I guess it could be argued that they did try to warn you.
  
  
• Technical Bugs / Performance Issues | During my time with Dying Light: The Beast, it was evident that there was some sort of memory leak going on which hampered my time with it. For reference, I have a 16GB VRAM RTX 5080. In less than an hour at each session, my VRAM usage would exceed its allocation and performance began to tank. This did put me off initially, but at time of writing, this has now been fixed. Apart from this, I did experience some visual glitches, soft locks in missions, and I felt controls were not always behaving as expected. These issues can interrupt play and reduce immersion, and also help contribute towards the frustration mentioned earlier in the review.
  
  
• Flimsy Character & Story Depth | While Dying Light: The Beast excels in atmosphere and gameplay, its story often struggles to leave a lasting impression. The main narrative starts with promise, setting up a world filled with tension and moral ambiguity, but it quickly falls into predictable patterns. Many of the characters lack emotional weight, and their motivations feel thin, and their dialogue occasionally leans on clichés rather than genuine personality. As the hours go by, the plot’s initial urgency fades, making it harder to stay invested in the campaign beyond the thrill of survival and exploration.

CONCLUSION

Score: 70/100

With immersive audio, intense encounters, and a sprawling urban playground, Dying Light: The Beast delivers a relentless, adrenaline-fueled survival experience that walks the line on being the best entry in the series, but falls flat when it comes to character development and technical performance. Fans of the first two games will surely find value here, and with multiplayer still an option, it opens up more opportunities to find fun in the somewhat stale mission structure. Overall, Dying Light: The Beast is a decent enough game with countless hours to sink your teeth into if you are looking for more zombie bashing content.

Aaron

Gaming is in my blood.  Be it handheld games, Xbox, PC, Switch or Playstation, I am all over it.
I make my own games as part of my profession and love playing co op games with friends in my spare time. Avid dog lover and camper van enthusiast.