Dying Light gets a new installment with The Beast. The creators invited MeinMMO to preview the action game. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus is used to suffering in games, but The Beast has really tested his frustration tolerance.
I love challenges in video games – when they are well done. Soulslikes are one of my favorites, and even my “Feel Good Game” is a survival builder that gets harder.
When we received the test offer for The Beast, I didn’t think the new Dying Light would hit that mark. I enjoyed playing the second part, as the mix of brawling, RPG, and parkour is quite fun, even though I don’t like zombies.
Then the spin-off came around, and I thought: Cool, explore a new city, smash a few undead skulls, and enjoy a nice story. Yes, right.
I haven’t finished the game yet, but within the first 10 hours, I have died more often than in my entire playthrough of Dying Light 2. Normally, this would make me want to try harder or out of frustration go to the gym, but The Beast is sometimes just unfair.
Dying Light: The Beast launches on September 18 at 6:00 PM for PC, PS5, and Xbox.
At night, it’s not just harder, it’s really annoying
I know that Dying Light plays with the day-and-night cycle. During the day, a few stoned zombies shuffle through the streets looking like they have a full diaper. A few special zombies or humans mix things up, but that’s it. During the day, you explore. Only at night does it really kick off.
Here, there are tougher enemies, and it’s dark. Really dark. Outside the light cone of the high-performance flashlight, you can’t see anything, and the light naturally attracts enemies – especially the nasty shadow hunters, who, unlike other zombies, can climb.
My first encounter with the night was during a story mission where I had to hunt a new type of zombie. Right from the first clue, a shadow hunter was hanging around and knocked me out. Just three hits, and I’m lying in the dirt. And he was just standing there by coincidence.
Fight? No way. Running is on the agenda.
Normally, I would now head back to the position and punch the undead gentleman with the split jaw right in the face. But that doesn’t work. In the beginning, I’m way too weak for a fight with shadow hunters, and even later, that’s almost impossible. The creatures are tough.
After the second respawn, I learned to simply avoid enemies at night. A fight is not worth it, and dying costs experience points, so I let it be. Right before a save point, I still got caught.
A shadow hunter picked up my trail, and I had to flee. “A hunt begins,” it says, and suddenly half the city is on my tail. The zombies don’t just give up; I have to run until I reach a safe house.
The next one is on the other side of the city according to the display, and after the first three roofs, I have a second hunter on my tail, and another one cuts me off from the front. This whole thing takes about 5-10 minutes, after which I can barely open the door to the safe town hall at the last second.
I don’t mind difficulty, but I would like the option to fight back. Especially since The Beast actually has a perfect way to provide just such an opportunity.
The Beast is the best innovation Dying Light could come up with
The whole point of The Beast is that the main character Kyle Crane has not only developed a certain immunity to the zombie virus as in part 2 but has become a very special creature.
After years of cruel experiments in a secret lab somewhere in the Alps, Kyle has gained the power to transform into a beast, but uncontrollably.
If I take enough damage, deal enough damage, or evade attacks, I enter “beast mode.” In that, I pummel enemies to mush with bare fists or literally rip zombies’ heads off. Doom Guy sends his regards.
Unexpected soulslike elements in a parkour game
I can even further improve this beast mode by hunting chimeras and siphoning something from their bodies. Some scientist explains what this is, but what matters to me is: Those are skill points for my beast skill tree.
Chimeras, just like some smaller enemies, are tough foes with move sets and arenas. Things that I’m used to from Dark Souls. Each kind of chimera also has a special strand of this substance that I need to acquire, so it improves me in a specific way. Like the unique boss weapons from… Dark Souls.
The fights themselves, where I have to dodge certain attacks and use small windows of time for a limited number of attacks, also remind me strongly of soulslikes. Something I didn’t expect in Dying Light, but I really welcome it.
Still, The Beast is not a soulslike; it’s still Dying Light, and that is quite evident, although unfortunately not as well as in its predecessor.
Strong gameplay with some shortcomings
Primarily, I still run through the city while playing and try to avoid zombies. Fights just aren’t worth it. The meager loot isn’t even worth the durability of the weapons.
A major plus: Should a fight actually happen, there’s a very amusing way to defeat enemies using kicks. If they are on the ground, I can just keep kicking them until they stay down. It looks silly and makes me chuckle a bit, but saves weapon durability.
At the core of the gameplay remains exploration and parkour. Running over rooftops, swinging on poles, and balancing on ledges is what mainly happens all the time. Unfortunately, that feature is somewhat poorly implemented.
Climbing sections, which are often mandatory for quests, drag on because Kyle really sucks. The controls are a bit clunky; climbing sections are often tedious and long, and some facades that Ezio and Altaïr could climb with a fingertip are suddenly not grippable enough for Mr. Crane. My colleague André Baumgartner from GameStar had fewer issues, so maybe it’s just me.
A few more negative points:
- The AI is really dumb. When zombies notice me and I crawl under a counter or something, they just stand in front of me and look as if I were a display.
- Dialogues are a bit… meager. Sometimes the emphases don’t match the flow of the conversation, and some NPCs react strangely. In one case, a person recognizes me as a hero, even though I just arrived in the city 3 hours ago and asks me for help.
- Often I’m forced to do things the way the game wants me to. For example, I’m supposed to clear a cave of zombies. An NPC suggests using explosives. Even then, when I have already burned everything with molotovs – except for the enemies that constantly respawn or are immortal.
- Dark zones, the places with special loot, are at least at first always the same: A building you have to crawl into, a handful of enemies, and a door whose lock you have to pick. Behind it, there’s often “surprisingly” a zombie looking at the door frame.
The Beast is brutal for the sake of being brutal
What could ultimately be The Beast’s downfall is the dedicated emphasis on brutality. In many cases, there are executions that look like glory kills from Doom. Even the “normal” fights are extremely detailed and show what happens when a sledgehammer hits a skull.
The Beast truly fills the game with such scenes. It’s grotesque horror meant to shock – which doesn’t quite work for me. I rarely feel scared or disgusted, and when I constantly see such brutality, it feels rather monotonous.
Light entertainment with slight weaknesses
The strong focus on brutality and the fear factor at night unfortunately lets cool elements like beast mode and the beautiful environment fade somewhat into the background, resulting in monotony. However, this assessment applies only to me.
Those who enjoy splatter will have their joy here. I quite like the world. Since I live in southern Germany, the setting “somewhere in the western Alps” is not only refreshingly unspoiled but also quite cozy.
There are even a few nice details like an American soldier stationed in Stuttgart or NPCs raving about beer, schnitzel, and potato salad. A craving I can relate to quite well.
So far, the main story is nothing special, and looking at the structure, it seems unlikely to change: It’s a classic revenge story with a few unrelated side quests. Not bad, but definitely not a standout. It’s enough to keep me engaged, but I wouldn’t play the game just for the story. Maybe there’s a big twist at the end; I doubt it based on my experience.
What hits really hard is the environmental storytelling, meaning the stories that hide within the environment. Here, I’ve not only found a few newspaper articles that raised eyebrows but also some scenes that made me swallow:
Together with the gameplay, it’s all rounded enough that I will most likely play through The Beast … eventually. Especially the beast mode and boss fights are quite enjoyable. I just have to bite through the tedious nights.
The Beast plays not only with its brutality but also with a feeling of unease, especially in the dark. MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen had the chance to experience this when she played the new Dying Light before me at gamescom: A new zombie game affected me so much that I was glad to see daylight again after not even 1 hour
