As part of a world tour leading up to the launch of their latest entry in the zombie survival/parkour action series, Techland recently invited Wccftech and a small number of other content creators and journalists out to California to go hands-on with the opening hours of Dying Light: The Beast.
While our earlier preview was focused on the protagonist Kyle Crane coming to terms with his newfound Beast powers, this session was more intimate, instead centered around the opening hours of the adventure in Castor Peaks (minus the introductory moments where Kyle breaks free from his decade-long captivity). You could consider these where Kyle Crane slowly gets his groove back, returning to the freerunning zombie slayer he once was.
Castor Peaks represents a much needed change in scenery from the concrete jungles of prior Dying Light games. While there are still scattered settlements with tightly clustered buildings to parkour across, much of the landscape is filled with nature and untouched areas free from human influence. Given Castor Peaks’ status as a nature conservation, this fits the setting and builds out the world into more of a playground where Kyle Crane can let his inner beast truly run wild.
Given that Dying Light: The Beast carries off a decade from the original Dying Light, there has clearly been the passage of time where the protagonist wasn’t working on his wallclimbing or hammer throwing. In proper open-world gameplay fashion, this leads the player into a series of tutorial segments meant to both onboard the player and return Kyle Crane back to fighting condition. This means the usual gamut of learning how to wield a melee weapon as well as where and how to climb around the environment. White paint splashed across ledges and open windows serve as pathways for the player to traverse and thankfully they blend well enough into the backdrop of Castor Peaks that one might not even notice they’re present unless actively looking for them.
Dying Light: The Beast’s parkour system still takes some getting used to the intricate jankiness to truly appreciate. While it’s true that Kyle Crane can climb up and mantle over just about anything with a flat surface, some of the more puzzling sections can be an exercise in patience. Rather than moving and clamboring at the speed I’d want to move, sometimes I found myself needing to stop and look over at the ledge I wanted to mantle over to and wait for Kyle to stretch his arm out and indicate that he was locked onto the ledge and by jumping, he would automatically reach for it. There were a number of high stakes moments where the sense of urgency was pulled back by needing to wait for the precision to climb above. Given that Dying Light: The Beast is still an RPG at its core with a robust skill tree, I anticipate seeing some new abilities pop up that will mitigate my concerns with the traversal.
At the same time, combat is the other key pillar to what makes the Dying Light series. Played out entirely in first-person (minus the third-person cutscenes and menus), players will experience the visceral combat through the eyes of Kyle Crane. Whether wielding a one- or two-handed weapon or firearm, zombies are constantly on the move for the protagonist’s flesh and won’t stop until their head is knocked clean off. Dying Light: The Beast features an overhauled dismemberment system and there is a gratuitous amount of gore as Kyle swings away with any implement he can get his hands on. And yes, once again, weapon durability is a constant stuggle to maintain but now that Kyle Crane has been around an apocalypse or two before, he’s skilled enough to repair his weapons on the go with a fair bit of scrap metal and other materials he’s scavenged up. No more having to trade out broken pipes every 90 seconds just because you tried to take on an entire zombie horde instead of taking the high road to run away.
As this session of Dying Light: The Beast was focused on the early hours of Kyle Crane’s revenge story, many of the more interesting upgrades and Beast powers were locked away for players to rediscover. One thing’s for certain though: years of captivity have turned Kyle Crane into a raging beast.
Dying Light: The Beast will launch on August 22nd, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and PC for $59.99/$69.99 or as a free standalone DLC for those who purchased the Ultimate Edition of Dying Light 2.
[Editor’s Note: Travel and accommodations were provided by Techland to attend their preview event in Los Angeles, CA.]
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