Kyle Crane Seeks Out Revenge And Dropkicks With The Best Of Them In Dying Light: The Beast

Having been a fan of Dying Light's post-apocalyptic infected world from the original 2015 release. While he wasn't a core part of Dying Light 2's story, only being mentioned by name, he's back again in Dying Light: The Beast a smaller adventure set after the events of Dying Light 2 that pick up with Crane looking to find and get revenge on the Baron for what he got put through.

Catching Up With Kyle Crane

Since we last saw Kyle Crane, more has been understood about how he's simultaneously infected but also able to retain his humanity. He spent time offscreen trapped by The Baron, and now that he has been able to get out, he's wanting revenge. While we don't know much about what The Baron put Crane through, we know that he was experimenting on him for thirteen years.

At Summer Game Fest, I got to sit down and get my hands on an hour of Dying Light: The Beast. This gameplay demo gave me a chance to explore the open world, make a safe house, hide from volatiles in the dark, take on an armed militia, and lastly take on a massive Chimera creature.

Dying Light: The Beast's Open World And Events

Sitting down with Aaron Telty, QA Analyst at Techland, I loaded into the world. Immediately, I was hit with just how gorgeous Dying Light: The Beast looks. Starting in a courtyard of derelict buildings with an afternoon sun shining warm orange light across the world… I was immediately beset by zombies.

After getting familiar with the controls, I headed out into the world. Much like previous Dying Light titles the world of Dying Light: The Beast is a parkour playground. I was hopping from light post to dangling rope, through a building (doing a bit of looting along the way), and launching off zombies to attain higher ground.

Starting with just a crowbar, it wasn't too long (with the assistance of a guiding QA hand) that I stumbled upon an Axe lodged into a poor human in the back of a truck. Swapping between weapons was an easy process and there was clear indications as to just how powerful everything was in comparison.

An interesting gameplay mechanic I learned early, when I horribly misjudged a jump and ended up staring at a game over screen, was that in Dying Light: The Beast when you die you'll lost a portion of your gained experience for the level. While not a lot it's an interesting balance between stat progression, risking your time outside (especially at night), and wanting to progress in levels.

Improvements To Dying Light 2 That Have Carried Over
An interesting aspect that kept coming up while playing The Beast was that since I last played Dying Light 2 at time of review and release there are a lot of systems including weapon, gore, and movement mechancs that have been improved over time that I didn't experience in 2, that I now could as part of The Beast.

As I continued my path to a safe house the sun began to set on the world. With that Volatiles, incredibly dangerous zombies began appearing. With a quick scan of the environment Crane is able to directly spot them, glowing with red skeletons in the night.

The world of Dying Light: The Beast radically shifts between day and night, it's more deadly turning it into a stealth title. Crouching down and switching off my flashlight I quietly navigated through tall grass to reach the safe house. It was reinforced that the stage of the game I was playing it was definitely more important to remain stealthed but that later on in the game, after leveling up and unlocking additional abilities you'd be able to hold your own much better in the night sections.

Playing Your Way

A key theme of Dying Light: The Beast was how it's up to the player to decide how they want to approach each new obstacle in the game. I got to see this a number of times. Initially, it was in securing the safe house. Descending into the basement to return power to the small apartment I snuck through a room of unconscious zombies. There were at least a dozen in this small room.

Creeping around I was able to obtain a fuse and power up the generator, waking the zombies in the process. Knowing I had limited durability on my weapons, and I wasn't likely going to get much out of killing the zombies in this room I simply left, jumping back into the vent I had entered the room in.

This kind of difference in approach came up again shortly after, reaching a facility that was being guarded by a small militia. Ascending to the roof it was recommended that I approach this with stealth where I can… unfortunately I was already charging forward and had prepared to dropkick the nearest guard clean off the roof.

With a variety of quiet and loud combat options, stealth sections, and even open world driving I was impressed with just how quickly you might have one plan, that immediately becomes something else.

Unleash The Beast

A unique gameplay aspect of Dying Light: The Beast is in Kyle Crane's infected genetics. As you deal and take melee damage you'll be slowly increasing a rage meter in the lower left of your screen.

Once that meter has reached it's peak you can click in with both thumbsticks to tap into a more menacing kind of combat. Putting away his weapons Crane bares his fists to grab, smack, punch, and even tear off zombies limbs as he goes fully feral.

While in this mode I also seemed to notice that Crane ran faster, possible a good ability to have in your back pocket in case a situation is about to go sideways.

Investigate The World As Kyle Crane

Another neat aspect of the demo experience (after I dropkicked way too many guards off roofs) was entering a facility where I needed to do some sleuthing. Standing next to a cage that something had broken out of, interesting machinery, and suspicious piping Crane was able to analyse each to get an idea of what creature had been contained, a Chimera, and what he could do to lure it back and kill it.

Entering another zombie infested area and obtaining a flamethrower I then got gas to attract the Chimera and engaged in a massive battle. This creature, at least 12 feet tall even with a hunched over stance, was a beast that while humanoid in shape had clearly been stretched to the limits of it's form.

The Chimera, with exposed muscle tendons glistening in the light crashed through a car yard. This boss battle was hard, and not just in the way that I was rusty with the controls, but that where Crane was in the story just two attacks connecting from this creature would put me in the dust.

Through (alot) of trial and error I was able to coordinate dodging shockwave attacks, rocks getting hurled at me, and sliding out of the way of a charging attack defeating him. For Crane upgrades to movement and attacks are through natural experience and progressions, but it's only in defeating the Chimera and possibly other advanced infected that Crane is able to level up his infected abilities.

A More Linear Experience

Unlike Dying Light and Dying Light 2 the experience for The Beast is more linear. This is in essence part of how the game came about, initially as DLC for Dying Light 2 before getting spun off. It's total runtime will also be shorter, but will still likely be around the 20 hours space.

If you're a fan of Dying Light there's really no reason to not be looking forward to Dying Light: The Beast. It's not only an evolution on the basic formula but with a more linear approach to the narrative there is a lot more chance to really get invested in the world and it's characters.

Dying Light: The Beast releases this year on August 22nd

Dying Light: The Beast was previewed at Summer Game Fest 2025.