3.5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of Dying Light: The Beast.

I had the opportunity to try one of the most anticipated games from the community of post-apocalyptic zombie games lovers. I can say that I have never resonated much with games of this type, especially survival ones.. however, I swallowed hard and decided to do a new review of the modern competitor of Dead Island 2. "Dying Light: The Beast", made and published by Techland, is the third game in the Dying Light series, starting from the base as a DLC for Dying Light 2, the developers realized that they had too much content and splendid ideas, so they decided to make it a Standalone game.. (at full price!) where they were terribly wrong. It is true, in recent years I have managed to try both Dying Light games, and even the second game at launch, however, I don't think I have invested more than 15 hours combined playing both games. Probably the biggest problem I had was the movement, I felt it was very clunky or "clumsy" for a game that emphasizes innovative parkour. And I'm not saying that because I'm a hater of games with a more rigid movement system, after all I managed to enjoy games like Silent Hill 2 Remake/F, the Soulsborne games from Fromsoftware and many others. The main problem was the lack of freedom in this title. By lack of freedom I mean more the blocks that the game throws at you every time you try to climb a ledge. Leaving my criticism about movement aside, I should say a word about combat, being a strong point in 90% of games. The combat in Dying Light: The Beast is BRUTAL, STRATEGIC and very fast, where every kick you put in the ribs of a zombie would make you melt with excitement.. well, that's the "unofficial" description that the developers promised us. The reality is different, the combat, you can't even say it's weak, it's even satisfying for the first 5 hours you play, but then you advance in the story and you come across the same boring zombies, the same case is with the bosses, who were "gifted" with the monotony of modern game designers. Also, did I mention that the game is Open-World? I think not.. but, if I think about it better, there's nothing to specify, an open world, quite small, but at the same time enormous for the speed we go with and the lack of Fast Travel (a big bummer, right?). I repeat myself once again, the first impressions this title left me were great, even when it comes to exploring the open area, but after a few hours it completely took over. Another system that I was not satisfied with was the RNG, playing Co-op with two other people, it became frustrating when you needed a specific item, and each one had to go to different places to get it, fanatics of the series should know that at night you have no business being outside, especially if you are alone.. (Goddamn Volatiles). Another new mechanic that The Beast has but the others don't, is the "Beast Mode", a kind of Spartan Rage from God of War. Personally, I was satisfied with this mechanic, the idea was good, but the improvements in the Skill Tree were devastating, such a bad design on some meaningless abilities less often, Dom'le! "Kyle Crane can throw boulders now", "Kyle Crane can jump higher", Techland, you have a good team of developers, but you lack creativity. Since we're talking about developers, I'll also lend myself 150 words to talk about the optimization of the game. It runs on the same graphics engine as its predecessor, C-Engine, they promised changes, but the constant crashes and bugs that ruined my game are still present. Admittedly, I only encountered this on PC, on PS5 Pro, I had absolutely no performance problems, at most I had 2-3 minor bugs, where enemies stood still even after I gave them a fatal blow. The objectives in the game and the mission design are also extraordinarily dry. The best comparison is Ubisoft titles, they follow a very similar mission and open world design. One thing I loved about this game from the beginning to the end of my experience was the decision to change the area from an urban one to a rural one. Castor Woods, the main area of ​​the game, which is inspired by the Swiss Alps, was and will remain my favorite area in the entire Dying Light series. The villages are cozy, the forest is dense and the secrets are in their thousands. The real-time weather change is an exceptional atmospheric dynamic in most Open-World games, however, the rain effects in this game completely ruined my vision, the emphasis was far too high on the rain, that it no longer felt natural. Otherwise, Dying Light: The Beast is a "natural beauty" when it comes to graphic fidelity and art direction. The textures are of a very high resolution, the lighting system is great, where the reflections deserve their praise, even without Ray Tracing. However, it is not an industrial leap in detail and graphic fidelity, it holds up well for this year, but it is not something that will leave you speechless. A round of applause for the core composer and trusted collaborator of Techland, known for his involvement in many successful projects of the industry such as: A Plague Tale, Streets of Rage 4 and Greedfall, in addition to the other Dying Light titles. The main theme that I noticed while playing, was the tension and emotions of the main character reflected in the soundtrack. Also having numerous songs from the first game, with a darker remix here. As for the sound, it is the bread of God, a sound design that is soothing by day and frightening by night, where footsteps and echoes remain imprinted in your head. The highest praise in this category I give to the sound design during battles with enemies. The sound is mega "crunchy", where even for ordinary people, not just psychopaths, it ends up becoming very satisfying, every hit has a certain pattern, the sound of torn flesh and destroyed bones is lethal, if you ask me. And the satisfaction clearly doesn't stop there, Beast Mode accelerates and fills your dopamine canister in a few moments. We've probably come to the weakest aspect of the game, THE STORY. Not being a fanatic or even someone who knows the story of the first two titles, I can say that I ventured into this title with a lot of courage. In general, I can say that the characters were very poorly written and without personality, this is where the "Ubisoft influence" was felt the most, I'm kidding. The acting was excellent from Roger Craig Smith, but I feel that it was a bit too much, despite the fact that in the whole game, he was the only person who put emphasis and intonation on the character, in short, "gave him life". The rest of the characters are completely robots, but leaving that aside, I don't think good acting would change the bad taste scenario that I had with the most beloved character in the series, Kyle Crane. I feel that the ambitions that Techland had with this game were much too high. The final product managed to be just a dry title, completely "fanservice", with banal acting and a script, but also mediocre gameplay for the standard AAA price. It is very clear that the game is not for everyone, but I would totally recommend it to fans.. maybe even lovers of Post-Apocalyptic Zombie games. I invested over 30 hours in the game, along with 2 other people and on 2 platforms, and only now, writing this review, I am starting to realize and regret the wasted time. Techland, I wish you success in your next title, even if you canceled that Open-World Fantasy RPG, which from the concept, looked very good, Cheers! 7/10 Made by DanteHR