Dying Light: The Beast

Techland's Dying Light series carries a specific, well-known internal tension: a beloved 2015 original followed by a 2022 sequel, Dying Light 2, that split its own fanbase over changes to parkour, combat and tone. Dying Light: The Beast, released 18 September 2025, returns to protagonist Kyle Crane and stakes its reputation explicitly on resolving that tension in the original's favour. Very Positive across more than 58,000 Steam reviews, the review sample largely agrees it succeeded — though a real, specific minority of complaints, and one genuine, documented post-launch controversy, are worth understanding honestly alongside that success.

A specific, widely-repeated "return to form"

The comparison to the original Dying Light recurs throughout the sample with real specificity. "The original Dying Light was one of the best games I have ever played and I have played tons of games. This one captures that original magic again. Dying Light 2 was a good game, but not like the original," one review states plainly. Another, more direct still: "This genuinely feels like what the sequel should have been already. Runs amazing and it feels like playing DL1 again... WE ARE SO BACK CRANE ENJOYERS." A reviewer with a decade of history with the franchise frames the achievement carefully: "I've been playing Dying Light since 2015. The first game is one of my favourite games of all time, and even with it being a decade old it is still the best game of the 3" — praise for The Beast specifically for closing that gap rather than claiming to have surpassed the original outright.

Launch quality draws its own sustained, specific credit, unusual enough for a AAA release that multiple reviewers call it out directly: "Props devs! A game that actually runs on release! AND WELL!" one review states, while another frames the achievement against a broader industry pattern: "I can't believe I just launched the game in 2025 and it works, feels and plays soooo good... when devs know how to make a good optimization without any 'premium' gamers stuff. We gamers do really need so little just to be happy." That specific gratitude for stable performance, rather than simply praising the gameplay in isolation, recurs often enough to treat as a genuine, distinguishing feature of this launch relative to the series' and the industry's recent history.

A promise made and kept

Separate from gameplay, Techland made a specific, public commitment before launch that this review can confirm has been honoured: Dying Light: The Beast shipped without microtransactions or premium currency, a deliberate reversal of the studio's own decision to add a controversial premium currency to Dying Light 2 roughly eighteen months after that game's release. A substantial content update, "Restored Land," released 26 March 2026, added a genuinely significant permanent-consequence world mode — zombies stay dead when killed, looted containers stay empty, key activities only need completing once — entirely for free rather than as paid DLC. Several reviewers specifically credit this: "I skipped this at launch, but the idea of having an open world zombie game with actual zombies that stay dead instead of standard respawning hordes pulled me in with the new update," one review states, describing genuine, substantial value added after the fact rather than held back for monetisation.

Real, specific criticism of map design and story

What keeps this review from treating the reception as uncomplicated is a real, specific thread of criticism concerning Castor Woods, the game's new open world. "The rest of the world is empty and clearly built to justify" a marketing claim of scale rather than genuinely rewarding exploration, one detailed review argues, while another names the mechanical consequence directly: "the majority of the map is open space with no opportunities" for the fluid, structure-chained parkour the series is known for. A third puts it bluntly: "Parkour has been gutted, and the map is the worst in the series. There is no fluidity or momentum to parkour." This isn't the dominant view in the sample — most reviewers praise the parkour specifically — but it recurs with enough mechanical detail across independent reviewers to treat as a real, if minority, design concern rather than simple dissatisfaction.

Story quality draws more genuinely mixed reception. "The story of" the game's central antagonist, the Baron, "we never even saw him until the end," one review states, describing underdeveloped villain writing as a specific letdown relative to earlier entries. Another frames the tension concisely: "the story is kinda stupid but at least it's sincere" — a backhanded compliment that recurs in spirit across several reviews willing to forgive narrative weakness given the strength of the moment-to-moment gameplay. A smaller, more specific mechanical complaint concerns the zombie "grab" mechanic: "it even cancels you if you are mid swing with your melee attack... like I didn't even do it in the first place," one review states, a frustration severe enough that several reviewers report modifying or disabling the mechanic entirely.

A real, documented edition-fairness controversy

Separate from gameplay criticism, a genuine controversy emerged around the game's editions that this review can verify independently rather than simply relay. Several detailed Deluxe Edition owners describe real frustration that a new Definitive Edition, released alongside the March 2026 update, offered no discounted upgrade path recognising their existing purchase: "Deluxe owners felt there should be a discount since they already own half of the Definitive Edition content," with the specific complaint that the Definitive upgrade and the separate DLC pieces cost roughly the same total regardless of what a player already owned. A related, compounding issue affected some owners of Dying Light 2's Ultimate Edition, who found a promised free copy of The Beast applied only to players who'd bought the full original Ultimate Edition rather than those who'd purchased a later "Ultimate upgrade" — a distinction several players found genuinely confusing and, in their view, misleadingly communicated. This is a real, specific business-practice concern worth reporting precisely — distinct from and more accurate than the broader, less specific "microtransaction farm" framing at least one reviewer used, since the base game genuinely did ship and remain free of microtransactions as promised.

Where this leaves a buyer

At NZ$99.95, discounted to roughly $66 at the time of writing, Dying Light: The Beast delivers a genuine, specifically earned return to form for a series that needed one — the parkour, combat and launch stability draw real, repeated, detailed praise, and Techland's kept promise to ship without microtransactions is a real, verifiable point in the studio's favour. The honest, necessary caveats concern a real minority complaint about map design working against the series' signature movement in places, and a genuine, documented fairness dispute over how existing Deluxe Edition owners were treated when the Definitive Edition arrived months later. Series fans, especially those who preferred the original Dying Light to its sequel, are well placed to find exactly the game they've been hoping for. Existing Deluxe Edition owners considering the Definitive upgrade, and players who prioritise dense, structure-rich parkour environments above open wilderness, should weigh both real, documented concerns before buying.