Zombie action-adventure sport Dying Gentle: The Beast has been firmly on my anticipated video games of 2025 checklist for some time now, and every time the TechRadar Gaming group or I’ve seen it, our hype and pleasure develop a bit extra.
After going hands-on as soon as once more with Techland’s upcoming third sport within the Dying Gentle sequence at Gamescom 2025 final month, and seeing a brand-new sliver of the sport, my impressions have grown much more optimistic.
It appears to be like like the additional time within the oven is proving worthwhile, as I noticed in some smaller particulars, however I additionally had the prospect to play a aspect quest, which revealed extra layers of depth and curiosity to the sport, too.
Great gore to the fore
The recent delay to Dying Light: The Beast was a ‘conscious decision’ to do so for polishing major features and to make one of the best sport doable, as sport director Nathan Lemaire informed me at Gamescom, and that exhibits. These additional 4 weeks of cooking time are doubtless going to imply an much more scrumptious, bloody meal come launch.
From my time with the sport at Gamescom, it was evident that the small print had been being labored on to assist make the sport as polished as doable. Total, issues felt smoother within the controls, and all the pieces regarded a bit higher since my Summer Game Fest preview.
Parkour, for instance, felt smoother with protagonist Kyle Crane seamlessly stringing collectively strikes over automobiles, up the perimeters of buildings, and throughout gaps – all of it felt effortlessly fluid.
The weapons felt glorious and improved, too. I additionally had entry to new weapons, such because the fabulously ridiculous and bloody noticed blade launcher, which I took nice glee in utilizing repeatedly to slice zombies up in all method of how. Nonetheless, the motion with every weapon, be it ranged or melee, felt extremely sturdy, and had weight and nuance to them that got here throughout within the controls – I can solely think about what the PS5 DualSense wireless controller’s haptic suggestions may profit from right here.
It was maybe the affect of these weapons, and the gore, which caught my eye probably the most, and specifically the bloody mess you may make of zombies and baddies with stated weapons.
We already knew gore was a key aspect of The Beast’s fight and motion, however I actually honed in on the precise affect and gory impact of every hit of my weapons. Goal your melee instrument at a zombie’s head and make contact, and the enemy can have a gory wound mirroring the precise course (and depth it nearly regarded like) of your strike. That is comparable, after all, to concentrating on limbs, which isn’t new, but it surely’s being executed right here to nice impact and provides one other stage of satisfying bloody gore to your fight – directional gore if you’ll.
Side quests that matter
I got to experience all this new, improved, and buffed gameplay action, blood and guts in the context of one of the game’s side quests.
It was here that I got a genuine insight into all the chat about how the game’s world will be filled with worthwhile stuff to see and do. This sidequest demonstrated that spending time off the main quest path will be worth it from an action and gear-acquisition standpoint, but also worth it to find bite-sized stories and missions that matter.
In the mission I played, I was tasked with investigating a cut-off water supply to an area. This saw me sprinting to some key areas to clear out zombies and investigate what the heck has happened, and find the source of the problem, be it mechanical, nefarious, or otherwise. This investigation took me to a location that then had a rhythmic banging sound on its pipes happening within. Spooky.
After further investigation and zombie annihilation, you find a trapped family who took drastic action to get the attention of other survivors to come rescue them. In the process, Kyle can turn on the water supply again, make safe some areas of key importance to the setting of Castor Woods, and also see a family to safety.
As a result, each part of the quest had an interesting subsequent part, which pulled me along. Then, viewing it as a complete mini story, I could see that the quest made sense as a part of the narrative, and also felt consequential and important to the whole game and story. It felt like it wasn’t filler just for the sake of it, but rather was a key story of the world worth telling that also increased immersion and a sense of place. The water supply mattered at a grander scale for the land and its survivors, but equally, it was also a quest to rescue the family, and (hopefully) make some important locations zombie-free in the process.
If the game’s sidequests are all like this, or at least to some degree, then this preview has only cemented the world of Dying Light: The Beast as one I intend to investigate every area of and fully pick clean. Combine this with the awesome combat and enhanced gore, and it’s likely going to be a bloody good time.
Dying Light: The Beast is one of the most anticipated games of the year for all of us at TechRadar Gaming, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it when it releases on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC on September 19, 2025, with last-gen releases on PS4 and Xbox One coming later.
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