Recent reviews by Greendean1

TLDR:
DL:TB is, in my opinion, another decent entry into the franchise. While a bit short and lacking of replayability, it has improved on some of the failings of DL2,

I have completed all side quests and the main story in 26 in-game hours. I am aware there is slightly more content in achievements and easter eggs, but I have done what I'd consider, a proper play through. I also received it 'free' after purchasing the deluxe pre-order for DL2.


Parkour:
First I should mention, I am a fan of Dying Light 2's gameplay. While The Beast is clearly built from DL2, it nerfs a number of the parkour moves. Specifically in relation to verticality, things like high jump and long jump feel pointless, since you get the same effect from just doing a normal jump. An important pro is that you begin the game with a number of skills that had to be acquired through progression in DL2. While this causes the skill tree to feel rather unimpactful, it does make for a smoother start of experienced players.

Combat:
It's been a while since I've played DL1, but I regularly launch up DL2 to mess around and do some grinding.
The Beast's human combat is a rough middle ground between DL2s mostly predictable and easy to slay AI, and DL1's immortal abominations that can only be killed with a shot to the head. Humans will inconsistently begin to spam dodge, even if you've just put them on the ground. Once guns are acquired, they are usually better for killing humans.

Zombies are, as always, satisfying to kill. I might be mistaken, but they do seem a bit more grabby in this game compared to the others. I found that before unlocking the insta-escape, I had to stock up on knives. There are a lot of mini-bosses in POIs, but the game has a decent weapon damage balance, so while they are tricky to kill, they aren't unfair or boring.

BEAST MODE:
The *new* mechanic. I'm a bit on the fence about the introduction of this, as Beast Mode, is essentially a get out of jail free card. Have you accidentally pissed off a Volatile in a mission? It's okay, you are now basically immortal and can kill it with your fists. The executions are really cool, but lack variety. And the skill tree felt most unimportant, as most abilities had a drawback and didn't feel worth using.

Map Design & Traversal:
Again, I have to say I am a big fan of DL2. Old town captures a lot of what I liked about its map design, but improved on it by having far less repeated assets. And even where there are repeated assets, they've clearly been hand edited to make them unique, I don't think I've found any hard copies like you do in DL2. The rest of the map, while visually stunning, personally leaves me a bit wanting for more. Old town feels more like the main area, while the rest of the map is where you go to do quests.

Driving is back, and... a side grade to The Following. The ability to use random park rovers is pretty cool, even if it is a littttttle immersion breaking. The driving is mostly satisfying, even when you do get stopped at neck breaking speeds because you hit a roadblock in the wrong way. Being able to refuel and switch between first and third person are also great touches that I appreciate.

Grappling Hook: Is a slightly more clunky DL2 grappling hook. It's mostly the same but the controls are what really upset me. It took a bit to get use to, but feels more clunky than in DL2. After upgrading it to use the pull action, the grapple control will now auto pull you, and you need to hold it to swing. This creates weird moments for me atleast, where I want to swing and just pull, or I want to swing, then decide to pull, and end up just falling and losing momentum. Once I had the hang of it, It was incredibly fun to swing through the trees with the ol' "Swing Kick" from DL2. Literal Spiderman moment

Night time: Is mostly the same as the current DL2. Volatiles are roaming, and aren't as easy to spot as in DL1, but unlike DL2, you don't have as many gimmicks to survive them. Even with beast mode, you can't really take down more than 1 or 2, so chases really are a matter of sprinting to the nearest safezone.

Story:
Okay, let's be real guys, the stories of Dying Light games are usually... bad. DL1 was so bad it was good. DL2 was... just bad. But I'm gonna say it. I liked the Beast's story. Without getting into spoilers (yet), the characters were all interesting or at the very least, not annoying people. There are definitely some cliches, but still some decent twists. I was unlucky enough to spoil myself about a couple twists, but I think I would've really enjoyed them. The quests are pretty typical fetch quests, but feel like they have more personality then in DL2. And Story missions, while often feeling a bit repeated due to a pretty reoccuring gameplay loop, were still a blast to play through. Crane has a little more character than DL1, as Roger Craig Smith said, he's more proactive and angry, then his reactive self in DL1. And the villain, The Barran, is a fun gimmicky villain. Evil for the sake of his own greed, which is often missing in modern stories. The guy is just a selfish evil freak. And we love that.

Atmosphere:
DL1 is famous for its world's atmosphere. It is a Dying World. Horrors beyond our imagination are happening in front of us.
DL2 went for a more hopeful atmosphere. The world is healing and people are learning to rebuild in it.
The Beast is... well... I don't know. It feels more like a broken world than DL2, but doesn't reach the levels DL1 did. Also the way characters react to infection is rather confusing, as in DL2, all that was needed to stop infection was UV. But characters consider it a death sentence in this game? This inconsistent reaction is basically what the game feels like. It's both broken and healing. And so it doesn't really have a personality like the other 2.

Post ending/side content:
Ummm. There is none. No NG+ or Legend system is rather disappointing, but if I remember correctly, this has been the same in previous titles. There is rollback which is nice! So you can keep grinding the same character if you want to, but there isn't much point right now. Side quests were often fun and engaging, but there aren't that many right now. No parkour challenges or such like DL2. Hopefully they expand on this game and add more content.

Optimisation: The game is not well optimised. Now, I know I’m running an older system (Specs that are recommended for DL2), but I feel there was little effort to optimise at all. The game for me ran at a constant 60-80 fps, but I had to make it look pretty terrible.

All in all, I had a blast playing this game. I feel like I've been a bit negative in my review, but that's because I'm comparing it to the others. The game feels a bit like it struggles to find a unique voice, but if you look at it through the lens of a DLC that became a game, it makes more sense.

I wouldn't personally buy this game at full price, probably waiting for a sale, but if you are a fan of the franchise, this game is definitely worth playing.

10/10 would knock over everything again
meow

If you want a more challenging and brain hurting version of portal, this is a must.

The green portal adds such an interesting set of mechanics and tricks to the game to hurt your brain. Props to the dev for including every kind of way the new portal can be used. Fantastic job.

But nothing is more painful then touching the wrong cube. WHY!? WHY DID I TOUCH THAT CUBE NOW I HAVE TO START ALL OVER....

10/10 would recommend

10/10 midnight gaming with ginger beard

Yes

Yes.

Life? The only game I've heard of is AdVenture Capitalist.

End my suffering.