I remember being very surprised by how much I enjoyed “Dying Light.” The original game was a fun romp of parkour, melee combat, and the occasional gun battle, but kicking zombies off of tall rooftops and then swinging away was a delight. It’s an elite 7/10 experience that everyone can agree on.

The sequel became very infatuated with “Serious” storytelling (it fails), gliding around in the air (it’s fine), and massively reducing the reliance on guns (it sucks). That game did not reach the same slapstick, popcorn-munching heights of the original. The thrills were gone, the additions were limp, and it just didn’t do anything to enhance the experience of putting baseball bat to zombie skull. It’s a perfectly cromulent game, but that’s about it.

I was ready to put the franchise behind me, but then Techland announced “The Beast” — a sequel that scaled things down to a smaller-but-still-open-world map. It brought back guns, the original protagonist (Hero McHero Face), and even let you turn into a zombie, and rage out sometimes. It was a promise to fans that this would be much more like the original game, and a return to form for the series. Well, guess what! It is more or less the exact same game as the first one, and it’s quite the repetitive exercise in futility.

If you wiped my memory from a decade ago, and didn’t tell me this was a new game, I would 100% believe you in that this is just “Dying Light” with no differences. “The Beast” doesn’t feel like a new game, or something with additions, changes, or enhancements. It feels like a port. It’s so derivative that it becomes borderline a copycat — a clone even. There’s no reason for it to exist.

It’s not like what’s here is bad! There’s still bloody fun to be had. It has a skill tree to keep you going from breadcrumb to breadcrumb, and you can mod your weapons with acid or electricity or fire, but not a single second of this “new” game feels like its own distinct thing. Haven’t I already played this before? I remember all of this — the HUD is the same (in my memory), the boss fights are familiar, and even the exact locations of trucks that hid ammo.

I’d skip this one if you were at all interested. It just got boring way too fast. Why bother breaking off a pipe or wrench just to find another? Why upgrade my stamina bar? To what end am I doing these tasks?

It’s like sleepwalking through life while holding a controller. What a sad disappointment in spite of the gamedev talent on display.

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“Dying Light: The Beast” is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Image Credit: “Dying Light: The Beast,” Techland