The gameplay changes radically when with him at night, actually risk is amplified (the beasts and zombies are more dangerous bizzarement less stupid) you are more vulnerable because of the number of present and especially the zombies "Nightmares" (nightmares in English) that they are very fast and inflict enormous damage. But you can escape and kill zombies at night (and day) using a whole crafting system at your disposal.
Finally performance level (personal opinion) the game remains correct if you do not have an i7 and 8GB ram with a GTX 660 (minimum) one should not expect to have the 60 FPS, the game requires a good machine to make 60 FPS ANY POINT.