They're Coming for You
Dying Light looks great during short moments of calm.
I have stated several times how much I love zombie based games. I don't really care if the genre is completely overrun, the thrill of smashing the undead has never lost it's luster for me. The Dead Island series in particular was an interesting attempt to add something new to the genre by focusing on first person melee combat, and it's these failed experiments that lead to today's topic. Dying Light is an attempted apology from the former Dead Island developers and, strangely enough, the second game directly based of the mediocre series, albeit this is the one with less Pigeon John and Jack Black.
Dying Light's attempt to revitalize the formula is the introduction of free running and parkour, the french "art" of running around like a jackass and jumping off buildings. Besides that it's still most of Dead Island, so the question is, is it enough to make for a good game?
Wandering Dead
Not all infected are created equal including the hard hitting Goon, the speedy Viral...
The setup for Dying Light is that right before a major sports competition, a viral outbreak occurs in the ancient Mediterranean city of Harran. You play as Kyle Crane, an agent hired by the Global Relief Effort to infiltrate the city and recover a stolen file containing information that could lead to a virus cure. Oh, and the virus turned everyone infected into zombies, so there's a fuck-tonne of zombies walking around.
While the plot wanders more then the infected, and the payoff at the end isn't worth all the effort, it is at least coherent, which is more then I can say for the Dead Island series or any other number of zombie games that have plots. The characters are interesting enough, even if most of them are 2d archetypes, and there are a few interesting twists, but it's really nothing to write home about.
...Or the annoying and disgusting Bomber.
What I did like about plot was the backstory that was woven into the game. Several times major events are brought up and explained in a way that makes sense, rather then just telling the player with a wall of text. The Harran outbreak was big news and a lot of people know about it, including Crane, so it's refreshing to hear him act like he knows what's going on. It's refreshing and really helps to sell the immersion.
Even better then the main plot are the numerous side quests, which often start simple and lead to adventures in their own right. There's a couple dozen of them, ranging from simple fetch quests to long involved missions, and they're pretty great for the most part. More importantly, doing these quests often lead to great weapons and upgrades, so doing them is very encouraged.
Like a Ripe Cantaloupe
Old Town is where Dying Light really shines, letting you make the most of your abilities.
But the story's not what we're here for. The reason to play Dying Light is to smash zombies by the dozens, and man is this the game to play for that. Combat has been greatly refined since Dead Island, and weapons have a real weight and impact to them. Smashing a zombie with a lead pipe or a crowbar really feels like it did some damage, and enemies react accordingly. There's a satisfying crunch, thud, or splat to go along with each hit and it makes combat exciting.
If you want to avoid combat, which you likely will in the early hours of the game,there's also the ability to run. The parkour...works, which is about the highest compliment I can pay to a first person parkour game that isn't Mirror's Edge. It works...most of the time. There's a lot of issues jumping from one ledge to another and I can't count how many times I over jumped something I was certain I'd land. There's also an annoying amount of invisible walls that don't look like they should be, and I've spent way to much time trying to scale a wall that wasn't ever meant to be scaled, despite obvious grab points everywhere. Regardless, for the simple purpose of traversing the city the parkour is functional, if a little strange at times, like the idea that garbage bags and cars can break your fall.
Other then parkour, Dying Light's other twist is it's day-night cycle. During the day it's a run-of-the-mill zombie game: smash Zeds, fight special infected, and finish quests. But as the sun falls it goes straight up survival horror thanks to the introduction of UV light-hating infected Cthulu looking monsters that will chase you clear across the city to tear you apart. Avoiding these is a must, especially in the early half of the game, and being caught after dark can instantly spell disaster if you're not careful.
Rotting Stench
Zombies explode with gore on a particularly good hit.
Dying Light is an almost unfortunate game, one that's so good at what it wants to be that it's flaws get exaggerated tenfold. And there are flaws aplenty in Dying Light. Things like the inability to check your watch, requiring pausing the game to check the time. Or the fact that you have to build every item one at a time, even if you want to queue up twenty Molotovs in a row. There's also the odd time the game didn't register my commands during a hairy sequence and I died unnecessarily. There's odd balancing issues, making the early game brutally difficult and the late game hilariously easy. Certain incredibly important upgrades are locked away to far down the upgrade tree, and there are numerous upgrades that are completely useless.
(Not a complaint, but my particular game was glitched, so every time I loaded it Crane would scream out "HOLY SHIT" at nothing in particular.)
The Drop-Kick instantly became my favorite ability, for obvious reasons.
Dying Light is a good game, certainly a much better game then those that inspired it. When everything works it works really well, and there's a great wealth of content on offer. The plot is fun in an "it's trying so hard that I kind of appreciate what it's attempting" sort of way, and the combat and free running are enjoyable, especially when you start chaining abilities together. If all your looking for is a great way to spend ~20 hours beating up zombies then you could do a lot worse then Dying Light.
Image Sources
http://gearnuke.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Dying-Light-logo.jpg
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