I know what you’re thinking – not another zombie game. It’s true, we’ve had too many zombie games over the last couple of years and too many of those mediocre or just plain bad. A good example of one of those average zombie games was Dead Island. And now from (some) of the same developers comes Dying Light: an odd mix of Dead Island, Mirror’s Edge & Far Cry. And the best part? It actually works pretty well.
The game consists of two main areas; combat, taken mostly from it’s predecessor Dead Island and parkour taken from Mirror’s Edge. The combat feels great, you feel the impact in every hit and the enemy AI reacts perfectly to these hits and the (almost) excessive gore only adds to it. Smash a zombie in the arm? Watch it fly off and have him stumble over. Run towards a zombie, jump and hit him with downward force? Watch as his head explodes. Or you can do what I did for the whole game and dropkick enemies off the side of buildings – it’s all very satisfying. The combat early on, however, may leave an initial bad impression – most basic zombies will take around 5 hits to die and you can swing maybe 2 or 3 times before being out of breath.
Whether this design choice was intentional or not, it introduces a difference between Dying Light and many other generic zombie games. In Dead Island and the many games like it, it’s more a slaughterhouse for you to enjoy yourself in – there is little sense of survival or realism. That’s not to say you can’t have fun killing zombies here – you can. And obviously, zombie outbreaks are hardly realistic but they still provide a solid background to see how people would react – and survive – in a desperate situation. This is what Techland have attempted and (relatively) succeeded in doing. You play as Kyle Crane, member of the GRE – a global humanitarian outfit – and airdropped into the city of Harran. You quickly become a de facto member of a survivor group in ‘The Tower.’ This allows the game to focus exploring two fronts: how normal, everyday citizens would react and survive in a catastrophe such as this and how global Governments would react. Without spoiling anything – most don’t react all too well. The analysis isn’t perfect and the loss of the more exaggerated cast and tone mean that the vast majority of characters are forgettable, excluding a few major characters. Towards end game however, there are some more exaggerated – and entertaining – side quests such as finding meteorites from a UFO and helping a ‘wizard,’ who is really just an old man dressed up to keep some orphaned kids entertained – and you get to play the valiant knight. Though the heart of most side quests is just ordinary people trying to survive. Due to this you may not remember the characters but you will many of the stories.
Many of the stories are depressing – some even poignant – and in early game, yours will be too. You will struggle to survive, zombies will overpower you so you will need to run. And this is where Dying Light display’s one of it’s best features – it’s parkour system. Instead of getting mauled to death, why don’t you just hop off a zombie’s head onto a rooftop and soar through the air? Techland have took many of the best features of Mirror’s Edge parkour and implemented them into an open world. It’s a wonder why no one else has attempted to do this before and going back to other FPS games you’ll wish that it becomes the norm. It could use a little polishing as you occasionally just fail to grab onto something and fall to your death. Luckily – during missions – checkpoints are frequent and later in the game, once you have acquired the grappling hook this problem fades.
Only adding to the hopelessness is nighttime. During the night, more zombies roam the streets and the agile – and powerful – volatiles will appear who not only alert nearby enemies but can follow you across the rooftops. Your first night will be terrifying but the promise of double experience to increase your strength, parkour and survivor trees may just lure you out.
The game does, however, feature it’s fair share of problems: on PC, graphical & technical problems are common and on PS4 a networking error can stop you from being able to play co-op. This particular bug stopped me from being able to play period and I ended just watching the hour and a half I had left – so game-breaking bugs while seemingly rare, are still possible. This isn’t the only problem I had end-game as you may feel underwhelmed with the ending. A QTE boss fight and leaving a slight cliffhanger ending will do that. While the ending does wrap up some areas, others are left open – possibly for the coming expansion. While this may seem an annoyance (and it could be) Techland must however be applauded for their continued support to this game a year later.
The Far Cry-esque villain Rais must be given a mention too as his speeches on chaos and anarchy add another level to the storytelling even if he is, perhaps, a little cliché. Dying Light succeeds in many areas and falters in others but the forgettable side characters, lacklustre ending and poor gun controls are quickly forgotten when you realise how much fun smashing up zombies is and then immediately hopping onto a rooftop and freerunning your way across the city.
8.5/10
- Release Date: 27 January, 2015
- Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One
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