Dying Light
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Developed by: Techland
Published by: Warner Bros. |
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You may remember a zombie game called Dead Island with a chilling trailer and a laundry list of flaws. Well, that was developer Techland’s first attempt at open-world zombie action, and it served as the perfect springboard for their latest project, Dying Light. Techland took the promising open world and brutal combat from Dead Island and added free-running, a deep crafting system, and a truly tense atmosphere to make Dying Light the first zombie game that delivers on the potential of the somewhat overdone genre.
I think they see me.
The first thing you’ll notice about Dead Island is how tense it all feels. Synths ripped straight out of John Carpenter’s The Thing ratchet up the tension before you even leave the start screen. Once in the game, you’ll hear screams in the distance as the zombie horde tracks down a meal, fights between the infected and their stronger, faster counterparts, the Volatiles, and the unnerving absence of sounds you usually associate with society. A stale wind blows through the ruins of a once-great city and even the sunlight seems toxic. Hideous infected stumble toward you as you approach and survivors call to you from makeshift shelters. Every moment you spend outside the walls of a safehouse reminds you just how dangerous the world has become.
You play as Kyle Crane, an agent sent into Harran to find an important file. As you complete objectives and meet citizens of Harran in search of the file, you realize just how dire the situation in this quarantined city has become. The story keeps you engaged and moving around the city, and moving around the city is a joy. Crane has to be one of the most agile characters in video games. You’ll sprint, leap, and vault your way across rooftops and wreckage, gaining Agility experience points to spend on new abilities that make you stronger and faster. The experience system plays to your strengths, giving you experience for the things you actually do and allowing you to choose how you want to play.
You play as Kyle Crane, an agent sent into Harran to find an important file. As you complete objectives and meet citizens of Harran in search of the file, you realize just how dire the situation in this quarantined city has become. The story keeps you engaged and moving around the city, and moving around the city is a joy. Crane has to be one of the most agile characters in video games. You’ll sprint, leap, and vault your way across rooftops and wreckage, gaining Agility experience points to spend on new abilities that make you stronger and faster. The experience system plays to your strengths, giving you experience for the things you actually do and allowing you to choose how you want to play.
Stick to the high ground.
During the day, infected roam the streets. You can fight one, maybe two at a time with the makeshift weapons you find around the city, but if you find yourself surrounded by a mob, you’re in too deep. Regular infected are slow and stupid, but they take a beating and they sneak up on you while you’re preoccupied. But they’re not the only creatures roaming the streets. Virals -- humans who have just fallen to the infection -- are capable of sprinting and scaling structures just like you and they’ll track you down no matter how far you run. There are also less common zombies with special abilities like spitting acid or, ya know, exploding.
Combat is frenetic and satisfying, and it only gets better as you gain Power experience and level up your skills. You’ll brandish pipes, knives, and anything else you can get your hands on against the zombie horde in first person, and the infected react in a realistic way, staggering and falling as you attack. Weapons you find can be upgraded to do more damage and even spew flames or emit electricity. It doesn’t take long to find a weapon that suits your playstyle and craft it into the perfect zombie-slaying device. You’ll also find a limited number of firecrackers, throwing stars, grenades, and other special weapons to help you turn the tide of battle in a pinch.
But no matter how much firepower you’ve got, nothing can prepare you for nightfall. The survivors back at the safehouse will radio before dusk to remind everyone to find a place to hole up for the night -- and for good reason: powerful new types of zombies emerge to wander the city when the sun goes down. You’ll gain more experience if you traverse the city at night, but you’re putting yourself in serious danger. Dying Light is at its most thrilling when you don’t realize how late it is and find yourself scrambling back to a safehouse with Volatiles, Bolters, and Night Walkers in pursuit. Once you get a feel for the game, you can test your skills by leaving the safehouse behind and racking up experience points at night, but it never feels any less terrifying.
Combat is frenetic and satisfying, and it only gets better as you gain Power experience and level up your skills. You’ll brandish pipes, knives, and anything else you can get your hands on against the zombie horde in first person, and the infected react in a realistic way, staggering and falling as you attack. Weapons you find can be upgraded to do more damage and even spew flames or emit electricity. It doesn’t take long to find a weapon that suits your playstyle and craft it into the perfect zombie-slaying device. You’ll also find a limited number of firecrackers, throwing stars, grenades, and other special weapons to help you turn the tide of battle in a pinch.
But no matter how much firepower you’ve got, nothing can prepare you for nightfall. The survivors back at the safehouse will radio before dusk to remind everyone to find a place to hole up for the night -- and for good reason: powerful new types of zombies emerge to wander the city when the sun goes down. You’ll gain more experience if you traverse the city at night, but you’re putting yourself in serious danger. Dying Light is at its most thrilling when you don’t realize how late it is and find yourself scrambling back to a safehouse with Volatiles, Bolters, and Night Walkers in pursuit. Once you get a feel for the game, you can test your skills by leaving the safehouse behind and racking up experience points at night, but it never feels any less terrifying.
Night infected have such advantages as higher strength, terrifying yellow eyes, and not having skin.
Dying Light is a great game to play solo, but you can also play cooperatively with a friend. I was impressed by the simplicity of the co-op. Have a friend drop in and you’re now completing the same quests and teaming up against the infected in the same game. Every once in awhile, a co-op challenge prompt will appear and you and your partner can agree to compete in a race, a kill challenge, or a loot challenge. Risking it at night with a co-op partner is even more frantic as you try to stay together and hatch dangerous plots to actually fight the nighttime infected that you usually run from.
I’m glad Techland had a chance to iterate on their open world zombie formula and make the game they always wanted to make. Dying Light is a great example of a game that the devs really care about. You can see the effort that went into every detail, from the world itself to the music to the physics. And to demonstrate that point even further, Techland is still updating the game with new content and challenges. I can’t wait to see what this developer does next.
I’m glad Techland had a chance to iterate on their open world zombie formula and make the game they always wanted to make. Dying Light is a great example of a game that the devs really care about. You can see the effort that went into every detail, from the world itself to the music to the physics. And to demonstrate that point even further, Techland is still updating the game with new content and challenges. I can’t wait to see what this developer does next.
