Next generation consoles have been boasting about how amazing games are going to be for a long time and really nothing has been delivered. While people will argue for certain games, they haven’t delivered on what a “next gen.” game should be–that is until now. Dying Light is this game.
The game was released on January 27th for PlayStation 4, Xbox 1 and PC, after getting attention ever since the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in month? of 2014. The trailer had a lot of people excited because it had free running, zombies and what looked like free roam gameplay. The game itself has delivered on fairly tight free-running controls, and to really make them “free,” it has a fairly expansive and intensely detailed open world and of course, zombies.
The gameplay is easily explained by saying it is not too new or original. The free running is not as smooth as Titan Fall or Mirror’s Edge, and it does not have a whole lot of depth to it, feeling simple and extremely sluggish in the beginning of the game. The more the player increases the free running abilities of the character, the easier and more smooth the free running gets and becomes very fun. Fighting zombies is nothing new and neither is the combat. What makes the game cool and interesting is the combination, the feel of the game comes from the open world, the zombies and other humans you have to fight and most importantly the free-running.
Weapons in the game are never permanent unless you have a gun, but all melee weapons have durability which really makes the weapon upgrades precious, this causes the player to use weapons but never get something overpowered and able to keep for a long amount of time, which makes the gameplay dynamic because the player is almost forced to use different weapons. Weapon variety is decent, but weapon repeats are incredibly common so that could have been fleshed out more.
Generally, Artificial Intelligence interaction in the game has pretty good pathing and it is absolutely hilarious when zombies trip over curbs or fall face forward off the side of buildings.
Combat in the game feels satisfying, unlike many melee based video games. The actual fighting does not feel particularly satisfying but the knockback on weapons feels great. Executing enemies is satisfying and doesn’t feel like a repeat animation because it isn’t, the damage to the zombies is exactly where you inflicted it. The attention to detail in this sense really adds a lot of immersion to the gameplay. For example, by aiming toward the torso, you can cut the enemy in half, torso separated from waist and legs. Aiming for the head either severs it or smashes it and the most surprising is being able to cut an enemy perfectly down the line of symmetry, which in all honesty is gruesome and maybe a little over the top violent at times.
The different types of zombies make the game a little more interesting but not extremely. There is always the standard slow zombie, but then the rest include some really big ones that wield rebar and cement, another bigger zombie that charges the player and throws chunks of concrete, and another that blows up. Then there are volatiles which only come out at night and are absolutely terrifying. They are super powerful and can run incredibly fast, so night really turns the game upside down and basically turns it into a straight horror game.
That is one of the really cool features of the game, it really keeps the player on their toes. The day/night cycle in the game is quite long so when night comes along it seems to take forever for it to pass, putting the player in a state of unease at all times. The game really has two faces in that sense, though as the player builds confidence and ups skills then the night becomes less of a threat. At the first part of the game, it is quite the experience.
Unfortunately the campaign is not that difficult, because when engaged in combat during the campaign and the player dies, damage done to enemies and enemies killed all stay the same and the player will respawn fairly close so that they can easily finish off the remaining hurdles that should have been reset to add some more difficulty to the game.
The story was predictable but for the most part enjoyable, following basic action game format where people die and there is one big bad villain cliché. What really made it mediocre was the ending. SPOILER ALERT. The boss fight at the end of the game is just a stupid quick time event which really takes away the satisfaction of being able to kill that terrible person you’ve been built up to hate with your own skills and weapons you’ve collected. It would have been much better if the boss fight occurs and then the quick time event occurs when his health is low enough.
The music in the game is not particularly interesting. It definitely falls off because it either isn’t used enough or it is overshadowed by everything else going on. Sometimes, the music does add emphasis to parts of the game, like when standing on a rooftop looking over a beautiful landscape.
The graphics are exceptional, from the detail of damage dealt to where the player hits a zombie to the paint on buildings and general atmosphere; it feels really believable. One of the coolest things pertaining to graphics in the game that I have seen is a concrete wall with graffiti on it. On the surface it seems like any normal graphics, but the wall and graffiti seem to be separate entities, the paint has a different texture than the wall while still looking like it’s part of the wall. It’s difficult to describe in words.
There is a lot to talk about when it comes to this game. A lot of side quests have their own storylines, a lot of unlockable items, collectibles and an overall engaging experience. The game has pretty great immersion and a large amount of achievements. Overall it is just a really fun time, so I would recommend buying Dying Light, it will keep you entertained for a good long while and is a worthwhile investment and experience.
