Dying Light – Review

Techland is no stranger to a zombie infested open world, with two flawed but relatively enjoyable Dead Island titles under their belt it makes perfect sense that they would build upon such a successful formula.

Dying Light does exactly that, but isn’t constricted by the bugs, glitches and pacing issues that plagued their previous efforts. Dying Light builds upon all the positives qualities of Dead Island whilst simultaneously crafting out its own identity with a myriad of creative and downright enjoyable mechanics. It doesn’t manage to fully escape the repetitious and sometimes arduous gameplay and level design we’ve come to expect from Techland, but this is easily one of their best titles yet.

In Dying Light you’re hurled into the free-running boots of Kyle Crane, a GRE Agent tasked with investigating a widespread zombie outbreak in the South American city of Harran. It has been a few weeks or so since the outbreak swallowed the city, meaning the majority of its occupants are now grey, bald and mouldy undead freaks. Fortunately the human characters are a tad more charismatic. The personalities you encounter throughout the narrative are surprisingly likeable, even if their actions are laughably cliched at times, causing more ironic giggles than the dramatic poignancy they should otherwise convey. Despite this I remained invested until the conclusion, which is far more than I can say for the majority of games in this genre.

The initial aesthetic of the setting is bland and generic in a number of ways, but the sooner you come to appreciate how the world has been designed to accommodate the parkour mechanics it becomes much easier to love. Rooftops and pathways are engineered in such a way that you can effortlessly string your movements so that for minutes at a time you may not even touch the ground beneath your feet. Moments like this are so immensely satisfying that the tedium that overwhelms the fetch quest orientated mission design is much easier to overlook. Granted there are instances where repeated trial and error driven sections removed all tension from the experience; thankfully these were vastly outweighed by a campaign that throws enough unpredictable scenarios at you that it’s difficult to not lose yourself in the world.

The parkour mechanics are simple and easy to master, the game is more interested in having you experiment with the environment as opposed to pinning you down with frequent tutorials. A simple tap of the right shoulder button has you leaping around in no time, chaining together sprints, rolls and dives to avoid relentless crowds of undead creatures. If you get caught in a crowd of undead a swift quick time event should save you, otherwise be prepared to show the undead the business side of a lead pipe. Dying Light favours the strategic avoidance of your enemies instead of facing them head on with brute force, which is an excellent way of encouraging you to utilise the parkour mechanics as much as possible. In the latter half of the game fighting off hordes of enemies is trivial with the right equipment and strategy. I found myself hurling molotov cocktails to dispatch multiple enemies in a short amount of time, and the materials needed to craft such items are readily available for the entire game.

Don’t get too cocky about clobbering on the undead though, as they pose a significant threat in the opening hours of the game. But after upgrading your skills and discovering new equipment dispatching your enemies becomes a joyous exercise in experimenting with all the tools at your disposal as well the environment itself. Many of the city streets are decorated with traps that can be armed and activated whenever you are within range of them. Luring zombies into an explosive deathtrap before watching their limbs go flying as you pull the trigger is brilliant fun, and adds a sense of humorous slapstick to an otherwise daunting world. Firearms can be acquired quite easily, but limited ammo supplies makes them a temporary solution rather than the get out of jail free card they could have been. Dying Light forces you to think outside of the box when faced with overwhelming odds, or making it clear that the best way to survive is to sprint as fast as possible in whichever direction you’re currently facing.

If you have ever played a Dead Island game than many of the features here will seem eerily familiar. The distinct focus on brutal melee combat, crafting system and enemy variants all feel shamelessly ripped from Dying Light’s older sibling. You have the fast undead, slow undead, the large and lumbering undead. Oh, and the acid spitting ones! Fortunately the execution here is far better. The mechanics feel more cohesive and beneficial to the player than they ever did in Dead Island. When crafting a specific weapon variant or investing in one of the three skill trees I felt a genuine difference in how I performed, and was capable of more as a result. Don’t let the evident similarities deter you though. Dying Light deserves to stand on its own as both an ambitious first person platformer and an open world adventure.

Aside from the main story there is a colossal number of side quests to partake in, most of which are far more enjoyable than they have any right to be. The objectivity of these missions are relatively bland in how you complete them. It’s the stories behind them that are the highlight, managing to be varied and unabashedly crazy in comparison to the otherwise serious tone the rest of the game possesses. Many side quests come with nifty little storylines of their own, taking you on an entertaining little adventure before you are ready to return to the main questline. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the cliched villains and tired storytelling motifs that dominate the majority of the main narrative, and encouraged me to explore each and every part of the areas I stumbled into. Delving deep for whatever secrets could be hiding in the decaying slums and enormous cityscapes that make up Dying Light’s sizeable open world.

Dying Light is a pleasantly enjoyable surprise, arguably surpassing all of the mixed expectations I have been harbouring against it since its reveal last year. The stellar parkour mechanics form the basis of a lengthy zombie infested adventure that rarely lets up. The cliched yet serviceable narrative and likeable but sadly underdeveloped characters made me care enough that I wanted to see where their stories concluded. It’s a huge shame that the cliffhanger-esque ending left a bad taste in my mouth, leaving me dissatisfied and wanting more. Regardless of it’s flaws Dying Light still manages to stand apart in a genre that is becoming more and more oversaturated, and that simple fact makes exploring the city of Harran well worth your time.