When the undead hordes rise, or a infection spreads turning the population into mindless, mutated creatures who are thirsty for blood, it’s always good to have a plan. Hold up a fort, take to the seas, travel from place to place – many stories have done it in different ways. In Dying Light, your character takes to the rooftops, using their parkour skills to climb buildings while the creatures clip at their heels.
Eventually, though, you’ll have to come down. This was my issue in the preview build of Dying Light; a care package had been dropped by a plane, and of course it managed to drop it on the ground rather than atop a roof, so I had to make my way down to it and scavenge for new supplies.
During the day, where this section was based, the zombies aren’t all that terrifying. They’re slow, lumbering beasts who’ll lazily bite at you or grab you, but it’s easy to smash their heads in, and you’ll never face a terrifying horde of them. At night, though, these creatures transform into fast, nimble beasts, and you’ll have to wait it out until morning if you want to survive. Thankfully, it didn’t turn to night, so my journey down to the package wasn’t too taxing.
Humans work much better during the day, though. When I reached the drop, there were two people – an older man, and a man who I presumed was his son – already scavenging. They had every right to be there, just as I did. We could have split it, but how could we trust each other, particularly when their weapons – an axe and a machete – were drawn as soon as they saw me. I had no choice but to attack.
This was a tough fight. These humans were tough; that’s something that doesn’t really come across in other titles. I threw knives at them, and they were able to block them, I attacked and they pushed me back. But – in an impressive show of the AI system – they hesitated.
It’s something that you wouldn’t really expect to see in a game, and took me by complete surprise, leading me to hesitate too, where in other games I’d usually go straight back in for the attack. We circled each other for a few long seconds, as if we were both deciding what to do next – it was a true stand off. And, this time, it was me that pulled the choice from them, as I entered the battle once again.
Clash, scrape, clang; it was a messy affair, our melee weapons smashing against one another. I took a step back, and as they both attacked, I saw my chance, knocking them down with one blow. The younger man was gone, but his father was getting back up. I slowly, brutally, finished him off. This was no normal fight; I truly felt the weight of my actions alongside the weight of the combat in gameplay.
Right, the package. Around half of it is gone. The other half? Mine. Medical supplies, mostly, so I take it and head back up to the safe house – the next mission objective – facing off with some zombies on my way. The verticality is clear; this isn’t a flat map to explore but I could head from where the package was up the walls of buildings and even inside them. It’s a different approach to designing a world, albeit one that works perfectly when paired with the parkour gameplay.
Did I say the zombies were easy? On my way down, I skipped quite a few of them, but on my way back up, I got a terrifying glimpse of how powerful they could be, as I was against a larger creature with a hammer, along with two of his smaller colleagues. The smaller ones weren’t much of a challenge, but the big guy knocked me down with ease, and soon finished me off before I could reach the safe house, and the demo came to an end. I’m just glad I didn’t survive long enough to have to stay the night.
Dying Light is an evolution of its predecessor, Dead Island, and it’s a realistic, grittier experience which adds a sense of humanity to a world infested with zombies. It looks superb too, with some Mortal Kombat-esque bone breaking attacks, and a real sense of danger in the world. Thankfully, when all else fails, you’re able to climb to the rooftops to escape any impending threat. Eventually, though, you’ll have to come down.
Youles
I’m really torn between this and Dead Island 2, although I do have some gripes with previous Dead Island games which may lead me to get Dying Light. I also like the sound of the vertically designed environments and that it’s a more “realistic, grittier experience which adds a sense of humanity”.
Forrest_01
I’ll be getting both as Dying Light seems right up my street (after playing it a EGX) & Dead Island 2 is more of the same in the vein of the Dead Island games, but seemingly with more humour injected.
A point to note though is that Dead Island 2 is not being developed by the same people that made Dead Island & Riptide (at least not the same company), this game is. Whether that affects your purchasing decision or not?
bunimomike
I’m with you on this one. I’ll probably get both as my love for Dead Island (and Riptide) has me interested in the sequel. However, Techland moving onto Dying Light has really, really allowed them to spread their wings. Even if Dying Light doesn’t score too highly, the premise of the game (and more importantly how the likes of Blair describes the world) has me hankering after it more than most games coming out in the next twelve months.
Youles
Cheers Forrest – that does kinda throw a spanner in the works. I enjoyed Dead Island, but three things that annoyed me were – the glitches, the poor/clichéd characters, and a lack of any engaging story. It was good but could have been so much better – I would have loved a really good story, or one character that you really warmed to or wanted to survive. I could have thrown all 4 of the buggers to the hoards. Perhaps Dying Light is going to offer more of a story (my preference) and Dead Island 2 is going to be the First-Person version of Dead Rising 3 with crazy OTT weapons and co-op shenanigans, which will be equally good if that’s what you’re after! I think Dead Island tried to be both and didn’t quite excel at either.
RudeAwakening
@Youles How could you not love the duplicate your weapon glitch?! That was awesome.
Jones81
I loved the first dead island but thought riptide was awful. Its interesting that number 2 is being developed by a different team (yager i think), and that dying light is by the original dead island developers, most people won’t know this and will think dead island 2 is done by the original developer, they may look at dying light more favourably thinking it’s a new developer which it obviously isn’t
Hope they are both good though!
bunimomike
With Techland free from the shackles of Deep Silver (publisher), it’ll be interesting to see which one turns out the best. Both have my full attention for now, that’s for sure. :-)
gaffers101
I’ve had this on pre-order since plying it at EGX last year.
I really like the climbing aspect, I just hope they keep the parkour skills grounded in reality and not too much like superpowers.
bunimomike
Lovely article, Blair. The way you’ve described things has really hit home about how well the development is going. Especially as quite a few of the aspects described above are new to me (ie. the hesitation and human fights, etc). Top stuff.
Jones81
Very good write up, it does sound very interesting, especially the stand off bit
Amphlett
Wow, what a great article! I love the description of the fight with the father and son, brilliant. It sounds like a really great game, just not for me. Thank you for the great read.