Much like zombies themselves, games featuring zombies just keep coming. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s not like they’re the only thing out there, but it certainly seems to be one of the grooves the industry has found itself in recently. Techland seem more than happy to contribute to this trend, having produced both Dead Island and Dying Light, the subject of this week’s WeView.
Dying Light is one of the few games that some of my friends have pretty much begged me to pick up as they seem very keen to get me into the game’s co-operative multiplayer. While I’ve let my friends down by not picking the title up, Jim’s review of the game suggests that their right to want to play the game in multiplayer. Although he called the game’s matchmaking “a gruelling process”, he did find that “playing with other human players really does make the game much more enjoyable” and praised the way that Techland have woven competitive challenges into the game co-op.
Another highlight for Jim was the game’s parkour system. Although he said the game’s movement “isn’t as sharp or precise” as Mirror’s Edge, he felt that was only because “Techland had to kit out an entire open-world with its navigation mechanics in mind” and praised the way Dying Light “succeeds in giving the player complete freedom to improvise, no matter what situation they are in”.
The game’s melee combat was a more mixed affair. Jim called it a joy “when you’re able to toy with a small cluster of zombies”, but felt that it quickly became “messy” once you start to get significant numbers of zombies bearing down on you. He did suggest that this might be a deliberate design decision to force players to “pick their fights sensibly”, but he still found that the combat “can grow tiresome”.
The game’s side quests also failed to impress Jim. While he was impressed by the amount of stuff the game gives you to do, there are a number of fetch quests “that often feel drawn out and pointless”. However, in spite of their drawn out nature, Jim did find that these quests made up “some of the best parts of Dying Light, introducing players to a series of unhinged and memorable characters looking to stay alive”.
The game’s story also dragged the game down somewhat, but ultimately Jim rated Dying Light at 7/10, and had this to say in conclusion:
Although a sound game, Dying Light just falls short of greatness. Compared to its predecessors it looks stunning and has picked up a raft of new and interesting ideas. Several hours in, however, and a familiar sense of fatigue will inevitably set in. Unless roaming Harran with friends in tow, Dying Light isn’t one of those games you can comfortably sit and play for hours on end. Zombie enthusiasts are still in for a treat though, as well as anyone looking for an unconventional first person action game.
So did you agree with Jim’s assessment of Dying Light, or did you enjoy it more than he did? Did you find more to enjoy in the game’s melee system, or did you also feel it was a bit of a let down? Whatever your feelings are, you can share them by dropping us a comment below, remembering to include a rating on the Buy It, Sale It, Plus It, Avoid It scale. We’ll highlight a few in Monday’s verdict article, as well as rounding up the community’s overall rating for the game.
Youles
I have mixed feelings about this game – when it’s good, it’s brilliant, but it can also be frustrating. Initially the game really pissed me off with it’s various glitched trophies, and the multiplayer (a key selling point of the game for me) not working – without fail the game crashed (full application crash) everytime I played co-op, sometimes after 2 minutes, sometimes after 10 minutes.
On the plus side, it has one of the best open-world environments I’ve played in, probably only second to GTA5. FarCry 4 gets a lot of credit for it’s huge world, but Dying Light is far more dense, varied and detailed – and you can pretty much climb up everything. It also looks bloody decent too; from the constant rubble flying around, to the background scenery, and the zombies themselves. (Characters and their lip-syncing is a bit naff though). The parkour is by far this games best feature – not many games off this kind of huge world, and such a great way of utilising and exploring it.
It’s second best feature is probably how the day-night cycle changing the dynamic of the game – I reverted to a stealthy approach for pretty much everything I did at night. Not many games can boost such a change from such a feature.
Other key (positive) points include being able to play the entire game 4-player is also a huge achievement. The weapon management is very good and balanced too. You can’t rely on a single weapon forever – it will eventually break, so a forced weapon switch can keep things fresh and interesting. Fortunately they’ll last long enough that you aren’t spending too much time comparing and swapping out weapons. Mods aren’t too overpowered either.
The more I think about it, and everything Dying Light has tried to achieve, it’s probably a very underrated game despite some minor flaws (cheesy characters). For the type of game it is, the story is never going to be it’s strongest point, but it’s good enough, and the main path takes you to a couple of nice additional unexpected areas too.
BUY IT – and it you can, definitely play it with others.
Jag
This has been one of the most fun games of the year for me.
From the deep crafting system to the excellent melee combat, there’s a lot to love about this game.
If there’s one killer feature it’s the player’s movement. This will ruin most first person games for you as you fly through the city like a parkour master. Seriously, given how many years since Mirrors Edge I can’t believe more games don’t empower you like this.
You’re presented with a decent sized city but you’re given some if the best in game tools to tackle it.
The story isn’t anything to write home about but you’ll find more interest in the side missions.
I really rate this game, it’s good solo but even better coop.
An easy BUY IT from me and if you have someone to coop with I’d say it’s an essential current gen experience.
Tuffcub
An awful lot of fun, and surprisingly tense, at least at first. The one problem I have is with the ambient sound, when you start the game you will hear “RRAAARARRAGHHH!!!” followed by a zombie banging on a door trying to get out, and will find somewhere to hide. By the 400th time you’ve heard it, you know it means nothing.
Apart from that, really, really, good. Co-op is fun, the main game is a decent length (about 20 hrs) so completable but not to drawn out. One of the very few games which I have continued to play after completing the story, the side missions add a lot of content, all of which has voice acting. Really looking forward to the update which will bring buggies in to the game.
Buy it.
Youles
I’m looking forward to the buggies – presumably there will have to be a new area created for them too, as there isn’t much space for driving otherwise.
Tuffcub
The sports stadium which you can see in the current game is one of the new areas :)
Youles
Oh super, that’ll be fun! Thanks
DrDamn
For me this stands as a great example of a game that doesn’t review as well as it sells. It was a huge hit despite stilted digital then physical release and sold very well through word of mouth. I think it’s biggest issue was that a forced run through of the main campaign was not what it did best – and that influenced a lot of reviews. It’s a shame and a failing of the game that a lot of the creativity in design and story telling was reserved for the side quests and areas you had to explore to find.
If you do take your time and you explore and play the side content what you get is a much better game, an exceptional one for me. One of the most enjoyable games this generation.
A small note on co-op as aside from being really well implemented and working well day one it didn’t make the game intrinsically better or more enjoyable. What it did fantastically well was change the game into something different and equally good as the game played alone. By yourself the game was atmospheric, scary, tense and in places thought provoking. With friends it was transformed into a fun roller coaster of co-op greatness. Two very different but fantastic ways to play the same game, the same content.
BUY IT
kjkg
This was one of my most anticipated titles in a long time and I’ve come away slightly disappointed. The area you play in is second to none, it really is fantastic. The climbing mechanics are brilliant and it is a good looking game. But that’s where the positives stop for me.
The story is woeful, I genuinely couldn’t care less about what is going on. The characters are terrible and far too often, massive cliches. And the fighting can go from absolutely genius to downright terrible in seconds. One minute I’m smashing a zombies head in with a baseball bat with one strike, the next a zombie is lying on the ground, I have full energy, but that same baseball to the head doesn’t do anything. Just too inconsistent for me.
Still, I think a 7/10 is a fair score for it and would definitely suggest SALE IT.
Youles
The characters are pretty bad to be fair – everyone is a movie producer or someone of significance, or appears to be completely crazy. I guess they’ve done it like that to vary the side-quest stories, but it’s not very believable. The characters also appear to have spent most of the zombie down-time perfecting their beards and goatees. Obviously a priority under the circumstances.
Tuffcub
Shush you. Makes a change to have chunky beardies in a game :)
Youles
Indeed, certainly beards>boobs in Dying Light ;)
JustTaylorNow
Brilliant game, the best time for this is, is to play during the night brings out more fun & challenging. I haven’t really played much co op but from the bits I played it was certainly fun.
I have nothing bad to say about this game at all, I highly recommend it..!
JustTaylorNow
Buy it
bunimomike
I’ve lost count of the number of reviews that simply missed the fun element of the game with regards to how the respective community (of each website) responded when they were playing it. I’ve seen it with many games over the years which is a shame. Reviews often miss the fun factor and it appears to be something that gets picked up on by the community. Nailing that particular type of fun eludes me but it’s a pattern I’m recognising.
For me, on the PC, it’s been flawless since day one. Might have crashed once or twice? Not sure. Also, it ran very well and was patched quickly to address an nVidia bug.
The environment is supremely built with levels of freedom I’ve not felt before with regards to how you move and the world itself.
Combat was suitably fun with it smacking of Dead Island. It’s a shame Jim didn’t realise that the combat was absolutely “by design”. The devs had mentioned it and it was obvious from-the-off because of their heritage with Dead Island. Simply put, things were going to spiral out of control and leaving a fight was as important as choosing to get into one.
Side quests were fun, the main missions were forgettable but still enjoyable to do. However, that first night in Harran is something I won’t forget in a while. Awesome tension and scares.
Top co-op tomfoolery. :-)
Buy It.