Dying Light - Review

Dying Light

Callum Munro

(I try my hardest not to spoil any major parts of the plot) 

My reviews are split into 4 sections that are rated out of 10, CONCEPT (The aim/idea/plot of the game), VISUALS (What the game looks like), GAMEPLAY (How the game plays and how fun it is), SOUND (The sound, funnily enough) and then given a final score out of 10.0 .

(Played on Playstation 4)

After a slightly shaky release, Dying Light is finally here (digitally not physically), and it is the new open world, zombie apocalypse RPG, developed by Techland. 
After getting my hands on it a few days ago, I am here with my thoughts on the game.
Enjoy. 

Concept/Story

Dying Light puts you in the role of Kyle Crane, an operative for the GRE (Global Relief Effort), tasked to retrieve a stolen file, stolen by a man named Kadir Sulemain. When you get dropped in to the zombie infested city of Harran, things instantly go tits up, as you are ambushed by a group of thugs, then bitten by a zombie, and then saved by a woman part of a free running group called Jade. 

You as Crane, play the part of an undercover errand boy, gaining the trust of dangerous gangs, providing for your new free running friends and also keeping in touch with the GRE as you try to locate this file.

"Christ on a Crutch"

Unfortunately the main story feels average from start to finish, barely any surprises along the way and although there are some likeable characters to meet and to grow fond of, the dialogue in the game is at times laughable, and most serious conversations are often transformed into cringey and confusing experiences. 

It felt to me like it was a very careful plot, which is fine and certainly playable, however it would have been nice to really have something to remember about it.

Where Dying Light's story shines is actually with the side quests. Now I had initially thought that the side quests would be repeats of one another, with little to no satisfaction, feeling more like a grind. However the side quests to Dying Light add a really refreshing depth to the world, mixing tongue in cheek humorous themes with obviously some serious ones, without the game feeling unbalanced and confused. 

Most side quests turn into branching out, multi adventure quests, which is very rare in RPG's nowadays.
For example, a lot of side quests go from being a simple "Fetch-Grab" mission to then intensify into something much deeper and tougher, however all in the same story of the quest. 

This is an amazing thing about this game because, it gives you so many little stories that are not actually under developed and instead take up a big chunk of your game.

A very important concept that Dying Light has, and has been marketed probably the most heavily is the day/night cycle. Now obviously this is mostly a gameplay thing, however the concept of faster, scarier and all together stronger zombies is an excellent idea, similar to that of I am Legend.
It makes the game so much more tense, and gives a nice feel to the overall story as it is often a big part of it, and actually makes you as the player plan out your quests. 

Story wise, Dying Light is passable. There is nothing wrong with the plot (aside from the dialogue), but there really isn't anything great about it. Where the story really shines is in the side quests, which are refreshingly detailed and balanced, alongside the brilliant concept of the day/night cycle.

CONCEPT/STORY - 7.5

Visuals

Dying Light looks great. The world is absolutely massive, and the scope of Harran is really captured by the brillaint visual effects. 

Internal environments like houses, stores, or other quest related areas you visit, do a good job of creating a tense atmosphere and giving off the effect of a zombie apocalypse.
For example in one quest, you have to go to a school, and it is fenced off with biohazard walls, and other small additions like quarantine tents or the graffiti really capture the tone nicely, from taking an innocent setting and adding just a subtle reminder that all of these kids that used to go to school here are probably dead. Subtle, but powerful.

Characters look good, facial animations are pretty spot on, however they aren't anything special. Also zombies mostly have the same heads and faces, which can sometimes take away that scary realistic look, when there is a large horde of them. Not a huge problem, but a problem for me nonetheless. 

Overall the visuals to Dying Light are very good, especially on the vast environments and the use of lighting at Night-time is great. However there is lack in zombie and enemy appearances which for me is quite a large thing, as it can sometimes take away the immersion and make it visually repetitive.

VISUALS - 9

Gameplay

 Now this is where Dying Light really shines. There are so many things to talk about gameplay wise about this game, that I will have to select a few things to talk about.

Combat - At first, combat feels slow, sluggish and extremely difficult. Zombies take ages to die, weapons break constantly and your stamina allows you to throw a handful of swings, before having to step back and rest for a few seconds. This would be fine, however the sheer amount of zombies in this game, even from the start is huge. You really don't have time to pick away at zombies one by one, because you WILL get swarmed, and you will most likely die or take a substantial amount of damage. 

This makes levelling up, learning new abilities and getting to know the mentality of your enemies 10 times more satisfying than in most other RPG's. 

Melee combat always feels awkward, but you get to learn how to hit the zombies, how to preserve your stamina, how to deal with certain enemies, when to risk shooting a gun and most importantly when to run, and the best thing about all of this is you learn it all through your own experience. 

Killing zombies is satisfying, and so it bloody should be. 

Enemies - The enemies you come up against in Dying Light are consistently challenging from start to finish without actually changing their attributes, the further you get.

Normal zombies are slow, but deadly in numbers and can often take a good beating before giving up.

The running zombies, mostly only come either at night or when there is a loud noise. These are strong, fast and an absolute pain in the arse to hit.

The thugs are actual people who for some reason have a problem with you, they will come at you with melee weapons or sometimes guns, and take joy in dodging or blocking your attacks, then to club you round the head with a pipe. The human enemies, really distinguish the intelligence levels between zombies and humans.

Now these are only a minority of the enemy types in the game, and they really mix things up gameplay wise.

Free Running - The free running in this game is a very strange idea on paper, one that really pays off in Dying Light. Once you get over the fact that R1 is jump, you can fly around the city (on your feet) with ease, whether you're evading zombies, getting to a safehouse before dark or being chased by volatiles (night time scary zombies), the world really is your oyster, you can do pretty much anything with the parkour skills you are equipped with. 

Keeps the game fun, and fast paced, whilst adding something that is new and refreshing. 

Night/Day Cycle - This is one of the most important things in the game. When the sun sets, and the night approaches the zombies become faster and stronger, and also a special type of zombies comes out called volatiles. They can basically do anything you can do, but ten times better.. and scarier. 

With the introduction of the volatiles, it introduces a perfect balance of some stealth elements, and manic, screaming running on your part. On the map you can see their field of view, and if you are spotted then you better hope, that there is a safe house nearby. 

The way to fight these things is basically, to not. However if you have too, you are equipped with items that the volatiles do not like. One of them being UV light, which comes in the form of flares, a UV flashlight and light traps that you can set up in the day time to be used at night. 

If you have accidentally stayed out past your bedtime, and the sun has set and the volatiles wake up, the aim is to basically get to a safehouse. 

Safehouses, are safe areas that you can secure at any time, and once they are secured you can use them whenever you want to sleep, or simply escape from enemies. 

One of my favourite things about night time, is that if you have a quest that you must complete at night, during the day you can literally plan how you are going to do it, by crafting yourself plenty of flares, and setting up a nice route full of light traps that will hopefully get you safely to your destination. This adds a wonderfully welcome tactical side to the game.  

The Night in this game is so scary and tense that you really do try and stay away from it, like you would if it was real. Which is always amazing to see a game capture the effect of affecting a player as if i was actually happening. 

The gameplay in this game is just pure class. Everything works amazingly, and there is so much different styles of play to the game. 

This game is simply put, fun. It is just a blast to play all down to its brillaintly designed gameplay. 

GAMEPLAY - 10

Audio

As I said earlier, the dialogue in this game is really not good. However in terms of audio, this is really overshadowed, by everything else.

Firstly the music in the game is very good. It ranges from different styles, but it always seems to fit into what I'm doing at the time.

Also the noises from the zombies all depend on the type of zombie it is, and these noises can make you pause the game, press quit and then not come back too it for a long time.
They are very scary. Especially the noise of the volatiles at night. Not nice. 

Simply put, the audio is good. The music is cool, and the zombie noises are enough to make a grown man shit his pants. Unfortunately let down by the dialogue though. 

AUDIO - 7

Overall Dying Light really surprised me. 

It really is a massive game with outstanding gameplay elements and great deal of things to do. 
It will give you the best fun you have had with a video game for a long time, I can do nothing but heavily recommend this game to anybody, if you are sitting on the fence about it like i was, please give it a go.

Andrew Ryan: We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us. - Bioshock