George Romero certainly did the horror world a solid when he invented the modern zombie. Those flesh eating bastards have stolen scenes in hundreds of movies, tv shows, and eventually saturated the video game market with their shambling presence. Dead Island dev, Techland, has crafted their fair share of zombie games and has passed on Dead Island 2 to make another zombie-centric game: Dying Light.
Although moderately successful, both Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide have been criticized, by me, for being formulaic and repetitive. Most of the zombies were identical twins, Riptide recycled environments from the first game, both games suffered from heavy lulls in action and progression, and they didn’t always work right. Will Dying Light reanimate Techland’s survival/action/horror reputation, or has the Polish dev pulled another Riptide?
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The Story
Players assume the role of Kyle Crane, a mercenary working for the Global Relief Effort (GRE) whose mission is to enter the quarantined city of Harran, which is absolutely rotten with zombies, to retrieve some damaging data from a GRE turncoat named Kadir. Dipshit Crane gets bitten by a zombie almost immediately and is saved by a lady named Jade, at the expense of her own brother, from death and zombification. Harran has its own brand of Zombrex, called Antizin, that is administered to Crane, but supplies are dwindling due to stolen airdrops and the rising number of bite victims. The GRE is not terribly popular in the ruins of Harran, and Kyle must covertly continue his mission while proving to Jade and the rest of the survivors, who have holed up in a ruined apartment building, that he was worth saving.
Running Around and Killing Stuff
Earning his place in the tower means that Crane is going to have to go out in the city and get shit done. He’ll have to get radio towers going, collect zombie samples, find medicine, destroy nests, fetch stuff, and find the One Ring if he’s going to justify his Antizin doses, but he’s not getting anything done running around like some flat-footed Sam B. Nope, he’ll have to slide, vault, run, jump, and parkour the ever-loving shit out of Harran if he wants to get the bad guy, impress the girl, and stay off the unfriendly streets of the ruined city. There’s probably some kid running around that can teach him how to do that.
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Crane’s parkour skills are upgradeable, so the longer he stays alive the more moves he can add to his repertoire. Drop kicks, takedowns, and vaults give combat a real improvisational edge over the Dead Island games, providing the zombie game fighting mechanic a sorely needed kick in the ass.
A Little Bit of Boom
Firearms are in pretty short supply in Harran: maybe one day they’ll set a zombie game in Texas. Paltry shooter options include the POS pistol, a shotgun, and police and military variations of an automatic rifle. Most of the combat will be of the melee variety with modified machetes, knives, bats, crowbars, or whatever junk the player can trade for or find laying around.
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Players are able to modify their weapons to deal additional or ongoing elemental damage like electrical, fire,or poison. Schematics can be found or purchased for these extra damage recipes. Mods exist that can strengthen a weapon or give it more endurance, which is important as these melee weapons degrade faster than a rotting zombie in the Harran sun. Weapons can be repaired on the fly, but each weapon has a limited number of repairs. Generally, the higher base quality weapons have more repairs and more slots for mods.
Enemy Types
Biter
Biters are your average, garden-variety zombie that are in every zombie game. They are not usually a real threat unless encountered in a crowd.
Viral
Virals are the Danny Boyle 28 Days Later type fast zombie. These bastards are attracted to noise like gunfire, exploding Bombers, or crashing into shit.
Bomber
Bombers blow up when you get too close, usually killing the player in the process. Try taking these guys out from a distance, hopefully they’ll take a few biters with them.
Toad
The Toad is a fat, acid-spraying bastard that must be a primary target in any crowd. They will usually perch on top of a bus, car, or building and rain acid down on the player until put down. Fortunately, they are the weakest zombie type and can usually be taken down with one hit.
Screamer
Screamers are infected children who do not physically attack the living. However, they possess a mighty scream that can damage and briefly incapacitate players and also attracts other zombies. Put them down quickly.
Volatile
Volatiles will only be encountered at night, or in dark places. They are extremely allergic to UV light. Volatiles are big, fast, and very nimble. If you just have to be out at night move slowly and pay attention to their cone of vision.
Goon
Goons are the tanks of the zombie world. They are tough and slow, but usually armed with a large melee weapon, like a sledgehammer.
Demolisher
The Demolisher can be encountered, often in pairs, in the second half of the game. They are zombie hulks who will charge and fling cars at players. Dodge that charge, amigo, or be prepared to hit restart.
Day vs Night
The day/night cycle in Dying Light plays a pretty big role in the game. Daylight is when biters congregate in the great outdoors to enjoy the Harran sunshine and get some shambling done. However, once the sun goes down the zombies become much faster and more aggressive. The Volatile, a daytime recluse, comes out to play at night, en masse. Keep an eye on their cones of vision and be sneaky or be prepared to run for your life.
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Safe houses are your best bet at night time survival, providing that the player has cleared the safe house, restored power to the UV lights, and barred any entrance points exploitable by biters. This is a manageable, scaled-down version of the only new mechanic introduced in Dead Island Riptide that actually worked: the horde siege. Although Dying Light doesn’t require players to strategically place mines or repair eroding barricades, fixing the place up does provide a sense of accomplishment, progress, and ownership. It also allows the player to instantly advance the clock to the next morning.
Progressing the Art of the Zombie Game
Dying Light is a much better game than either of its Dead Island predecessors: it looks better, plays better, moves faster, and is technically the most solid zombie game to come from Techland so far. Moving the game to a nearly completely urban environment has sidestepped the jungle lulls of the Dead Island games. The pacing is much better, the combat is very good, and the dev has provided an actual antagonist in need of an ass whooping.
The game is difficult without becoming too much for an old guy to handle. The character advancement kept up with the increasing difficulty and the plethora of inventive weapons and modifications made me want to get out there and use them up so I could craft something new. The parkour and combat are the foundation of Dying Light, and I sincerely hope to see this built upon in their next game.
The game, like any game, is better with a friend, and Harran can be explored with a co-op buddy.
You Knew it Was Coming
Although Techland has progressed their craft considerably, Dying Light is still a long way from perfection. Despite the inclusion of an antagonist, Techland has regurgitated the same plot from the two Dead Island games: save the city before it gets bombed. Coincidentally, Capcom used this same plot device on their last Dead Rising game. Fight zombies and stop the bombs from falling: same shit, different game.
The zombie character models are seriously overused. There was only two different version of the viral, a couple of goons, demolishers are virtually indistinguishable from one another, and a single character model for the screamer and toad. Sometimes I get tired of fighting the same fucking guy over and over.
A bad guy with tattoos...yeah, that’s original.
Some players felt that the game was too difficult and have resorted to utilizing a duping glitch to beef up their arsenal. My conscience won’t allow me to personally take advantage of a glitch, because it’s a cheap-ass way to play, but scrounging around for shit got old. Rais, the bad guy, is a hollow and poorly characterized antagonist who takes advantage of every opportunity to be a dick...just because. This game could have benefitted from a credible malevolent personality with some kind of practical motivation for his actions other than “what would a psychopath do?”
Final Verdict
Dying Light is a considerable improvement over Techland’s two Island games. There is a definite sense of progression, empowerment, and the combat is visceral and satisfying. Replayability is fair, the campaign is reasonably lengthy, and the majority of the missions were exciting. However, the cookie-cutter plot, baffling bad guy, incessant scrounging, and repetitious aspects of the game dims what could have been a shining star in a very bland genre. Buy this one on sale.
