Dying Light is the latest open-world zombie game by Techland, the developers of the Dead Island series. The game is certainly a more ambitious and high-budget affair than Dead Island was; something which can be seen immediately upon beginning the game and experiencing its gripping atmosphere.
While the game gets off to a bit of a slow start, you will soon begin to experience the fantastic gameplay which Dying Light has to offer. You play as Kyle Crane, a talented survivor who has been placed into the city of Harran by a mysterious organisation. You are tasked with befriending a local survivor group in order to work towards recovering a file held by a rival gang boss. The story is packed with twists, turns and lots of drama and overall, I enjoyed it. I do believe it could have been more realistic and less stuffed with filler content, however, it certainly suffices.
The heart of Dying Light lies in its gameplay, where you will really begin to enjoy the title. The open-world aspect really adds something special to the game, allowing you the freedom to explore the dangers and hidden loot points of the region. After a few hours of playing the game, you should have leveled-up your stamina attributes enough to be able to traverse the map at speed. Initially, sprinting, climbing and jumping all feel limited by your character’s stamina, however, your existing skills will quickly improve as new ones become available to you. The open world map allows you to choose from a large variety of routes in order to reach your objective; the path you take is up to you. If you explore many different routeways, you are likely to find new loot and items, so becoming familiar with the map is certainly advised.
The quest system is also well-handled within the game. As you play through the beginnings of the story, you will accumulate many side missions and extra quests which you can pursue at your leisure, with or without friends in online co-operative mode. The game places much emphasis on melee combat, with firearms not becoming available for quite some time into the game. Most of the time, you will find yourself wanting to use melee weapons over any guns which you have acquired, simply because the combat is far more exciting. Again, the game begins a little slow and offers rather weak weapons to you, but it won’t be long before you will have far more dangerous and powerful tools at your disposal. Although, you should be careful, weapons degrade to the point of doing little-to-no damage in a flash and thus it is advisable not to use too many resources on each weapon.
Unfortunately, voice-acting is one aspect in which the game doesn’t manage to impress. The characters in the game have inconsistent voices, which may seem like a small issue, however, it really takes away from the impact the game has. Also, it heavily damages the effect of the emotional moments in the game. On a positive note, the game includes a fantastic soundtrack which is very impressive. The music featuring in the game matches up perfectly with the action sequences to create an ambient, engrossing environment in which to play the game’s missions.
Graphically, the game performs fantastically. The world is created with a stunning attention to detail and the lighting system is fantastic. This leaves the world with a vivid and captivating atmosphere which succeeds in drawing you in. Foliage, buildings, railings and zombies are diverse and look excellent. I cannot criticise the game graphically.
One of the major focuses that Techland have had in showing off the game is the difference between gameplay during the day and the night. You will notice the scope of this change from your first night outside in Dying Light. Zombies which are far more powerful than their daytime counterparts come out to wreak havoc at night and weapons become almost ineffective. If you cannot quickly make your way to a safehouse which has been activated previously, you will not last long during the night. Surviving the night is the true challenge of Dying Light and you will become better at this as you progress through the game and learn to deal with more enemy types.
Overall, Dying Light is an excellent open-world zombie title as far as gameplay is concerned. While the plot is a tad light on solid major events and the voice acting fails to impress, the music and graphics offer a fantastic atmosphere in which to play the game and the content available across the main and side quests is rather vast. I believe Dying Light is certainly worth a purchase and is one of the best open-world zombie titles on the market!