Review: Dying Light (Xbox One)
- Scott
- Feb 5, 2015
- 5 min read
Personally, I think that the Zombie Apocalypse genre of games is dead (pun slightly intended). Over the last generation and already moving into the current gen, there have been a plethora of games all centered around stopping, surviving or avoiding the mythical Zom-Pocalypse. However, just when I thought I’d had my fill, along comes Dying Light and I realize I should just “enjoy the little things.”
Title: Dying Light
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Techland
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Genre: Open World/ First-Person Action
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Price: $59.99
Rating: M
Dying Light is as much the spiritual successor to Dead Island as you can possibly get. That is until the actual Dead Island 2 comes out later this year. Made by the same team that made the original Dead Island, Dying Light takes the same survivalist view of the zom-pocalypse and adds in a few tweaks.
Dying Light opens with Kyle Crane (the player character) being briefed on his mission as he parachutes into the (fictitious) city of Harran, the center of a recent pandemic that apparently has turned the majority of the cities population into Zombies. Crane is an agent for the GRE (Global Relief Effort) sent into Harran to find a stolen file that could possibly be more dangerous than the actual pandemic itself.
Beautifully Destroyed City Of Harran
Immediately upon landing in Harran, Crane is attacked by some goons. He manages to shoot one, against the insistence of the others that this will only draw “them”. As the goons flee, Crane soon finds out that the aforementioned “them” are recently turned denizens of Harran. Two other survivors show up and help Crane, costing one of them their lives to save him. They manage to make it back to a safe spot called “The Tower” and Crane is nursed back to health. Or at least, as healthy as you can be with a zombie bite. It is then that Crane finds out just who helped him, and what he has to do to both repay his debt as well as accomplish the mission he was sent in for.
One of the more surprising things about Dying Light is that the story is actually well done. While it probably won’t garner any awards, it handles a pretty well-tread story and manages to not be ham-fisted constantly. The majority of the voice acting is very well done. Crane, Brecken, Rais, and some of the other main characters all sound totally believable. And by that, I mean they don’t sound like they are phoning it in.
Knowing that Dying Light is from the same team that did Dead Island should already give you an idea of what to (kind of) expect going in. That being said, Dying Light is a much better, much more polished game than DI was. First off, it looks great. It runs really smoothly on the Xbox One and even with a lot going on on-screen it very rarely suffers visually at all. The zombies are almost too well detailed, as are the environments. Some of the characters you encounter are slightly less detailed but interactions with them rarely last long enough for it to matter.
He Won’t Feel A Thing, But You Will
One of my favorite things about Dead Island was the combat, and how adaptable it was. I was a proponent of the “analog combat”, that is, using the stick to set up and execute the direction of swings so that I could isolate limbs and cripple zombies. Sadly, this has been taken out of Dying Light. However, the combat and more so the traversal, have been made much more fluid and dynamic with the addition of parkour. Crane is able to run around the city and scale cars, walls, and even small buildings with ease. Later in the game, this is made even easier with additional skill unlocks. Combat as well, is easier. Being able to quickly dodge, allows Crane to close the distance between him and a zombie, and also makes it easy to evade enemies altogether. Later on in the game, as new enemy types are introduced, the parkour is used in varying ways to approach each new enemy type.
There are three major things that a player will have to deal with (besides the regular zombie fodder) in Dying Light. They are supply requisitions, weapon crafting, and the day/night cycle.
As the city of Harran is under quarantine, the only way for the still-living people to get supplies is via air-drops. Every few hours a plane will fly over and parachute in two crates of supplies. It’s up to the player what to do once they hit the ground. Try to recover them immediately and hopefully beat the competition to them, slowly make your way to them and risk having to fight other runners for the cache, or ignore them completely. Supplies recovered are taken back to the tower and will score points in favor of Crane, as well as score literal points for upgrades.
Weapons can be found all around Harran. Be that a pipe, or a cricket bat, or even in some rare cases a gun. These weapons (w/ the exception of firearms) can all be upgraded. As a weapon is used it degrades and will do less and less damage. Upgrades, as well as skill points, can be used to slightly negate this or prolong the usefulness of a weapon.
During the day, it’s relatively easy to get around the city. Run anywhere, and just weave through the slow-moving shambling zombies. Occasionally a larger/harder zombie will need to be taken out, but it’s easy to move around recklessly. At night, however, the game changes drastically. The slow-moving zombies are still out, but there are also other zombies to deal with, the “Volatiles”. These zombies move much like Crane and the other runners and are very VERY powerful. They are weak to UV light, but only for so long. They can be avoided with careful movements and constant vigilance, but when spotted, it’s almost always bad news.
It’s Already Too Late
The sound design for Dying Light is pretty fantastic. Starting with the soundtrack. Dying Light manages to set the mood of an apocalypse with off-key tones and musical scores that somehow made me feel uneasy just sitting in my chair. There are moments when you need a thumping drum and a distorted guitar, but during the quiet moments of a game, these don’t fit. On the slightly disturbing side, are the things that the zombies will say, almost involuntarily. For instance, I was fighting a “Viral” (which is what they call the recently turned humans) at one point and was super surprised by what happened next. As it attacked me, I swung my weapon striking it clean in the face. The viral then backed up a few paces, put its hands over its face and screamed: “No, please!” It then rushed me, and I was forced to smack it again. It really caught me off guard. Since then I have noticed them say other things, and each time it makes me pause for a split second.
Dying Light is the first “new” entry in the zombie-slaying genre for these new consoles. While I wasn’t expecting much out of it at first, I was very pleasantly happy by what found. The addition of the parkour running, as well as the separate skill trees, make the absence of the analog combat acceptable. Dying Light was a big surprise for me. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the game as much as I am. It’s well written and has more depth than it shows on the surface. It’s definitely worth checking out, and I say that as someone that was tired of killing zombies over and over again.
*Dying Light was reviewed using a download code for the Xbox One provided by Developer.
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