It was hard to disagree with many of the criticisms levelled at Dead Island, the game that represents Techland’s last foray into the first person zombie survival genre. A poorly conceived story? Check. One dimensional, impermeable characters? Check. A somewhat subdued atmosphere that offered little in the way of an unnerving sense of dread? Well, maybe this one had more to do with the abundance of unattended cocktail bars and welcoming equatorial heat.
Dead Island was a flawed game, but it was far from irredeemable. It had a straightforward multiplayer lobby system that allowed friends to drop in and out of your game at will. It had a simplistic yet pertinent levelling mechanic that encouraged player progression and rewarded survival. And of course, it offered a staggering level of freedom to the player that showed you the island of Banoi in a way that perhaps would have only been possible had you partook in the pre-apocalypse tour.
If Dead Island was to be remembered for anything though, it wouldn’t be the unintelligible, trope-laden plot, nor the slothful character animations and unavailing dialogue, it would be the aforementioned freedom that tempted players with a mass of spoils that lay just beyond the borders of their sanctuary. A recipe for exploration, sure, but with the caveat of potential death at the hands of a drove of carnivorous, blood-spitting husks? Better bring a few friends.
With Dead Island 2 now in the hands of Yager Development and veering more towards senseless slaughter rather than symbiotic survival, Techland’s spiritual successor to the original Dead Island comes in the form of Dying Light, a game that borrows from the formula of its predecessor, but endeavours to make a few salient alterations.
There’s no change in the dynamic of the game though, which remains rigid and uncompromising, yet integral to the makeup of the Dying Light experience. At one end of the spectrum is the story, which sees our cut-and-paste protagonist Crane infiltrate the already infected city of Harran in order to retrieve a file currently in the possession of a megalomaniacal despot. Harran’s nature is such as a result of its survivors slowly but surely succumbing to the reality of the situation, with the city now in a somewhat peaceful lull that is only ever disrupted by the gunfire of indoctrinated militia or the screams of another civilian finally meeting their end.
The basis of Dying Light’s plot is solid enough, but it is once again lost in a sea of bland characters, weak motivations and poor direction. The primary antagonist at the heart of it all is Rais, a tattooed, unforgiving dictator whose reputation precedes him, his name whispered and echoed around Harran like that of a ghoul within a well-worn fable. Rais has the look, Rais has the attitude and Rais even has the malevolent aura of a king standing on the ashes of a fallen empire at the end of the world, but rarely does Rais exude the same wit and intelligence as some of the most notable video game villains. For the most part, it would seem that his role in the game rarely extends beyond that of a figure used to propel the plot, or filling a void that required a despicable face to bear the brunt of all our scorn. We see Rais relieve a civilian of his hand and even threaten the sanctity of our survivor refuge, but at no point does he truly transcend beyond the natural horror of Harran, his presence merely as that of a catalyst.
Rais’s opus comes in the form of the games finale, which sees the events of Dying Light conclude amidst an explosion of contradictory gameplay elements punctuated only by my own audible groans. Firstly, the final 10 minutes of the game cannot be played cooperatively, meaning that if, like me, you had played the entirety of Dying Light with your friends at your side, you’ll instead be facing the final fight alone. Once beyond the endgame barrier, you’re at the mercy of an almost on-rails sewer chase that sees infected pop into view as if they were targets in a shooting gallery, and minimal error punished with instantaneous failure. Now free of the rotten, noxious confines of Harran’s dilapidated cisterns, it’s over to the gymnastics portion of the trial, with the heights of the city scalable only through a combination of balance beams and pommel horse sequences, a minutely mistimed leap being all that it takes to see Crane re-enter the atmosphere and plummet back down to earth.
And at the end of all of that comes Rais himself, who has been patiently waiting atop Harran’s highest peak, twiddling his thumbs and projecting audible insults to you throughout this entire ordeal. And in a laughably appropriate last act, Dying Light’s story meets its end not via a vicious, open-ended melee fight with Rais, but instead through a scandalous, scripted QTE that negates everything the game has championed up to this point, a terribly conflicting close offering little in the terms of a satisfying conclusion.
In terms of the story then, Dying Light is a particularly overblown reiteration of the flaws present in Dead Island. It should be more than comforting however to note that in many other areas, Dying Light represents a marked improvement.
Traversing the towering stone obelisks of Harran’s Old Town, or the corrugated metallic rooftops of the Slums is made tremendously enjoyable as a result of the intrinsic parkour mechanic. From the games beginning, you’re quickly acclimatised to the principle of safety in height, with bounding from ledge to ledge and from awning to awning being far more preferable than jutting through the chaotic city streets. What makes free-running even more appetising is the fact that anything and everything in the game can be interacted with. Windowsills act as convenient footholds, drainpipes as ladders and trash bag piles as landing mats, the entirety of Harran built like one big playground for those capable enough to use it.
Incorporating your parkour repertoire into combat is another stringent part of Dying Light, as jumping, sliding and grabbing now become both evasive and aggressive techniques. As in Dead Island, combat with generic undead is initially daunting, with players having to rely on unkempt blunt instruments and an overabundance of cautiousness in order to stand a chance. Unlike in Dead Island however, there’s a far stronger emphasis on using your body as the weapon, with the games progressive levelling system offering players the option to hone their free-running abilities as much as their skills with a weapon. Grapples, throws, kicks and tackles are all accounted for, with a large, diverse set of upgrades appealing to every possible aspect of life within the infected labyrinth of Harran. And as both prolonged survival and successfully scaling the heights accrues experience points that increase your proficiency, there’s always a sense that everything you do, however necessary, is adding to the overall improvement of your character.
Of course, there’s not much that has to be said when it comes to the thrill of taking down a roving pack of undead using weaponry, and in this regard Dying Light is all about variety. Part of day to day life in this grossly unfamiliar land revolves around scavenging what you need to survive, with everything in Dying Light of some use to somebody. What you’ll be keeping your eye out for most of the time though is a weapon of far greater use than your current one, with all manner of baseball bats, wrenches, batons and swords scattered across every darkened recess of this blighted city.
Each weapon in Dying Light is completely upgradeable through mods and blueprints, which, as well as increasing the core stats of your weapon, give them a discernible advantage over your run of the mill hammers and table legs. Electrifying a cutlass and watching it disembowel an undead policeman as he lunges for your throat, or setting fire to a sprinting zombie that subsequently ignites a nearby pack of infected are just some of the delectable feats of violence that Dying Light doesn’t shy away from, its slow motion revelling in particularly brutal slayings being something that makes you feel every part the zombie killer extraordinaire. And if a flaming sword or an electrified machete isn’t enough to get the job done, then there’s always exploding firecrackers, incendiary throwing stars and even the far more traditional choice of a machine gun available should you require them.
Harran is a frightening enough place by day, but by night, the entire atmosphere of the city shifts from the scary to the downright petrifying. Of course, the temptation to explore the city by the glow of the moon is something that may be worthwhile. At night, Agility Points, earned through climbing, jumping and running, are doubled, meaning that if you’re content to stick quietly to the rooftops, you’ll have levelled up your character a far greater amount in just a few short hours. The night isn’t without its perils however, with Volatiles, nocturnal zombies who actively hunt you, using this time of the day to roam the streets under cover of darkness, trying to catch your scent on the air and remaining aware of every sound lingering in the distance. And as the dull, synthetic tones of the games superb chorus meet with the roar of a hellacious Volatile somewhere beyond the dark veil of night, Dying Light is easily at its most terrifying, the relief of seeing the ‘Night Survived’ text scrawled across the screen enough to make you put down the controller and breathe a literal, exasperated sigh of relief.
It’s plainly evident that their are still many parallels between Dead Island and Dying Light. Some remain awfully problematic, with both games boasting stories with an interesting premise that are ruined by bland characters and disappointing execution. But in areas in which Dead Island succeeded, Dying Light improves upon unreservedly.
The freedom to go forth and explore the maligned land ahead of you remains at the games core, emphasised unreservedly by terrific combat and movement mechanics that see Dying Light carve out its own distinct identity. The influence of Dead Island remains there for all to see, but it would count for nought had its successor failed to build upon its foundations. But Dying Light does just that, and in doing so provides an experience equal parts familiar and original, and a sequel that is perhaps far truer to the Dead Island legacy than the upcoming Yager title bearing the very same name.
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To download the additional content players should launch Dying Light and from the menu choose the option “DLC Packs” and download all their new content. If you have never played The Following before, now is the best time to try it for free!
Such a great game. The devs really should be proud and they are def serving the gaming community well.
Neil writes: "You'd have forgiven Techland for dropping the content additions for Dying Light, what with the sequel out and going great guns and the original having now been out in the public domain for seven years. But still that new content for the original - and one of the best zombie games ever - continues to arrive, with Dying Light players today finding access to the Dieselpunk Bundle."
I appreciate the time for the review you gave. As for me I can't seem get into this game. I get bored rather quickly, run, complete a task, run some more, complete task, and run some more. It gets very repetitive IMO. I haven't played co-op yet tho so maybe that's where the true fun lies, I'll try that tonight and see how it changes the game for me.