Review ‘Dying Light’ From The Editor

Dying Light is a game that uses the always popular and strangely never boring zombie apocalypse storyline to get you to head to store and pick up their version of a headbusting, blood and gore action game. It’s the same story every time. A virus infects all of the people and there are only a few survivors that are either “immune” or just haven’t been bitten yet. We know how it goes, we’ve all seen the movie or in this case, we’ve played the game. What makes this one different? A few things but it’s still the same ol’.

If you’ve never played or heard of Dead Island, this game might blow your mind. Dead Island was Techland’s first attempt at making a game like this, but its tone and its mechanics didn’t quite sync up, and the bugs marred the overall experience.

Dying Light is almost a reboot, but rather than simply retelling the same story or even refining Dead Island’s mechanics, Techland basically tore everything down and started from scratch, with only the core structure left in tact.

The hook of Dying Light, and the biggest departure from Dead Island, is the parkour. Kyle Crane, the protagonist, is as mobile as any video game character this generation. He can vault from rooftop to rooftop, climb precarious buildings and deftly escape the grasp of even the most agile zombies.

It’s not perfect – you will occasionally miss a ledge or slide down a wall – but for a world this vast to be so readily accessible with nothing but a series of jumps is an incredibly impressive way to structure an open-world game.

The story focuses on Kyle Crane, who is an operative from the GRE which is a secret government agency sent to the city of Harran to look for a man named Rais who supposedly contains a file that can destroy the agency. The problem that Kyle is facing is that the city of Harran is currently overrun by zombies all of whom are victims of a vicious pandemic that has basically killed every person in this city who isn’t “immune” or hasn’t been bitten…yet.

As you begin to start the game, immediately Kyle is on the run and ends up being bitten in an unsuccessful attempt to run away from zombies, and just as he is about to be lunch meat, by a gang of raging zombies, he’s saved by a mysterious woman and a man (who end up getting eaten, sadly) and it’s from here that the story begins.

You wake up in a hospital type safe house after being in a slumber for three days after being treated for your bites. You’re told right to head to a room and find Rahim who appears to be a young captain of a resistance group called GRE.

Rahim is the one whom you refer to for much of the beginning of the game. He vaguely tells you what the mission is ultimately about. He talks about the leader of the resistance group that you unknowingly volunteered for who goes by the name Brecken. After the story Rahim then proceeds to teach you what will become your survival skill that you use throughout the game which is Parkour.

After your training you meet Spike who is the resident engineer / IT person on staff. He’s the one who sends you out on your first mission and first real interaction with the open world.

The Dying Light world is vast and the more you’re out in the world, the more often you’ll be performing tasks to secure the city from zombies by setting traps and end up scavenging for scrap parts to make weapons and to things to heal yourself, etc. The more missions you take on you’ll be learning about the GRE (whom you’re working for) and Brecken. All of these tasks will eventually lead you closer to crime lord and rogue agent named Rais (the reason for which you’re in Harran at all). He’s the local bad ass in Harran now, and before too long if you’re good you’ll be recruited by Rais and you’ll be running errands for him.

By the way, you’ll be doing all this while trying to survive in Harran, deciding which group you’re going to side with (Brecken or Rais) because they’re both lying to you and all of it is to be done while trying to maintain your cover as a secret government operative. THIS is what Dying Light, from a basic level, is about aside from the obvious flesh eating zombie problem.

Unfortunately, the game seems intent on slowing you down.

There have been (and always will be) plenty of comparisons between Dying Light and Mirror’s Edge, but their most disappointing similarity is how often they break up the flow of your blissful momentum.

Unlike in Far Cry 4, the entire campaign in Dying Light can be played through cooperatively. If you have friends with the game, this is the way to play. Having a buddy to back you up while you capture a safe house or wade into a crowd of zombies completely changes the way you play the game.

There is a multiplayer mode in Dying Light called Be the Zombie, which seamlessly meshes with the campaign if you decide to turn it on. Basically, once night falls, the game will attempt to connect you with a zombie player who will in turn try to kill you while you track down his or her nests, scattered throughout the world.

With dynamic co-operative and competitive challenges occurring alongside the regular campaign missions, having a few pals at your side feels like how this game was meant to be played.

The game looks gorgeous too, with detailed character models and ravishing sunsets, even if the odd ghoul gets itself stuck on a buggy bit of scenery.

But zombies, by their very nature, are inconsistent, so perhaps that’s not such a problem after all.