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Released in 2015 and developed by Techland, Dying Light is set in the fictional Middle Eastern city of Harran which is overcome with a mysterious viral outbreak, leading to the majority of citizens turning into a variety of violent infected. With a focus on parkour and gory melee combat with a wide variety of hand-crafted weapons, you take the role of Kyle Crane, an undercover government agent torn between his own agenda and the people of Harran.
Run, Boy, Run
Dying Light is fun. Really fun. The gameplay is so enjoyable that I found myself spending hours doing nothing in particular but still having a great time. Before even talking about the story, it must be said that the gameplay and fun factor of Dying Light is phenomenal. Sprinting around rooftops, climbing walls, vaulting fences, sliding under small gaps, jumping off a zombie’s head, it never gets old.
I had a concern going into the game that the focus on melee combat in a first-person survival horror would get stale over time. I thought it would devolve into boringly swinging a lead pipe over and over again. And while, at the very core with all other (many) layers stripped away, that is the melee combat. But, there is also so much more to the combat of this game. Weapons can be found, crafted outright, upgraded or bought and they vary from a monkey wrench to a scythe with a flamethrower and taser attached.
Now upon hearing ‘crafting’, you may begin to get worried about resource management or finding materials for hours on end just to get one more weapon. However, the world of Harran is full of these materials just ready to be found and, not only that, those items are commonly found in realistic places. Here is an example to better explain what I mean by this. To craft a medkit, you need both 1 alcohol and 1 gauze. Now while these items are very commonly found, I found myself running very low and unable to craft anymore. And so I wonder where it would be best to find medical supplies? And the answer is the pharmacies, as it would be in real life. Or if I just needed alcohol, I can go to the nearby abandoned store and raid the supplies. Yes, this seems really obvious and nothing to be amazed over, but the whole game is like this. Need an axe? Go to a fire department. Want a gun? Check out police cars or vans. The whole game has this logical way of placing items to be found, as well as being dropped by zombies and other survivors.
The game also progresses very naturally in an unforced way. There exist several skill trees which you get points for constantly to level up. As you perform more parkour skills, you earn Agility points to level up that skill and learn more. As you kill more zombies, you gain more Power skills to learn more ways to deal with zombies. The skills you unlock fit in naturally to the base level gameplay, so no upgrade feels forced. Skills vary from the basics such as sprinting longer to redirecting a zombie’s lunge to throw it to the ground. The more you play, the more you are rewarded and the more fun you have.
And finally, actually smacking zombies. Yes, it's fun and no, it does not get old. You get more points for creative kills, and drop-kicking a zombie off of a rooftop to watch it splash on the ground will never not be entertaining. The gore system should also be praised, because it is fantastic. This game was released in 2015, and the visible damage you can inflict on zombies and human survivors is as morbidly fascinating as it is detailed. You can cut open zombies, dismember them, behead them, bisect them by separating their legs from their bodies, or even split them in two from head to toe. You can break legs and squish heads, burn, electrocute, poison, kick, throw and shoot them. You take off both of a zombie’s arms and it resorts to headbutting you. Break a leg, and it crawls after you and grabs your leg, prompting a quick-time event to escape. Or, if you are feeling extra violent, grab a shotgun and turn them into red mist. Different zombie types can be dealt with differently (or you can brute force bludgeon everything- your choice) and as those different types are introduced with story progression, combat gets another level of dynamism for the player to think on, and adapt how they deal with any situation.
However, there is one part of the gameplay that I did not enjoy, and that was fighting humans. Human raiders, part of a bandit gang, form another opposing faction in Harran. I always found them tedious to fight, blocking all melee swings unless they are swinging themselves or somehow tripped or incapacitated, dealing more damage than most zombies and being an overall pain to fight. Whereas fighting zombies feels fluid and fun, fighting humans (unless with guns- but they make noise and attract zombies), feels slow and clunky and you are required to do it multiple times in the story and open world. I did, however, enjoy luring a group of zombies to the bandits, and clearing out bandit survivors later in the game in zones where zombies cannot enter so you can go in guns blazing- but these opportunities are not frequent enough to offset the need to fight them, and the somewhat boredom that comes with that.
Also, weapons break. It is not too intrusive, as they can be repaired a few times before permanently breaking, and you can upgrade and transform new ones to what the old one was. I never really lamented the weapon durability system, but I know that some may really not like it. Personally, the sheer amount of weapons and upgrades made the weapon durability a non-issue, but I must acknowledge to some that may not be the case.
Finally, the day and night system. Time passes each day, and night is terrifying. Faster, stronger Volatiles roam freely at night when they are hidden by day, any zombie that sees you may transform into a fast sprinter (unlike in day where those fast sprinters are easily identifiable) and at any moment you are at risk of being chased until you can enter a safe zone or lose line of sight. The sound of screeching zombies and fast footsteps, only to like behind and see them right there is an unforgettable adrenaline rush that really makes a nerve-wracking experience that emphasises that catchphrase “Good Night, Good Luck”. At the same time, you get more skill points at night, and one key and valuable upgrade material is only available from special zombies that only come out at night.
Online co-op is available for up to four players and worked perfectly whenever I entered a host's world, and an online PVP “Be The Zombie” is available for a different type of multiplayer experience which is also a good way to spend your time.
Power to the People
The story of Dying Light is entertaining enough. Kyle Crane is an undercover government operative trying to get information on the Harran Virus from the leader of the Bandit gang- a politician turned warlord. He befriends the survivors of the Tower (a skyscraper with safe floors for survivors), works both sides trying to carry out his orders, but begins to question what is right and moral, his orders or the needs of the people. The main story beats are fairly predictable and the final boss, as it were, is very disappointing, but overall it passes as a story.
I enjoyed the story and found it as an entertaining drive for the main game. New zombie types are introduced first in the story and are then present in the main world. There are a few genuinely creepy missions that were uncomfortable (in the best way) to play through and the main missions tend to be really fun. There is fantastic environmental storytelling throughout the whole game and neat little mini-stories to be found. The side quests, however, can be either really good or yet another fetch quest. I did not complete all of them, because on more than one occasion I was required to go to multiple separate locations that were very far away, get an item, and return. Yet at the same time, there are some really memorable ones, like helping out an old man looking after lost children in a nursery.
Verdict
Dying Light has a fantastic atmosphere, dynamic and truly fun gameplay with many aspects to it that all come together to make an enjoyable experience. It is not without flaws, a fairly predictable story with a disappointing final boss, the human combat being a drag and a varying quality of side quests. But these flaws are not enough to really detract from the amazing game that Dying Light is.
