With a European console delay, Dying Light was just outside of my grasp. The excitable child within me wanted it now, only to have it snatched away like candy by Warner Bros. distribution! Was it worth the wait? Sure it was. As a giant wet blanket when it comes to the reality of Zombies, my love of all zombie is rather ridiculous. Dead Island's humble beginnings was one of trepidation for myself, a deep longing to experience but the bladder of an incontinent old lady made it all the harder to pick up the game and play. So, I strapped myself down, inserted a catheter and got down to business. Its combat system was fun alongside a creative array of weapons and a horrifying landscape made it a huge favourite of mine. Why am I talking so fondly of Dead Island? Well, its by the very same creators of Dying Light. This time however, Techland have taken a somewhat different approach.
Dropped in by the GRE (Some world health organization), you are tasked with apprehending stolen documents and to also kill a certain target. Its a particularly muddled affair which never ceases to drag on. Rescued upon landing by survivors, you are treated for a bite wound and given the chance to earn your keep as a runner. With a conflict of interest, our lead man, Crane, is left with tough decisions between the few or the many. Crane is a one man army. A one man army against a legitimate army of thugs and zombies. Sure, its a fairly simple plot convoluted by the aspect of political bureaucracy and a villain with a mouth looser than that blonde bimbo in every high school movie ever, but the physical aspects of the story that would lead you closer to the enemy were actually very good and exciting. The quests in between that disguised themselves as story were mere side-missions for characters that were a dull as doorknobs. As for the rest of the crew, don't expect to get chummy with anyone. One such character, who happens to be the first you meet, is one of the biggest douchebags in the history of douchebaggery. With a voice that grinds worse than when you just miss that gear change, you often wish you could just nudge him off the roof.
With Dead Island, combat was great. Dying light?, not so much. In fact it felt more of a chore in
some cases. In some scenes, its demonstrated that the zombies can be killed by simply snapping their necks, by this logic, combat should be quick flowing and realistic. This is not the case. Any day of the week, being hit with a military combat shovel, blade first, would leave an assailant with a significant hole in their head, thus rendering the dead. Dying Light, not so much. Be prepared to whale on someone a good 10 times before the show any sign of dying...again. This issue is also inflated when in combat with AI survivors who can block throwing knives and block an axe with a kitchen knife. Perhaps this extreme increase in combat strength is due to the games most prominent feature. Parkour is great fun, when it works. Otherwise, prepare to fall obnoxious amounts of time.
 |
| He only wants a hug! |
Traversing the world is fun, no doubt and its a great way to experience the game and effectively render combat useless meaning your interaction with the zombies can be limited, until it gets dark. If you have balls of steel and the brains of a nutjob, you can run about at night being chased by Satan and his posse of ugly volatiles. You will find yourself facing this guys when the story dictates, unless, like myself, you are extremely unlucky and it turns from 1PM to 11PM upon opening a door after a mission. If you like heart attacks, skid marks and night terrors, this experience is for you. As for me, I'll stay hidden behind this desk until its light again as I'm not going to be chased by 20 of the glowing bastards. With the added benefit of extra XP for taking this risk, you can get extra abilities which you may never use, but y'know, you may need it for that one thing that you're refusing to do anyway. So gameplay wise, the game is solid. Difficult and often punishing which also can be put down to the awful control scheme (who the fuck puts right bumper as jump!?)...
Next-gen consoles are increasingly being sold based on graphical capabilities, you would expect a diverse range of textures, environments and character models. Now, this is where Dying Light sinks for me. Obviously, with a whole island plagued by zombies, you cannot expect millions of different character models, however, when most of the inhabitants of The Tower looking exactly the same, it shows little effort, especially when you are surrounded by 5 zombies exactly the same. Even the species of zombies lack any notable differences amongst themselves. Many parkour areas were a simple copy & paste job with no additions or removals which made traversing the world without tabbing to the larger map a real issue for those who are in a pinch. Apart from the copy and paste marathon, the world looked nice. The vegetation often looked flat but when you're spending most of your time across the rooftops, that is a mere formality. Alongside a few little visual bugs, it could have been drastically worse
Solid gameplay, awful controls, a lack of diversity with a surprisingly decent story isn't the recipe to world domination but Dying Light is extremely fun nightmare fuel. Its also a game that you can simply drop into without issue as the story is very simple and explains why I spent more time avoiding it than physically playing it. 8/10 - would shit my pants again.
No comments:
Post a Comment