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If you have been paying attention to the feed for the past month or so, you will know that I was pretty impressed by Techland’s new Zombie game, Dying Light. To a degree, I even found myself to be demonstrating the early stages of addiction. Well, I put the kabash on that last night and wrapped it up so that I can focus on other games. But in the end, I think Dying Light did a few remarkable things:
- It managed to make Zombies frightening and exciting despite an overwhelming consensus that views them as irrelevant or tragically overused… which they definitely still are.
- It proved to me that the concept that was born from Mirror’s Edge can be polished and improved. Hell, it can even work beautifully within an open world environment. It actually gives me a lot of hope for the upcoming Mirror’s Edge 2.
- Perhaps most surprisingly, it successfully played on my fear of heights to make an incredibly tense parkour experience…
Last night, I played the final mission of Dying Light and despite having one of the most mind numbingly bad chase sequences this side of Assassin’s Creed 3, the final ascent to the top of Rise’s tower was quite the experience. The climb required the use of just about every free-running trick I had learned and it rarely highlighted the path ahead; forcing me to improvise in tense situations. At many times, I found myself standing on the tiniest of support beams while the sound of the wind and the disorienting vertigo effect threatened to send me plummeting to my death. It’s a feeling i’ve rarely encountered in games and despite my discomfort, I absolutely want more of it.
As we all know, video games are a powerful medium, especially when it comes to inciting fear. They are capable of producing feelings and reactions that movies can’t quite achieve because they lack the element of interaction. Going into Dying Light, I didn’t expect to be as frightened as I was but the night sequences are terrifying and the world itself is dangerous to explore. After the Dead Island mess, it’s nice to think that Dying Light may actually make a favorable impression and even influence the genre in the future.
Comments
9 years, 8 months ago
Great Review Nick, Dying Light also surprised me a lot I had a lot of expectations going into this judging from the gameplay trailers but also worry because the devs for this also made Dead Island, it is safe to say the game has so far met all my expectations and then some now I just need to go back and finish it.
9 years, 8 months ago
I really want to give this game a try. I am one of the few people that actually had fun with Dead Island, so I know I will enjoy this game. Is there a lot to do after beating the game? Is there a NG+, or anything like that?
9 years, 8 months ago
At first I definitely wrote this game off because it just seemed like more Dead Island. But after watching you and others play it on the feed, I actually want to pick it up. I'm surprised how much were enjoying it and it looks like it'll be a lot of fun, especially playing co-op.
9 years, 8 months ago
From what I saw of this game, the free-running didn't look as up to par as Mirror's Edge. For people who played the game, how did the free-running feel?
9 years, 8 months ago
I'm really enjoying Dying Light, but I don't really see what you're saying about making the zombies scary. During the day not one of them is terrifying and at night, sure the nocturnal are a little scary but I never feel in danger since it's so advertised where they're looking.