Hold the presses...Start the presses? I've recently beat Dying Light and I've got some unpopular opinions about it.
So dying light has been in my backlog for some time and initial abandoned in favor of some shorter games. I do this alot, first sign of trouble, go play some shorter games and blog about them, its all part of a carefully planned framework of procrastination and disappointment. By now you should be seeing a pattern of behavior.
Speaking of patterns, it would be a missed opportunity to ignore the fact that Dying Light's developer Techland did make the previous Dead Island games I reviewed so many moons ago. So there's going to be a lot of comparisons between DL and it's predecessor, Dead Island. After all, Techland should be improving over time, not me.
Same Idea, Different take
So Dying Light takes a big leap from the Dead Island series. The multiple character romp through B-movie feeling cutscenes and trope-tastic npcs has been replaced with a much more serious feeling open world campaign. Times are tough in the country of Harran, players will step into the boots of professional G.R.E operative Kyle Crane, the do-gooder generic white guy that doesn't quite understand the local plight, but is doing his best anyways. This is a departure from Dead Island, where an international cast of outsiders had an external view of their tropical islands history and inhabitants, but were looking through their own unique characters perspective. I was really given more diverse viewpoints character wise, that makes a big narrative change.
Character wise, Dying Light features well fleshed-out npcs that act as the supporting cast in the story, All of them local and living in chaos that is zombified Harran. The story progresses as energy drink aficionado Kyle Crane parkours his way through the plot and finally becomes disillusioned with the G.R.E and the seemingly uncaring approach they have to 'foreign aid'. It did feel like the typical American goes native and sides with the locals. But Crane was really trying to help from the start, you could say it was more like; American is sent to help, but grows a pair in the process, as Kyle goes from G.R.E lackey to being his own human being and doing his own thing, combine this with central asian location and spreading plague, Dying light is a pretty relevant game in 2020, but that's not why I think it's player base is so strong after 4 years of dlc's and continued interest.
Some parkour?
The biggest difference between Dying Light and Dead Island I see is the free running mechanic, the biggest selling point of the game. Where dead island was pretty vanilla in the bipedal locomotion department, Dying Light jumped on the opportunity to jump on literally anything. Ledges, wall running, climbing, leaping off tall buildings. It's all hugely different to how the game plays, but I found that pretty quick it was just another way to get around. It's only here and there I found some novelty falling on life saving heaps of trash, or dropkicking a zombie from a rooftop. There is, infact, parts of the game that Kyle Crane must navigate across an actual crane, pretty funny.
It's a full body workout!
Zombies are a staple of every games "need to to kill" list. A single zombie should be about as tough as a Koopa Troopa in Super Mario World, not Bowser himself. From start to finish, the zombies in Dying Light have been more durable than a Dewalt cordless driver. Sure, I'd expect the special types put up more of a fight, but the base zombie is such a tank that you can't just smash and dash. I'd expect to feel almost overpowered by the end of the game, though I never really felt godlike, even with good weapons.
Weapons and upgrades follow the Dead Island formula, though some refinements and additions have been made. While weapon quality, durability, and modifications make their return, but now weapons feel less like Nokia cell phones and will suffer permanent breakage. I guess it's a form of balancing, but why? It seems like there was a whole weapon and upgrade economy in Harran. Collect relief packages and raise survivor score (by not dying), then buy some fantastic weapon only to have it break and need replacing. It felt like combat was meant to be avoided at times, but then again, there was an entire perk tree for combat skills, and those points could only be earned with violence.
It has it's perks...
So I did mention there was a player leveling system in Dying Light, but it's a lot more Farcry than Morrowind. there are four trees of perks to pick from, Combat being one of them. This pretty much throws out my theory of combat being down-played in importance. I never did unlock the 'Legendary' perk tree, so maybe that's the Holy Grail of gamebreaking abilities. Either way, the initial playthrough leave me feeling less very badass, maybe that was the point.
I feel like a boomer...
So really the most frustrating element of Techlands latest adventure is my own lack of understanding. From the sidequests to the combat and economy, I just never really felt like I got to the 'fun part' of the game. Maybe I did see the best Dying Light had to offer and it didn't click. After all, some games are individual taste. So overall, I can't say that Dying Light was good or bad, there is definitely some good elements may be expanded on in its upcoming sequel. Until then, I've got hordes of digital zombies to slay.
Queue the helicopter ride...
So that's my take on Dying Light. September is shaping up the be a right cluster, but that's a story for another day. Until next time, keep that hat buckled, Comrades!
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