Skip to content
Home » Dying Light Review – Jumping the Sharks

Dying Light Review – Jumping the Sharks

 

Dying Light

Dying Light
Techland

My partner and I leapt from rooftop to rooftop—well, at least I did, while he tended to land haphazardly on the sides of many of their jagged, rusty overhangs. From there he’d scramble back up to his feet and attempt to spring to the next raggedy building.

“Come on, we gotta hurry! It’s almost dark,” I tersely reminded him. There was no answer. I turned around.

Once again, I spied him back on the ground level, in zombie infested territory, scampering around and trying to find loot. He’d done this a multitude of times and it had slowed our progress down greatly.

“Come on, we have to get back to the Tower. I’m telling you, we don’t want to be around out here when the sun goes down,” I pleaded with him while perched upon a roof above. We’d already retrieved the item that we needed in order to appease our compatriots of convenience back at the main headquarters, the Tower.

Courtesy - Techland

Courtesy – Techland

“Alright, here I—“ he was suddenly interrupted by a monstrous shriek in the distance, which prompted him to spring upward and back to the relative safety of the rooftops. He was new to the game, which is why his parkour skills were rather lacking. He’d also scoffed at my warning about the horrid super-undead creatures which came out as evening gave way to night. Now, it looked as if he were taking me a little more seriously, but was it too late?

As we bounded from tattered shack to crumbling building, the terrible roars grew closer. We were only a few blocks from our closest safe zone, which was studded with ultraviolet lights that could ward off the legions of undead.

All of a sudden I heard a crashing sound and turned around, only to see that my partner was absent.

Courtesy - Techland

Courtesy – Techland

“Dammit! I fell again,” he exclaimed.

I ran to his last position and looked down to find him rising up to his knees again from a hard landing upon his backside. Just then, I saw the silhouette of something large moving quickly in the darkness, leaping with frightening, unnatural agility toward us. Would my friend be able to recover in time in order to escape or would we have to test our meager weapons against this powerful new undead threat?

Scenes likes this were littered throughout my play-throughs of Dying Light, Techland’s latest zombie survival horror offering. Yes, this is the same crew that brought us Dead Island, their other zombie game, which drew decent to lukewarm reacts when it was released back in 2011. In fact, to me at least, it seems like Dead Island was in many way just a tune up for something more special. Is that something more special Dying Light? Let’s find out…

You begin the story as Kyle Crane, who is promptly airdropped from a plane down into Harran, a sprawling city situated on a tropical island in Turkey that has been quarantined off for quite a while. The poor squalid place experienced a massive pathogenic outbreak and its few remaining survivors are forced to get by on food and medicine para drops, that the government graciously bestows upon them from time to time. His main mission from there is to recover some important documents from a local bad guy whom may or may not be an undercover member of Crane’s organization, the Global Relief Effort AKA G.R.E.

Courtesy - Techland

Courtesy – Techland

Crane is fleshed out a little bit at a time, but there isn’t a zombie horde-sized amount of depth here to be had. Nor is that really expected in a zombie game or film. I mean, this is not exactly a genre that screams Shakespeare. Dying Light’s narrative and its characters are serviceable enough, however, and lend a credible backdrop to the main star of the proceedings, the city of Harran itself.

I haven’t played too many games in recent memory that conveyed such a lonesome sense of abandonment and squalor. The developers really took their time cramming as much atmosphere into its recesses as possible, and it shows. Everywhere you look, there are signs that people used to live in Harran and that something really, really, bad has gone down. Besides the fact that there are zombies milling around in the her rough streets, there are overturned carts and chairs, junked cars with bloodstained doors and hoods, half-stuffed pieces of luggage that never made it to the airport, and so on. Harran really feels like a once lived-in place that has been overtaken by a super-virus and its resultant undead spawns.

The gameplay more or less consists of Crane going on errands for the leaders of the only safe haven in Harran, the Tower, while he secretly tries to procure clues that will lead him closer to his secret mission. But the interesting thing here is how he goes about things. In Dying Light, you can scale just almost any structure in the game. I had a blast (and got sidetracked many times) just exploring the city, pouncing from building to building, high above masses of clueless, shambling, zombies during the daytime. At night, my adrenaline got pumping as monstrous super-zombies came out to hunt, and it became much more of a bonafide survival horror experience.

Courtesy - Techland

Courtesy – Techland

Dying Light’s much ballyhooed about parkour mechanics, while nothing novel at this point, are handled well and feel intuitive. They offer a new and surprisingly fun ripple to the tired and worn zombie genre. Combat is also satisfying and is melee-centric. Every swing and resultant connection with your undead foes seems hefty and significant, as opposed to airy and floaty.

The game’s graphics are a real delight indeed. Light bloom, vignetting, and motion blur all form a beautiful and convincing confluence that transport you to the game’s world and make you feel a part of it. Character and creature models are very detailed and almost photo-realistic, and the expressions of the various characters that you encounter are easily discernible. The minimal music is also handled well, and lend an additional layer of gravitas to the rather depressing tonality of Harran’s environs. Even as I am writing this review now my mind drifts back to many of the scenes that I experienced while playing Dying Light, and others have mentioned this as well (so I’m not crazy I tell you). Basically, if you have a higher end gaming PC or gaming laptop, this game will look and sound fantastic.

Courtesy - Techland

Courtesy – Techland

In all, Dying Light is a welcome departure from the usual conventions of zombie game-dom. Comparisons will be made to Far Cry, Mirror’s Edge, Assassin’s Creed, and of course, Dead Island. But here again Dying Light stands on its own as a separate and unique beast of a game. While admittedly it has borrowed from other games and genres, it sets itself apart because of its attention to detail, extremely fun and fluid gameplay, polished graphics and immersive (although not totally original) plot. Zombie fans will definitely want to snap this up. But I also think that anyone who enjoys a good horror or survival experience will also enjoy the ride. I know I did.

SCORE: 90%

Kane’s Conclusion:

Is your older system cringing at the thought of chugging under the rather demanding specs of Dying Light, due to its breathtaking visuals? It may be a good time to start the New Year with a new gaming PC:

Visit CyberpowerPC’s website to check out all of the other great deals as well!

 

 

 

 

57 thoughts on “Dying Light Review – Jumping the Sharks”

  1. Arrival from the standpoint of a fellow associate within this commerce, I in point of fact enjoy your write-up. I’ve regularly been in in actuality like with this trade all my life so I have developed a dialogue board for market specialists to come together and chat about all things in this business. You gave me some fantastic creative concepts for my own web site.
    michael kors shoes http://www.blueheavenboutique.co.uk

  2. Assets just like the one you mentioned here will likely be very helpful to me! Ill submit a hyperlink to this page on my blog. I am sure my guests will discover that very useful. Massive thanks for the helpful info i found on Area News Anyway, in my language, there will not be a lot good source like this.
    pierre hardy london http://pierrehardy.ttravelmint.com

  3. Your web site came up in my research and I’m taken by what you have written on this topic. I am presently extending my enquiry and thus cannot contribute further, nonetheless, I’ve bookmarked your internet access page and will be returning to keep up with any next updates. Just Now love it and gives thank you for tolerating my remark.
    balmain silver jeans http://www.peoce.co.uk

  4. This is without doubt a web publication that people need to get behind. The problem is, no one wants to do a huge deal of reading and not have something else to stimulate the mind. This is the world-wide-web, after all. Maybe if you added a video or two to emphasise your point. Ill stick around, FOR SURE. But, I dont know if others will.
    barbour jeans sale http://barbour.hawksportsind.com

  5. My spouse and i still can not quite feel that I could become one of those reading through the important recommendations found on your site. My family and I are seriously thankful for the generosity and for providing me opportunity pursue my own chosen profession path. Thank you for the important information I got from your web-site.
    rene caovilla espadrilles http://renecaovilla.kmmits.com

  6. Its rare for me to discover something on the internet thats as entertaining and intriguing as what youve got here. Your page is lovely, your graphics are outstanding, and whats more, you use reference that are relevant to what you are saying. Youre definitely one in a million, good job!
    balmain jeans kid cudi http://www.geous.co.uk

  7. Hello there! My name is john I am a 20 many years previous pupil. I love to examine. I dont have lots of time. It is why I realized how to read better and faster, I Think that should you study lots of books and megazines youve to find out the ability of speed reading. Just so that you can read far better and quicker. anyway, I hope you will proceed to sustain this site. this is a excellent location and Im sure Ill be back again within the close long term again.
    arcteryx new york store http://arcteryx.hawksportsind.com

  8. I guess you have made a few rather interesting points. Not too many others would really think about this the way you just did. I am very impressed that there is so much about this subject that has been revealed and you made it so nicely, with so considerably class. Tiptop one, man! Really fantastic things right here.
    birkenstock outlet sale http://www.birkenstocksale.cc

  9. Thank you for that smart critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We received a very good book on that matter from our local library and most books exactly where not as influensive as your information. Im quite glad to see this kind of information which I was searching for a long time.
    coach factory online sale invitation http://www.poollyanna.co.uk

  10. How is it that just anyone can publish a weblog and get as popular as this? Its not like youve said anything incredibly impressive more like youve painted a fairly picture more than an issue that you know nothing about! I dont want to sound mean, here. But do you actually think that you can get away with adding some pretty pictures and not definitely say something?
    vibram five fingers sale uk http://vibramfivefingers.easyinboxmailer.com

  11. Its in reality a huge post. I am sure that anyone would like to visit it again and again. After reading this post I got some very unique information which are in actual fact very helpful for anyone. This is a post experiencing some crucial information. I wish that in future such posting should go on.
    patagonia for sale http://www.patagoniasale.cc

  12. How is it that just anybody can publish a weblog and get as popular as this? Its not like youve said something incredibly impressive more like youve painted a pretty picture above an issue that you know nothing about! I dont want to sound mean, right here. But do you genuinely think that you can get away with adding some fairly pictures and not really say something?
    just cavalli t shirt sale http://robertocavalli.easyinboxmailer.com

  13. Took me time to read all of the feedback, but I actually loved the article. It proved to be very useful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It is always good when you cant solely learn, but in addition engaged! Im sure you had pleasure writing this article. Anyway, in my language, there arent a lot good source like this.
    coach factory store http://www.whistless.co.uk

Leave a Reply