In Dying Light, players are thrownhead-first into a quarantined post-pandemic urban environment filled with people infected with a zombie-like virus that are referred to as “virals”. While there are other survivors like yourself placed throughout the game, it’s evident that you are definitely in the minority and have to fight your way through to survive.
An open-world action horror game, Dying Light combines elements from adventure and survival horror games into a style and approach that feels fresh in the ever-growing zombie game sub-genre. Players can make their way around the South American-esque city using parkour style movement to scale buildings and traverse rooftops, finding the best route to a given objective. Being able to go through or over buildings or just having the ability to take traditional roads allows for various styles of gameplay and multiple ways to handle enemy encounters, which was really cool as nothing ever felt too repetitive.
As expected, the zombie virals you encounter aren’t very bright, often congregating in the streets in groups in search of food. Dying Light also smartly leaves the style of play up to the player so, although not advised, you can choose to attack the virals head-on, charging into a group of them swinging a machete, or you can take a more stealthy approach, sneaking past them undetected. Being mindful of sound distractions is definitely a major part of the game, as the virals will always investigate a loud sound. Sometimes these noises can work to your advantage, where you can utilize items found in the world to direct the path of the virals away from you, making openings for you to travel through along the way.
In Dying Light, scavenging for resources is a necessity, as you’re only given an old rusty machete to start out with. While not only in search of ammunition and health, players are also tasked with seeking weapon upgrade items to assist in battles. For example, attacking the virals with a bat or a hammer is a good approach, but attacking with a bat that has nails sticking out of it or a hammer wrapped in electrified barbed wire is obviously a much better way to get the job done. The combat in Dying Light is brutal and gory as hell too, with the highly stylized kills forcing players to aim their shots as direct as possible because anything less than a blow to the head will cause the enemy to continue attacking (which may require hacking off its limbs and then spilling the virals’ entrails all over the streets, a fun but less-effective approach).
There are different types of enemies that you must confront, which at first impression look to be related to the differing levels of infection affecting the virals. The most common enemies are what you would expect, normal zombie types, slowly grunting around the streets in search of a flesh feast. These can often be pretty easily avoided by just some swift maneuvering. Occasionally, however, you will run into different types of much larger and meaner virals that take some strategy to tackle. These larger enemies can range from a hulking beast with pulsating tumors hanging off him or just a big guy with a big hammer. Either way, watch your step in these situations as they were a huge challenge to take down.
For me, one of the features that stands out in Dying Light is the dynamic time system which creates a realistic day/night cycle that alters your gameplay and enemy encounters. During the day, if careful, the player can freely move around the city, completing objectives as they see fit and, with the advantage of being able to climb, you can usually escape a group of virals if things get hairy (or hungry). At night, however, the virals’ strength grows stronger and they become more determined to seek out any non-infected. Also, the absence of daylight gives the virals extra abilities, like being able to run and climb buildings as you do during the day. This is compounded by the much more difficult nocturnal enemies that come out in search of food, so when it’s dark, sticking to the shadows is really your only option for survival. This really affects your strategy and also upped the fun factor for me a bit too.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’dhighly recommend checking out Dying Light when it hits stores in early 2015 for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox ONE and PC. Players tired of the same zombie game over and over again will have a blast with how Dying Light mixes things up all while creating an action-packed and immersive gaming experience.
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