Dying Light REVIEW
Dying Light (PS4, XBO, PC) - Review
Written By- Tyler Pederson
It’s hardly a surprise that we’re still seeing zombie games. Tired as the idea may have become over the last decade, it still moves copies. Techland may be one of the most notorious abusers of their undying popularity in our culture, crafting their own Dead Island franchise and quickly pushing out a half baked sub-sequel before passing it off in favor of starting up another IP based the same concepts. Dying Light is their latest effort, carrying over the ideas crafted with Dead Island, they seem to have essentially tried it all over again. This time however, every element has been handled with care, bringing a flurry of concepts together to create a consistently fun, if occasionally tedious zombie apocalypse.
The plot perhaps being the weakest element, you play Kyle Crane, a character shrouded in mystery dropping into the zombie infested Harran. You’re given so little info about your own motives however, that I found it consistently impossible to care about my own actions. While the story does it’s best to craft relationships and strike up some level of emotion, the limited connection to the player character only lends to making these efforts falling short, and with minimal exceptions, ends up an entirely predictable mess with some serious pacing issues. The archetypes overplayed in Dead Island are back here with the exception of awful rap music, and little effort to improve their uninteresting characteristics have been made. Dying Light however, is redeemed by the game upon which this plot is laid.
Parkour. It’s a term that’s grown immensely more common in the last few years, but few games have gotten the concept down right. Mirrors Edge was centered around it, and some indie efforts like Cloud Built have only served to remind me how close, and yet not quite there the concept is. Dying Light nails this, if anything. I have never played with a more compelling set of character controls, and the island nation of Harran is a playground larger and more varied than I had ever imagined. Not even diving into the impressive list of Easter Eggs ranging from the classic to the modern award winners, the game’s activities are addictive and have a pretty nice risk-reward system in place to ensure that, for the most part, serious effort is rewarded with serious loot. Those Easter Eggs, though. Wow.
Harran is also one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting through the window of video gaming. In a world where the zombie apocalypse is constantly depicted as a grey-brown, rotting mess, the island setting has once again lent well to setting it apart, but the effort put into every single space, even those that get to be a little too linear deep underground, really drives home that the end of the world can be just as beautiful as any game set in a golden age, if the approach is taken correctly.
Not all is well in Harran however, because unfortunately another bit carried over from Dead Island includes the tedium. The fetch quests, the crafting, the farming, it’s all back in full force. It’s polished, and they all work pretty well, but I’m consistently disappointed at the lack of effort put into setting one side quest apart from another. With a few exceptions, you’ll find yourself venturing back and forth across the expansive map for a simple item, often getting a reward that will, or has already become obsolete. Some scripted moments are among the greatest interactive experiences I’ve had, but they’re so few and far between, that it only leads to a longing feeling for more.
While there’s a track here and there I don’t love, the soundtrack here is outstanding. Never overwhelming the action on screen, but instead building upon it to create a more immersive experience. The audio effects are also incredibly well done, including some of the better gun audio in a game, but that’s not to say that with the long list of voice actors, there aren’t a hand full of cringe worthy performances. For every well read story sequence, there’s a side quest with nonsensical dialogue to go along with it.
The games day and night sequence, while important as can be early on, quickly becomes more of a side note, and while there is definitely reason to fear some of the creatures that lurk in the dark, you’ll just as soon discover their abilities only reach so far, and the abundance of safe houses wherein the player cannot be hurt leads to the sense of tension dissolving after some time.
For all it’s amazing efforts, Dying Light is also held back by it’s own lack of ambition. It carries over the ideas of Dead Island and polishes them to a very enjoyable state, but that’s about all they’ve done besides the admittedly amazing Parkour elements. Had the game stepped a bit further out of it’s own comfort zone, and done a bit more with it’s own ambitious ideas, there could have been a seriously amazing run all the way through. The game is especially enjoyable when played in co op, of which you can have 4 players total, but it can also lead to a significant decrease in difficulty for those looking for a serious survival challenge.
It finds a way to mess it up, however. Almost like clockwork, the game hits a moment at it’s climax that seriously sours a lot of the experience before it. This is likely subjective, but my personal stance remains that a games antagonist should be taken on by the games protagonist using the skills the protagonist has built up till this point - the games antagonist should NOT initiate a series of quick time events that culminate with the player asking themselves if that was really it. It’s hardly the first time a game has been too afraid to craft a final boss fight, but it’s one of the more tragic examples given that by the games end, the only relationship fully developed is the one between you and the would be boss.
None of it’s flaws make it a bad game, they simply make it a lesser one than it easily could have been if it had the courage to simply try new things. Techland have proven themselves capable of so very much, but constrained themselves with a style of gameplay that doesn’t break it’s own mold enough to fully achieve anything truly great. Instead, opting to create the best version of the thing they’ve already iterated on time and again. All I ask is next time they put the same level of effort and care into something different.
Dying Light gets an 8/10
