GamerChronic

I fear the Night – Dying Light is Terrifying! – Game Review

Dying Light is a video game that will have you shit scared, especially when you have to go out in the middle of the night to wander around a city full of horrific infected zombies and other hellish creatures, dead set on ripping you apart and eating you limb to limb.

I know what you may be thinking, “Not another zombie video game!”, but even if the game isn’t anything entirely new, Dying Light is definitely worth taking a closer look.

Dying light throws you right into the action, literally, as a special agent sent by some B.S. Government agency to locate a secret file somewhere inside a city that has recently been infected by zombies and cut off from the rest of civilization.

The game opens as you jump from the back of a cargo plane and parachute into the city, landing like a panzy and nearly getting yourself killed. But you happen to be rescued by a group of parkor enthusiasts who are holed up in a large apartment building, doing their best to stay alive and help other survivors.

Story and Missions
This is where the story starts and my apologies for spoiling this for you but I’m just going to get it out of the way, the plot and characters in the game SUCK hardcore.

Most of the missions will leave you saying “WTF?”, “No!” or “This is so stupid!”.

The story is so riddled with clichés its hard to wonder why the people at Techland weren’t asking themselves “WTF are we doing here?”. Okay, that was a little harsh. But really, there is not much in the main missions to redeem the storyling.

Though no need to worry as the sheer terror and thrill of wandering around at night with sometimes nothing but a knife and a flashlight is enough to push the story along and leave you cleaning your pants.

Yes, in this zombie filled world your placed in, leaping from building to building, climbing up walls and hacking countless zombies to bits, is what sells this game… not the storyline.

You’ll have much more fun doing side missions and scrounging around abandoned buildings looking for supplies, than playing the actual story.

Just sayin!

Gameplay
After a quick tutorial explaining the controls you will be sent out into the city on various missions. The parkor element of the game is solid and feels very intuitive. I no longer look at buildings or houses the same, as now I’m always thinking about climbing up shit and leaping from roof to roof like a badass.

At first your going to start with the basics of survival to fend off zombies, like say a hammer. And it going to suck because your going to be weak as shit and will be wondering why ten cracks to the head hasn’t killed this zombie yet.

Don’t worry, in Dying Light you will gain skills and abilities quickly enough and soon you will be slashing and stabbing zombies left and right, while using your parkor skills to skirt the roof tops and scramble away from infected if needed.

You’ll also want to scrounge around houses and building for supplies to sell for cash, upgrade items or craft new weapons. Mod’ing and building weapons is critical. There is nothing like using your mod’ed cricket bat that allows you to set zombies on fire as you hack your way through the oncoming hordes.

The game also does a great job of making sure you fear the night with the dichotomy of light vs dark. And you will always be trying to get your shit done before the sun sets. In addition to the night being fucking scary anyway, there are super strong mutant zombies that patrol the city, waiting for the opportunity to get a piece of your sweet flesh.

If you are unlucky enough to be seen by any of these creatures, all hell breaks loose and you will be jumping on rooftops and sprinting down alleys in a desperate attempt to evade the these creatures. This is some of the scariest shit in the game!

You have the option of avoiding the night by sleeping in safe houses scattered throughout the city. But if you grab your balls and take off into the night you are rewarded by doubling your skills and abilities points, allowing you to level up your character twice as fast!

Graphics, Sounds and Zombies
The visuals here leave little to be desired as everywhere you look is a visual feast. I played on PC so I don’t know how the console’s graphics will fare. Climbing huge buildings and looking out over the city as zombies slither down below on the streets is thrilling.

Shooting your rifle is fun until you hear the howl of and manic screams of zombies, set off by the loud sounds. These sounds alone are enough to send a shiver down your spine and do a great job of adding to the fear and panic of trying to stay alive during a zombie apocalypse.

As far as zombie go there is nothing really new here. You’ve got all your regular run of the mill types of zombies. The regular bitters, bloated zombies that spit poison at you or explode and other super strong beefed out mutant undead.

There are a few surprise zombies that have an extra creep factor such as the baby zombie that crys like a child but is anything but sweet and innocent. Tip: put the kid down!

Overall Rating

Pros: Awesome gameplay, parkor’ing up crazy high towers and feeling your balls pucker (or vagina?), kicking zombies off roofs and into spike traps, nice selection of weapons, crafting and modding, Co-op play. 

Cons: Super dumb storyline and characters, city thugs that block and dodge everything, never using Antizen even though I know your character has some!

I love playing pretty much any video game with a little mary jane and with Dying Light, even more so. The game does a great job of creating an atmosphere of sheer fright and terror, even after you’ve gained experience and have amassed a good amount of weapons. But the bad storyline and the layout of most of the main missions really detracts from what could have been an even more incredible game.

The zombie world created here is very rich and even when the story is over, your still going to have fun messing around, giving the game extended playability, and with Oculus Rift support, even more so!

So get out there and play some Dying Light, get some parkor skills and get ready for the coming Zombie Apocalypse!!