We all have some memories from “dead island”series.some good memories and some(including me) really dissapointed and not so sweet ones
In 2013 “TechLand” with announcing its FIRSTPERSON-SURVIVAL HORROR game named “Dying Light” decided to change our view about semi-openword zombi themed survival games. And turning this title to something that “dead-island”wished to be but never achived to be.and did “TechLand”succeded? The answer is a big fat YES,
when my copy of this game arrived, i did not have enough time to even try it. so some days passed and on a quiet weekend i plugged my headphones into my dualshock and pressed the PS button & that was the moment that magic happened .symphony of great voice acting, great music, super awesome lighting and in a nutshell one of the greatest atmosphere's that i have ever experienced .
when i first heard that techLand is making a horror game in this overrated market of tasteless "pg-13" survival-horror videogames i could not even imagine that the results would be something like that. even tho i followed the released demos and game plays in different conferences , they could not convince me to even wait eagerly for this game in a few words it seemed like a max 5/10 game at its best . the idea of combining breathless action-run and jump parkour game with a survival horror ambient and expecting good results was so ambitious that i honestly could not imagine this for this plane to land safely. i mean techland?? seriously ?? like theyr most famous game has been call of juarez..any way . i was wrong.. really wrong.lets go back to where i started ...
as the first moment that game begins and you press the start campaign mode the atmosphere devourers you into it and you feel yourself already a part of this horde infested word !
story
The story is cliche enough but it never gets boring. You easily can relate yourself to a governer-walkingdead like story which is nicely companied by lots and lots of side quests for you to follow and complete.
In the city of harran (soupposly”random” name-) an outbreak has turend most of the population into brain eating hyper-aggressive rabid creatures which are called”zombies” which has resulted into the full quarantine of the city.some how there is a _mysterious_ organization called
Global Relief Effort (GRE) assists survivors by airdropping supplies. Somehow this time they decide to airdrop an unregular package called agent “Kayle crane” to infiltrate Harran in order to gather information and retrieve a sensitive file stolen from them by Kadir Suleiman, which he is using as leverage to blackmail them, with the threat of publicizing it if anything were to happen to him. Crane is airdropped into Harran, where he is ambushed by a gang of Bandits. As the infected attack any how he gets rescued by a group of survivors in cost of life of one of them and here is the backbone of the story as later he discovers his company is not pure good and is not really how it seems( obviuosly) and he gets stuck between choosing the people who took him in and helped him or simply following his orders in order to find those suspicious files..
Gameplay
With arriving to next gen of videogames gameplays have been improved and ofcourse “Dying Light “ is not exempt.in “dyingLight”we have a uniqe gameplayed. Yet it seems we already have experienced it and we are familiar to it.it is simple. You need to excute your orders in a really big ambient full of diffrent kind of zombies and SURVIVE doing so.
What helps you ? your free-running skills. Lots of hidden chests and (creative)weapons and your ability to make FAST decisions. you are free to choose your way, fighting the beasts with your crafted weapons or run and find your scape route throu narrow alleys of this – istanbul like city or simply try not to move on the ground (becarefull of which roof tops you jump on .you may break them and falldown into middle of not so friendly zombies) which is a good effective way to help you to survive.
safe houses that you can unlock during your missons and traps puted in the streets will also be very handy during your experience. One of the things that made me love the game even more was the hight destructability of the ambient. As i said before jumping on roof tops maybe a good way to avoid dying but better becarefull because if you jump on a slum roof for 10 time, the 11th time maybe result on breaking it and.. you dont wana do that !
you are running desperatly and hoping to dont get out of breathwhile you are followed by ten’s of zombies which will never be easy to deal with you see the electric pole. You climb. Yo reach a roof top . and just when you feel safe. You hear screams of a woman trapped in street begging for someone to help.and you can choose to help her fighting zombies and risking your own life or simply ignore it and walk away.
Remember ,clock is ticking and trust me .you dont wana be in streets of “harran” when night arrives,
Night time gameplay is a whole new word. You wil personaly experience the FEAR and the fact that NO WHERE is safe .
Your limited vision, Hyper aggressive and really strong zombies that come out to haunt only during the nights followed by absurd sound effects made me easilyremember all the fear i expirienced before in only one masterpiece which i will assume everyone already has heard about it :”the SIREN”
You have to move slowly .yet at thesame time the you have to be fast. You never know what is behind you. And you wana keep an eye on minimap to see if any “volatile” is looking for some fresh meat or you are lucky enough to find your way into a safe-zone and wait untill you see first rays of sunshine through the morning fog.
Graphics
Visuals in this title are crafted and created in best way possible.maybe because that “Dying Light” is the first game that uses “chrome engine 6” as its graphic engine so the developers have really done theyr best to show the capabilities of this engine in the world of current gen graphics.
You will see really neat and beautiful animations in this game . nice slipping effects and other effects such as splashing blood drops when u put your hammer into squishy head of a crawling zombie.
You can enjoy runing on mud and have a look back at burned and screaming zombies thanks to one of your explosive traps. Or proudly watch the mess you have made out of recent kill of yours and try to count the seprated chops of “poor”thing that tried to eat you alive 10 seconds ago.
One of other things that i enjoyed about this game is that you can clearly notiece the facial expriessions and diffrence betwee a zombie aware of your presence or the one which luckily has not notieced you in theyr territory yet.
In a few words . “Dying-light” delivers really beautifuly how a post-apocaliptic city raoming will look like with lots of infecteds around.
Sound
Music has always been the most important medium to deliver the fear both in a game or in a movie and as i started praising sound effects and music in this game i will continue doing it here with more details.
When you are about to arrive to the a herd of zombies the symphony of fear starts to play in its best. Or when the night arrives the screams and roars of scary creatures patroling in the dark streets will make you think twice before getting out of your shelter.voice acting also is great and helps you to relate more and more the charachters of game.
It wont be exagrating to say that it made me think of my favorite movie titles such as “28 days later” or “28 weeks days later”
Conclusion
What do you call a good free-roaming game?.
Being free to roam? Also your enemies? Feel a part of the ambient you are inside? Or maybe good graphics and visuals? Also involving gameplay?
Well if your answer was positive to all these questions above then “Dying light “ with no doubt will be one of the best titles you will experience in this year at least if we don't say in this generation.
To be honest when i was thinking if i were the developer of this game what would have i changed about this game... i really could not find anything that has bothered me.every thing is good enough and well executed .
of course even a good game has always more capacity to develop . adding more custom to zombies or more emotional twists in story will not hurt anybody. in a nutshell i did not noticed any major error to be corrected .it is already great but it can only be greater.
Experiencing all the feelings above with your friends in co-op and online modes.
Continuing to explore outside your backbone story.hunting for more blueprints and more bizzare yet awesome weapons.and lots of other things to discover awaits you in streets of “harran”
If you enjoyed the ambient of “fallout”
Mobility and roaming of “mirrors edge”
And the fear and atmosphere of titles like “doom 3 or siren”
Then ..”Run boy Run.
amirhossein barouh. first image credits goes to by shrimpy99 /deviantarts.com