Dying Light

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Dying Light released on January 26th, 2015.

Published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by one of my favorite developers, Techland, Dying Light is a zombie filled extravaganza waiting to be played!

With well thought out characters and great backstories for everyone, Dying Light's story is a very memorable journey filled with many twists and turns. 

Plus, with their (Techland) parkour mechanics (I never experienced before now), Dying Light has a whole plethora of new approaches to slaying the endless hordes of zombies. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

Taking place in the fictional city of Harran, Dying Light puts you in the shoes of Kyle Crane, a GRE (Global Relief Effort) agent, sent into the zombie infested city to extract important files on the outbreak.

The story has such a simple beginning, middle, and end, yet Techland added so much character / story development for Kyle Crane and his new friends, that the story's multiple shifts in direction never seem out of place, and keeps you invested the entire time (at least for me). 

Kyle Crane's voice actor, Roger Craig Smith, did an outstanding job in portraying Kyle Crane's journey. 

You will undoubtedly "feel" for Kyle Crane, as he suffers defeat, happiness, anger, and even remorse, throughout this 17-and-a-half-hour-long campaign. 

Having such a good story and voice acting for the main protagonist, Kyle Crane (though the other voice acting isn't as good, especially for repeatable enemies), can only go so far, if you don't have an interesting location (world) to play in. 

Luckily, this is never a problem as you explore the multiple sections of Harran. These sections include the Slums, the Old Town, and the Antenna sections. There is also a mass DLC, called The Following, that lets you explore a new Countryside world if interested (more on that later).  

The world, and its equally as big sections, are a joy to parkour around, even with its zombie inhabitants. 

The tall skyscrapers and accessible roof tops, allow for plenty of maneuvering and increasing your skills. 

Every now and then you'll come across locations called Safe Zones. 

These Safe Zones are very crucial to continuing your game at a leisurely pace, as these Safe Zones (once cleared out) serve as spawning locations for when you die in the game and allow you to skip the nights or wait until night. 

Occasionally there will be NPC trading posts for you to restock on ammo, and even buy more weapons / guns in these specific Safe Zones and pre-built settlements. 

You can also help other NPC's by completing bounties for rewards / trust. 

Lastly, every Safe Zone will have a player storage bag where you can store unlimited weapons, upgrades, ammo, etc. 

You can even access unlocked outfits for you to change into, which is really neat during multiplayer sessions!

Speaking of skills, there are a total of four skills to level up (not including the additional DLC skill). They include...

    - Survivor Skills

    - Agility Skills

    - Power Skills

    - Driver Skills (DLC)

    - Legend Skills

To increase your skill level and unlock special perks (moves, actions, etc.), all you have to do, is perform actions in that specific skill tree. 

For example, to unlock agility skills, you have to keep preforming parkour stunts (like grappling and / or running and jumping), and in return, your level bar (at the top of your game) will increase. 

One neat feature I actually adored the most in Dying Light, was the inclusion of losing Survivor Points when / if you die in the game. It will undoubtedly suck when it happens, but the quick time events and random encounters will get you back up to speed!

Now, Dying Light is an excellent work of art, but it does have its unfortunate flaws that hinder it's perfect rating (in my opinion). 

One such example is the performance (on PS4). During hordes and even driving (in the DLC) scenarios, my PS4 will crash unexpectedly. And due to Dying Lights autosave feature, there will be times I lost a lot of progress due to the crashes / frame rate drops. 

Although the graphics in Dying Light are outstanding, the mouth / voice syncing is humorously bad for the NPCs. 

One of the best parts of Dying Light, besides the story and voice acting (for protagonist), is the combat and enemy variation.

You aren't dealing with your ordinary, slow walking, zombies on this mission!

In Harran, your facing sprinting zombies, huge, bulky zombies, and more that you can't even imagine until you see them for yourself! 

The night zombies, called Volatiles are your truest nightmare, as even though you level up twice as much (fast) at night, you go from being the hunter to being the hunted!

The combat and its weapon upgrades / mods are very aquatint to Dead Island, considering Techland developed both series. You will progressively find more damaging weapons and mods to equip as you level up, and this makes for a fair fight against enemies, hordes, or even other humans.

Beware however, as these weapons all have their own durability. You won't be able to use the same weapon the entire time "efficiently" as each weapon has repair limits. You'll need to craft and / or find repair tools to continue bashing zombies with your beloved weapon(s) of choice!

There is a lot of enjoyable DLC for Dying Light. Majority of them are customizable DLCs, but a few do stand out as amazing, prolonging stories for Kyle Crane, including The Following.

The Following (as said earlier), is one of Dying Lights major DLCs, introducing a whole new world for you to explore and fight in. This world being, The Countryside. 

The biggest takeaway in this DLC is the driving mechanic, that is absent in the base game. My honest opinion however, about the driving mechanic, is that I would've been fine without it.

The driving is fun and all, but only for the first few missions. It just doesn't feel as fun as running across rooftops and grappling building to building, like I did for the entire base game / story. Fun mechanic and all, but I feel like it will only appeal to very specific players. 

Dying Light was such a great experience and I highly recommend going out and playing this amazing title! 

Going from rooftop to rooftop, securing safe zone after safe zone, always looking for antizin (the in-game zombie cure) and collectibles, and of course, progressing through one of the best zombie stories I've played in a while (as of writing this blog post), Dying Light is one of my top picks for zombie slaying fun!

Pros: 

    - Outstanding Voice Acting (for Kyle Crane)

    - Great Enemy Variation

    - Realistic and Pleasing Graphics

    - Intriguing Story 

    - Very Enjoyable Parkour Mechanic

    - Great Game World to Play In

    - Neat Music for Game's Story / Genre

Cons:

    - Frame Rate Drops and Crashes (at least on PS4)

    - Repetitive / Worse Voice Acting (for Non-Essential NPCs)

    - Boring / Uninteresting Driving Mechanic (DLC)

My Rating for Dying Light (on PS4):

4 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.