Dying Light is not your ordinary zombie first person shooter. The plot of the game focuses on Kyle Crane, a covert operative for The Global Relief Effort (GRE), who has been sent on a mission to investigate the zombie-infested quarantine zone in the Turkish city of Harran to find documents that were stolen by Kadir Suleiman.
The game was released initially in January 2015. More recently, an enhanced edition, “The Following,” was released on Feb. 9.
Gameplay in Harran is open world, meaning you literally can go to any location within the map, but there is still a boundary on the map. Primary movement through the city is by running, jumping and using parkour to vault over obstacles, rooftops and the undead. The intense, free running mechanics are not only for movement but combat as well. As you gain experience, your parkour movements can be used to attack and repel the flesh-hungry denizens that choke every nook and cranny of Harran.
You’ll need to use these abilities as all of the goals of the missions will take you from one end of the city to the other, even to the very peak of a suspension bridge which is only accessible by walking up a support cable.
Another aspect to gameplay is the day and night cycle. During the day, the undead are more docile and will only swarm when provoked. At night, they are much more aggressive and a near invincible zombie, a “Nightmare,” marauds the streets. The “Nightmare” zombies can pull you from great distances or off great heights to themselves where death is almost inevitable.
Weapons are basically everything you can get your hands on or your body itself. Also, as your experience progresses, you can create unique weapons from ordinary, found objects like pipes, planks of wood and trash. If you like to collect stuff in games, you will be in heaven.
Another tip is that noise is your enemy. It drives the zombies crazy. However, you can use sound as a defense by using explosive objects to draw zombies away from you as you leap across rooftops like a ninja frog on lily pads. Staying up high, keeping quiet and only attacking when necessary are how you stay alive.
Overall, in an ocean of zombie inspired games, “Dying Light” takes us and the genre to a beautiful rotting island where new twists on realism, movement and strategy are a welcome respite to the run-of-the-mill first person shooter.
There are some graphical issues with glitching and random crashing, as the real time rendering engines handle the massive scale of the game. But, these are quickly lessening as patches are being regularly released. Also, combat difficulty ramps up sharply and often when dealing with the undead or other survivors. If the dynamics are right, a domino effect can cascade you into an impossible situation. This can be frustrating.
After being totally disappointed by the new “Star Wars: Battlefront”, “Dying Light” has scratched that first person shooter itch quite well. Game developers of zombie-genre titles like “The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct”, “Left 4 Dead” and “H1Z1” need take notice of “Dying Light”. Just like what “Call Of Duty” did for MMOFPS, “Dying Light” can take surviving the zombie apocalypse to a dystopian future we all can be our own Rick Grimes or Daryl Dixon in.
The Parkway West Pathfinder gives Dying Light a 9.5/10.
