Dying Light, now as a fan of Zombie survival games and television shows, I gave Dying Light a chance. At first the game had a great opening with Parkour elements that gave the player a great introduction and tutorial of the city of Harran and how to travel around it to get to objectives. For the first few hours the game was solid, but as I completed more and more side missions alongside the story missions the game became repetitive, even after main characters died and new areas opened up including another city nearby.
Zombies never changed, there were about only a dozen different types of zombie classes you fought from the usual type that shamble over to you slowly, up to feral nocturnal creatures that you cannot kill and they come out only at night to hammer wielding mammoths that can kill you with one or two hits. At first this hefty number of enemy types I had to contend with was interesting, but soon enough some missions were blocked by three hammer wielding mammoths to the point that they became bullet-sponges and some fights dragged on until I grew bored of the overall mission I had undertaken.
What mostly annoyed me was the lack of a varied arsenal of firearms, yet there is a massive arsenal of different hand-to-hand weapons with different effects, levels of damage and of course design. But firearms were simply handgun, double-barrelled shotgun, and a military or Police issue assault rife totalling only five guns in the entire game.
Soon enough after I clocked about half of the in-game story missions I became bored with the flat characters that I was supposed to care about, and even after they would die I would just get more bored as they weren't worth investing in. I eventually finished the main campaign of the game in about thirty to forty hours, missing just a few fetch missions that I grew tired of completing as they had no effect on the main missions.
I forced myself to finish the game, and the last boss of the game is simply a quick-time reaction moment pressing buttons to avoid his attacks in a slow-motion scene which was the biggest disappointment of the game since I spent hours gunning for this villain and to kill him I simply had to press the correct buttons in time.
Graphically is pretty much the only thing alongside game play that I can truly appreciate, from high heights atop towers and buildings the city and scenery is beautiful as you traverse the city. Game play is solid until the majority of missions requires you to travel from one end of the map to the other for fetch missions, and even story missions which becomes boring and mundane.
The Good:
- Strong post-apocalypse environment, entire buildings and structures are destroyed or damaged as well as streets filled with zombies, that really gives it a dark tone and feeling.
- Strong visuals and graphics, especially from heights you truly appreciate the graphics the game can showcase as well as lighting effects.
- Solid game play, especially with Parkour elements of climbing buildings and structures to escape zombies, or human enemies as well as to reach objectives.
The Bad:
- Small arsenal of firearms, totalling only five for the entire game whereas you have dozens of different melee weapons you can use.
- Story lacks any depth, characters are flat and when they die you don't feel effected as you don't really get to know the characters you assist or help.
- Sometimes at night, the game is almost impossible to play and you are forced to wait until the day to do missions etc.
- Repetitive fetch missions, to guarding and protecting other fellow survivors in the open become a chore to do and eventually you feel no need nor reason to complete every fetch task.
Dying Light is an enjoyable game, but certainly not for a full price of £30 - £40 upwards. I waited for it to go down in price and bought it for just £25 but I still feel cheated as the game became too repetitive too soon, and spoilt what should have been a deep story of survival in a post-apocalypse world, that became simply a run and fetch game with zombies to avoid or fight. Check it out if you are a fan of post-apocalypse games, but get it cheap and on discount if possible.