Dying Light Epic And Steam

[Arnold Gilgen]

ThePC is one of the most underrated and best kept secrets in the gaming world. It's about time PC had place on center stage, this site is for the promotion of PC gaming and for honest old school game reviews.

I am a one man show so not every PC game will get a review but as we develop this will change. You will also see reviews appearing from already released games as I pay homage so some of the greats that I still feel deserve another look.

Zombies have permeated games for as long as I can remember and been done to death in recent years. We went through a World War 2 phase a few years back and if developers aren't careful we could end up with zombie fatigue. It's at this point that gamemakers should either decide to give it a rest or innovate; and innovate is exactly what developer Techland have done.

They are not the first to do this though: The Last of Us was by all accounts a masterpiece which used a variation on the zombie theme to great effect. Even Hollywood seems to have noticed this trend with a slew of average to downright naff films hitting the mainstream, but with shows like the excellent Walking Dead doing so well zombies are here to stay. Of course the best zombie film ever made is Shaun of the Dead (non-negotiable!) and you can see subtle beats of zombie humour running through Dying Light - the developers have clearly had some fun making this game and sought to embrace the latest zombie craze. You can see this homage to other games with the many easter eggs scattered through the gameworld, from the wildly popular tower defence game Plants vs Zombies, to Left for Dead and so on.

If you were to picture a zombie in your mind's eye you would probably think of the shambling, rotting, biting, clawing humanoids we've seen a thousand times before and, when you start the game, that's kinda what you get. However, as the game opens up, you may be caught off guard by how fast some of these buggers move. Even your garden variety zombies will lunge at you once in range, which isn't a huge problem to avoid...until you back right into the neck nibbler who you didn't see behind you. No matter how well armed you are or how many nifty skills you pick up, you will learn very fast in Dying Light (DL) that you should never underestimate your enemy.

Very soon you will come across new varieties of undead such as the runners, which still possess some human vestiges and will sometimes recoil and beg for mercy when you wallop them. They also still possess enough humanity to be able to run/climb at full tilt and so can present a real threat that can't be avoided just by sitting on a van or rooftop throwing rocks (or vinyl) at them.

The best tools Crane has for survival are his little trotters and for me the running, climbing and Parkour are where this game hits the turbo. I remember being so impressed with the world traversal in Bethesda's Dishonoured and here too the way you move through the city is fantastic. You can climb most ledges you can reach and the way this is handled from a first person perspective is great. I will say that when you first set out with no skill improvements Crane does feel a little sluggish but rest assured this does change pretty fast. Very soon you unlock increased climbing speed, the ability to leap off zombies, run up walls, roll when you land (to avoid damage from long drops) and so on. This gives you a very satisfying toolset to play with and some moves you pull off leave you feeling epic. I especially love how you can get down from a height fast by using soft (ish) structures and objects such as rubbish bags and car roofs. This feels far more natural than the 'land here' straw bales in Assassins Creed.

Once you get so far into the skill tree you can also unlock a grappling hook and, while very handy, this in some ways makes climbing a little too easy. There is a short cool-down after its use but it still does remove some of the challenge when working your way up structures and that's a shame when the developers have made climbing such a well designed part of the games world traversal. Don't get me wrong, part of me does love the grappling hook but, like I say, it may jar with some players who want a more pure climbing experience. While I'm moaning I'll also just say one more thing in case the developers ever read this - I would love the ability to run along walls as well as up them, very much like Mirror's Edge.

Ok, so if you think the city of Harran is intimidating in the daytime, just wait until you step out after dusk, that's when all the really cool kids go for a run and probably why there are no cool kids left. Not only do the normal zombies liven up and become more aggressive but 'volatiles' wake up and stalk the streets looking for the living. The tension builds as you approach dusk with a radio message warning you there's an hour of daylight remaining and when your watch finally beeps and you hear the city roar from its slumber it's genuinely intimidating and really reminds me of that scene in I am Legend when Will Smith is caught out after dark.

As you would expect, DL runs really well on PC and on max settings the game looks awesome. Late afternoon sun flickers through the cluttered skyline, ash blows through the windy streets and the whole city looks like it should. For a game that has such fast paced action and combat the higher frame rate of PC is really welcome; often you will be making spilt second decisions, last minute turns and jumps. You can play using a controller but for those who prefer keyboard and mouse like me then you will not be disappointed. I have played FPS games with a controller in the past when there was no other option and I find it cumbersome and frustrating. In a game like DL being able to spin 180 in a split second or turn 90 degrees to change course while jumping across small objects is something which makes playing on PC that much more enjoyable. There will always be differences of opinion on this one but once you've played games at a higher frame-rate most see it adds so much to the experience

So the basic question I always ask myself is this; does Dying Light do what it sets out to do? And the answer here is a resounding yes. Almost every aspect of the game has been delivered with a solid level of polish and precision. Techland have given us realistic zombies that break, burn, drown, explode and do all the good things the undead do when they check out. They have then placed this excellent zombie simulator within a detailed, maze-like city that is as high as it is wide. They have given us a vast set of weapons, tools, skills and given you the player the freedom to decide on how to use them. Finally they have made all of these shenanigans pure unadulterated fun. I'd be very surprised if a sequel of some sort wasn't being worked on but for now I'll just say this; if you love killing zombies go and pick up your cricket bat, get your Cornettos out of the freezer and go for a jog through the streets of Harran

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