Video game developer Techland seems to have pulled off another magnificent title featuring man vs. the living dead in Dying Light. A new Gamescom trailer was released for the title this week, and it was action-packed, gory, bloody and exciting. I got to check out the title in a behind closed doors preview at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Unfortunately, due to capacity and scheduling issues, I was unable to preview the game at E3 this year. However, I was happy to finally see a new trailer for the game, since Techland is previewing the game at Gamescom in Germany next week.
While the E3 2014 trailer for the game was a bit more focused on story, character and premise, this trailer appeared more focus on the action, features, mechanics and urban environments. The open world for the game looks quite massive. It appears that the quest to survive the infected flesh eaters will take players outside the slums and to more modern, less dilapidated looking areas.
An especially intriguing aspect of the game is the more mutated appearance of the zombies when nightfall arrives. During the game’s night cycle, the design of the zombies makes them look almost alien in nature and not like zombies. Somehow, night seems to strengthen these creatures, in a fashion similar to vampires. The gaping, hideous maw of the creatures as they snap at your face is particularly unsettling.
One element I really enjoy from the new trailer and my initial preview is the free running, parkour aspect of the gameplay. I have seen very few first-person shooters master this aspect, but it looks like Dying Light has pulled it off quite well. The game looks like a fun combination of Luc Besson’s film District B13 and Techland’s Dead Island. The trailer also featured some highlights of the game’s four player co-op mode, a new wrinkle to the gameplay that I am excited about. I liked that the trailer contains a focus on how dangerous night time is in the game. When I saw the first E3 preview, night time basically looked like a near death sentence to the players; and that aspect does not appear to have changed. Most frustrating, is that I will not attend Gamescom to try this game out.
Dying Light is due out in February, 2015 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.
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