One title I missed at E3 was Techland’s new open-world zombie game, Dying Light. Thankfully, Warner Bros. Interactive brought the game out to the GameStop Expo, so I was able to play the Xbox One version of the game. The playable demo was a short, little slice of the gameplay, but it definitely enticed me to check out more.
For the demo mission, you play a new survivor who is sent on a mission to defend the safe zone hordes of relentless zombies. Some safe zone areas were marked on the map. The player has to clear out the safe zone areas from various undead enemies.
Two of the big attractions and features for this game are the free-running aspect and controls. The freedom of movement for the game is very impressive. Controls, and the feeling of being able to climb and go just about anywhere, led to a very satisfying experience. The demo arms the character with a good deal of weapons to try out on the zombies. I like that aiming the weapon at different areas of the zombie will have varying effects. You might be able to slice a zombie’s head clean off, or only knock it down. The demo has a fun variety of bladed and blunt weapons to use. My favorite is the flaming machete.
Enemy AI is quite strong for the demo. These zombies are not slow, run-of-the-mill zombies. A lot of the zombies have very unique designs and different attributes. One rather disgusting zombie spits globs of acid slime. Another zombie wields like a giant sledgehammer. There is another zombie that looks like he was a parkour expert in his past life and is quite relentless in his pursuit of you. It is best to take a strategic approach in attacking zombies. You definitely do not want to approach heavy groups. Two or three at a time is a much better approach. The game has a stamina bar like Dead Island. However, the stamina bar did not appear to be as over-used as it was in Dead Island, where player had to constantly worry about when they were swinging a weapon. Techland utilized the stamina feature in a much less frustrating way for the demo.
Graphics and animation were incredibly strong, crisp and fluid. What could be explored for the open-world sandbox in the demo looked incredibly vast and highly detailed. Some borders were enforced for the mission, but I imagine the borders were there for the sake of the demo.
Dying Light hits the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on January 27.
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