Dying Light (One)

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DaHeckIzDat
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Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 23rd, 2021, 7:58 pm

I was never really interested in this game until a couple online communities I frequent suddenly started going on and on about how awesome it is. Dying Light is a spiritual successor to Dead Island, being a first person open world sandbox filled with zombies. You're able to get around the city more expediently via your "parkour" abilities that let you climb and jump over obstacles (and even some buildings)...supposedly.

I need to know if I'm alone in this or not, though — am I the only one who thinks the game is just dull? Granted I'm only a couple missions in, but it just hasn't grabbed me yet. Jumping and climbing in first person is too complicated to be cathartic. For a system that boasts "free running" I could never go very far without having to come to a dead stop to keep from jumping off a building with nothing to land on. I do like The city has plenty of detail, but isn't very interesting to run around in. Exploration has its moments when you're climbing up a building, notice an open window across the street, and take a death defying leap to grab onto the windowsill, and are rewarded with a lot box full of rare supplies. But the city is so drab and boring that even THAT gets monotonous after a little bit.

The weak weapon durability makes me avoid fights so that I don't lose my good weapons. Common zombies go down fairly easily, but the damage stats on the weapons doesn't make much sense. I can duct tape a battery to a crowbar to give it electric powers, but it still does less damage than a common machete, which in turn does just a little less damage than a board with nails in it. Human enemies are tougher to take down, but not in a good way. Combat revolves mainly around melee weapons, and human enemies can block and parry your attacks. Your stamina only lets you swing a few times before having to recharge, but enemies don't seem to have that limitation. When you do manage to get a gun, you can pump a whole round into one guy and he'll just keep coming! That's a trick you, a trained secret agent, apparently never learned, because three or four bullets is all it takes to bring you down.

I dunno, guys. I'm not giving up on it yet, but so far I have to say I'm underwhelmed. What are you guy's thoughts?

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 24th, 2021, 11:33 pm

Having played some more today, admittedly it has grown on me a little. Even though most of it takes place during the day, the natural, unscripted way you can find yourself in the middle of a zombie mob gives is a sense of tension that lots of horror games lack. Once I was hacking down a couple zombies so I could focus on reaching an open window I'd seen, but when more and more of them kept showing up, I felt a real moment of panic before going "Nope, screw this!" and did my best impression of Brave Sir Robin.

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 26th, 2021, 11:37 pm

Update: I was attacked by a zombie, and after hitting it a couple times, it did the last thing I expected: it started begging for its life. That caught me off guard. The idea that there might still be enough human left in these things to plead for you not to kill them makes you look at these things as more than the normal shambling corpses that most zombie games throw at you. Are these people really dead? Are they aware of what they're doing and what's going on around them? Can they still feel emotions?

Then I cut its head off and set a few of its friends on fire.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby Retro STrife » June 27th, 2021, 2:00 pm

I have this game for PS4 sitting on my shelf (unplayed), so I’m interested in your thoughts. I bought it because my teenage nephews seemed to be playing it and enjoying it. But with my current backlog, I haven’t ever had any real incentive to pull it off the shelf. Might be one of those games I buy and never get around to.

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 27th, 2021, 6:15 pm

Retro STrife wrote:I have this game for PS4 sitting on my shelf (unplayed), so I’m interested in your thoughts. I bought it because my teenage nephews seemed to be playing it and enjoying it. But with my current backlog, I haven’t ever had any real incentive to pull it off the shelf. Might be one of those games I buy and never get around to.

It's weird, at first I was wholly unimpressed. But the more I played, the more I was drawn into it. I can't tell you what changed, i just suddenly realized I was having fun.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 30th, 2021, 3:30 pm

Is this a game that can be enjoyed offline?

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 30th, 2021, 5:07 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Is this a game that can be enjoyed offline?

Yes! It has online features, but you can play it offline. That's what I'm doing!

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 30th, 2021, 5:33 pm

Next question - is it a good Halloween game?

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » June 30th, 2021, 5:48 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Next question - is it a good Halloween game?

It could be. I wouldn't call it a horror game, but it does have zombies. And night time can get pretty tense when you try to parkour to your destination with crazy superzombies chasing you.

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Crummylion
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Re: Dying Light (One)

Postby Crummylion » February 11th, 2022, 1:49 am

Bad idea to bump an old thread, but I've been catching myself up with this game and thought this thread would be appropriate enough. Bought the PC version on sale for a charity event dedicated to TotalBiscuit (RIP John Bain) with games he highly recommended. This included Dying Light and Redout. Only played an hour or two initially, but having gone back to this in preparation for the sequel, I found myself having a lot of fun with it. It's a lot of fun messing around with the parkour system and finding neat ways to take out enemies. I'm not a fan of open world games (prime culprit being the Bethesda games,) but when games make navigation fun, it makes a giant world fun to explore. Spider-man comes to mind. I still think the game could benefit from fast travel though. The idea this game is still being updated with the sequel out astounds me and I'm glad both games are getting support.


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