Like TequilaWork’s Deadlight, it recognises the zombie’s biggest weakness – it’s lack of acrobatic prowess and speed – and turns it to your advantage.ĭon’t get too excited about the plot, either. On top of this, Dying Light adds parkour, with more than a nod to Mirror’s Edge and Assassin’s Creed. Structurally and narratively, it owes a lot to the Ubisoft school of open world game design, and particularly Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3. Like Dead Island and its sequel, it’s a first-person, zombie apocalypse survival sim that’s packed full of scavenging for supplies, crafting offensive weaponry and putting it to good use on the shambling, rotting dead. Dead Island became a sizeable hit despite its numerous faults. Yet there’s a polish here and a coherence of tone that we’ve never seen in Techland’s games before.
Sure, its storyline is uninteresting and it has problems with pacing and flow. Yes, it’s a mish-mash of clichés and smart ideas shamelessly appropriated from other games. OK, that’s not saying that much for a studio best known for patchy, bug-ridden adolescent zombie apocalypse fantasies (Dead Island) and good but not quite great Western shooters (the Call of Juarez series), but Dying Light is genuinely impressive.
With Dying Light, Techland has made the best game of its career. Available on Xbox One (version tested), PS4, PC
