Dying Light - PlayStation 4

Hello and welcome! So you want to be a slayer of undead? You've come to the right place. Some of you may remember Island of the Dead. Well, if you survived that nightmare, you're in for a treat! We'll build on what you already know to make you even better. If not, well not to worry - you'll be fully trained by the end.Controls: The tutorial shows you the ropes; spend as much time as you need to get a handle on how to move. Once you do, leaping, climbing, dropkicking, sliding, bashing and slashing is all very easy and smooth. R1 jumps, and holding it down while allow you to grab onto ledges and pull yourself up. Everything is fluid and the characters handles extremely well. If you're like me, you'll end up wasting a few firecrackers when first learning the moves. In short order you'll be flinging daggers with ease, luring zombies with panache, and lighting up the undead with style.Gameplay: You'll be running to various locations to complete tasks. At your disposal is a myriad of options to dispatch, or avoid, the undead menance. For instance, one of our favorites:"The Classic": use a firecracker to lure the zombies into a group and then toss a molotov on them."The Friendly Fire": You will discover the big guy with the larger rebar club can, and will, smash his own buddies up. Lure them together and watch the mayhem ensue!"The Impaler": various traps are strewn about, such as spikes, fire, and electrocution. When they're in range, kick them in and watch the (reanimated) body count rise!Crafting: You will collect various items to craft with. As your skill goes up, you can craft additional items with added effects (like exploding shuriken, why wouldn't you want those?). Some items are crafted in batches too, so make sure to pay attention to the amount you can receive by making something. Weapons you find can also be broken down into parts or sold, so make sure to choose wisely. If you find yourself hauling around too much, toss it into your teleporting gym bag that you are gifted.Skills: We will focus on three areas - Survival, Agility, and Strength. These are independent and you earn progress separately. Survival: help people by doing quests, Agility: run and do parkour stuff, Strength: bash zombie heads in. When you receive a point, throw it into the perk you want and become a certified zombie slaying BA.Day and Night: Be careful when the suns starts to set. Things... change. They get faster, deadlier. Soon, you'll find that you are the one that is hunted. If you find yourself out at night, use everything in your arsenal to make it to the safe zone. Otherwise, you'll wind up another piece of dead meat. During the day, you'll find they are slower, dumber. Still deadly in groups, but much easier to manage. You'll get one or two of the crazies - the fast angry ones (we call them virals). Put them down quickly as they are relentless. And make sure to move quietly. Sound attracts them. Use this to your advantage.Music: We are fans of sci-fi electronic style music, like Mass Effect, so we've included some for you to listen. It may not be epic, and slightly repetitive, but the main point is to focus on helping us and killing stuff right? At least you'll enjoy the crunching bones, eerie moans, crackling fire, and our (sometimes) great conversations. To be honest, it's not clear where we are from; maybe somewhere in India? A little Australia thrown in? Who cares! You're going to kill the undead and have a fantastic time doing it!Graphics: Killing zombies never looked so good! While not extremely fluid (30FPS), there is so much to see that you'll feel engrossed in the world. The little touches make the world feel... alive. The irony!Story: You're not one of us huh? It's easy to tell because of your skin color and accent. That's okay, I don't mind that you're trying to infiltrate our organization to find someone to get some documents back while at the same time helping us to get closer and earn our trust. You didn't really come here to be passed down in legends though, did you? No, you want to make things burn and explode.Online: You can't connect? You tried for 30 minutes? Well that's a shame. I guess we can't speak too much about that until matchmaking works for us again! We have the "Be the Zombie" mode, so maybe we can use it in the following days. It will be interesting to play an undead hunter, will it not? Time will tell. Well, at least you can team up with three other friends and go on a slaying spree together. Remember, team work (and some friendly competition) will go a long way to surviving! You can also specify if you want others to be able to "invade" you as undead. If you're faint of heart, it may be better to avoid these competitive types.Overall: If you want to kill the undead, this is the way to go! The game is polished, and while the Dead Island influence is obvious (and expected) it is leaps and bounds better with upgrades, updates, and fantastic visuals. The story leaves something to be desired, but I, like many others looking to kill the undead, tempered my expectations for something that's a bit campy, but gets the job done. Loving it and can't wait to play more!

Being surprised by an excellent video game is a rare pleasure for a gamer in this age of information, and that's exactly what happened to me with Dying Light. I did NOT enjoy Dead Island at all, and pretty much disregarded the news of Dying Light's release all together. But throughout the course of 2015, seeing gameplay videos on the web and hearing testimonials of other games whose opinions I trust got me intrigued by this title, and by the time I purchased it at the price point I was waiting for, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. But boy, did this game prove me wrong. It immensely surpassed my expectations, and gave me an incredibly fun experience that felt unlike anything else I've played before.In many ways, Dying Light does what so many other open world games today are doing. Big, open world? Check. Lots of side quests and collectibles strewn across the map? Check. Plot involving white man dropped into a land full of non-whites in distress, only to become their savior? Check. Yes, lots of modern game tropes are here. But what's great is that Dying Light puts its own twist on the formula by combining some of the leanest, meanest, most vicious and most savage in-your-face melee combat I've ever seen in any video game with a smooth-as-silk parkour movement system that is going to make every open world game I play after this feel somewhat lacking in comparison. This gameplay system, combined with what may be the most effective use of a day/night cycle ever seen in a video game, makes for an overall package that is an absolute joy.Many games with upgrade/RPG mechanics allow you to grow your character stronger, but because Dying Light is such an up close and personal game, you FEEL the improvements in your character much more deeply than you do in many other games. Starting out as a weakling with a gas pipe and taking 6-7 shots to down a zombie, it feels amazing 20 hours later to one shot slow motion kill that exact same type of zombie with your flaming, electrified sword (yes, you can craft swords that are both flaming and electrified at the same time). Just moving from place to place never feels old, as the parkour running system, which was clearly inspired by Mirror's Edge, is thrilling. You have to keep the camera focused on the areas and ledges you jump to, and limiting your field of vision in this way adds to the tension of the game, especially when you have a horde of rabid flesh eaters on your tail. Just like in the Infamous and Batman Arkham games, Dying Light realizes the importance of making it a joy to move your character place to place.The game is technically as rock solid as they come. The environments all look great, and like many other of the great 8th generation games, the lighting is amazing and adds so much to the the way everything around you not only looks, but how it feels. The sound design here is absolutely stellar, with some terrific, gory sounds combined with amazing ambient sounds, rumbling low explosions, and horrifying screeches of the undead.And lastly, while the story appeared to be as cliched as they come in the beginning, I was surprised to find myself very invested in the proceedings as things went on, and by the end, I was completely hooked and yelling at my TV like a madman. While so many other games would have felt the need to shoehorn some sort of inconsequential player choice or karma system, I appreciated Dying Light's straightforward story that I could sit back, enjoy, and not have to constantly ruminate a choice I made, or knew I was going to have to make. Bravo to developer Techland for this.Dying Light was so much more that I expected it to be. It was very fun, very well made, and as entertaining as a game can be. It was different enough to separate itself from everything else that has been coming out, and its aggressive approach towards combat and movement turned it into one of the most enjoyable zombie games I've played in the last decade, with only the great State of Decay topping it in that category for me. I highly recommend this game if you're looking for a thrilling ride that does things a little differently.