2/5 ★ – Hill417's review of Dying Light.

In a medium oversaturated and burnt out by zombies, every new zombie game has to do something to stand out from the pack. Dying Light stands out from the horde by featuring parkour as it’s main mechanic. When you think about parkour and being chased by zombies have a lot in common. High speed running (obviously), intensity, pulling off leaps of faith where one wrong step can result in an undesirable outcome. While pulling off these feats sure sound satisfying in real life, but I cannot say the same about Dying Light. The story starts with an agent named Kyle Crane parachuting into the quarantined city of Harran. It’s been locked down because of a zombie outbreak and Kyle has been sent to retrieve a file that contains “sensitive information” (I’m sure it will not contain any plot twist whatsoever). Unfortunately Kyle is immediately bitten by a zombie and needs to work on a cure on top of securing the file. It’s actually impressive how fast he got bitten, I’m serious it was record time. It’s a good thing that he is saved by a group of survivors and will have to infiltrate several inner circles to get closer to retrieving that confidential file. The story is not anything to write home about. The characters are not very compelling or interesting. Which wouldn’t be a problem if the narrative didn’t take itself so seriously and unfortunately that is exactly what it does. The game tries to tug your heart strings with serious moments, but why should I care when I am not given a reason to be invested? The only good thing I can say about Kyle is that Roger Craig Smith does a great job with the material he is given. Almost like he’s going for “cool action hero” which is fitting if you take the gameplay into account. Gameplay is Dying Light’s greatest strength. Zombies have overflowed the streets and will immediately overwhelm you once spotted, parkour is your most dependable ally as you navigate the rooftops of this concrete jungle of a city. The intensity only increases when the zombies can climb onto rooftops and can chase after you. It can get annoying (seriously I jumped across ten buildings and they were still on my ass) it adds a layer of fear knowing that sometimes you are never truly safe. That is until you unlock the grappling hook to ignore climbing altogether and become Spider-Man lite. However don’t forget that you’re still human and can run out of stamina in combat. You’ll have to rely on melee weapons in unavoidable confrontations as guns attract the horde. Machetes are the only capable devices used for killing because blunt objects to the head are the equivalent of a finger flick. Yeah I know they can’t feel pain but I’m using a crowbar at full force for god sake. If you do find that dependable weapon then make sure you have enough materials to repair it because even the weapons have stamina. If you want to have more equipment and weapons then try seeking out blueprints and hope that whatever you create will give you the fighting chance you’ll need. While I do like the premise and mechanics, but the weapon stamina, difficulty spikes, and generic characters and story just weren’t enough to make is memorable or enjoyable. Still it is impressive that there was DLC still being produced years later and a strong active community has been fostered. Even if it wasn’t for me it’s always nice to see a game achieve a loyal fanbase.