Dying Light, the latest zombie game to be released into the game market by developer Techland. Possibly also the first true open-world zombie survival game, you have games like Left 4 Dead, of which are great zombies games but they are not open world and it does have a finite point where the game "ends".
I'll cover three areas, gameplay, graphics and AI (artificial intelligence).
Graphics
Being an Xbox One/PS4 generation game, the graphics are stellar. It has some amazing lighting effects and looks especially good at night, when all the lighting effects truly come to life, and certainly helps to make the game very creepy at times. Texture quality is stellar especially for weapons, zombies look amazingly detailed as well. You can see the pustules and exposed flesh in great clarity, and there is some great variety in the different zombies that are present in the game. The lighting is certainly a strong suit of this game, but being a borderline horror game with zombies, I would expect for lighting to play a big part in the game as it helps to bring intense moments to life and immerse the player into the game.
It also has beautiful vistas in the background that instill a sense of wonder in the player, sometimes I could not help but wonder what monstrosities could be wandering the buildings in the distance.
Gameplay
The game-play mostly consists of chopping up zombies, as you'd expect. However, this zombie game has additional features. You are able to free run and parkour your way around the game world, and it's very satisfying to do so. However, you may be thinking that this makes the games easy as the zombies are slow etc. In the game there are many types of zombies, and there are some that can parkour just as well as the player, especially at night there are zombies that can match your agility and will outrun you, meaning that to succeed in this game at night you must get good at climbing, sliding and taking difficult routes to shake off your pursuers.
At night, most of the zombies are vulnerable to UV light, allowing you to keep them away from you or bar a path you have taken to evade them whilst being chased. You are also able to craft a multitude of items to help you survive, such as grenades, flares, molotoves, med kits, potions and more. You are also able to augment your weapon by modifying it using parts you have found whilst on your travels. You are able to modify your weapon with fire, toxic, bleed or electric parts to add after effects and extra damage to your attacks. The combat is very fluid and suits a lot of play styles, you can use guns (which are quite rare and should be reserved for dire moments), which deal a lot of damage, but they will also attract more zombies because of the noise they make. There are also three skill trees that you are able to spend points in to develop your character, and the combat tree (known as Power) allows for a variety of ways to deal with the zombies, either through take-downs, grapples or a chance to execute a stunned opponent. The survival tree helps you to survive, by increasing your health regeneration, allows you to craft boosters to give you temporary effects. The agility tree gives you extra running stamina, extra health and on-the-fly abilities such as drop kicks and elbow charges to knock the horde of the infected out of your way. It also allows you to use zombies as a jumping point, and as such vault over them to either escape or get to hard-to-reach areas.
The game can be very thrilling at some points, especially at night when you must move silently and swiftly to avoid the dangerous infected known as Volatiles. Especially at the start of the game, it is recommended that you avoid them due to your character not being developed enough and the weapons are simply too weak to kill a Volatile. You can use a gun, but I would recommend saving it for a very special occasion. However, once you have progressed a bit, you can start to take on the Volatiles at night with stronger weaponry and utilities such as flares to keep you safe in the event you are caught and have no option other than to fight.
There are also human enemies to fight, that will want to kill you either for supplies or because they have been ordered to. They tend to be in numbers and are one of the most difficult enemies in the game as they are able to parry and lunge towards you. They are also capable of throwing Molotoves, grenades and knives/axes to flush you out or if you are in a hard to reach place.
There is also a multiplayer component to the game, you can play the entire game in co-op (story included) with up to five players in a game, of which can either be a human or a zombie. As a zombie, your objective is to kill the human players, of which can only survive on a consistent basis as long as they are working together. The fact that a player can join the game as a zombie at any time (if you set the options to allow this) really adds to the immersion. It becomes absolutely terrifying when you are being chased by an absolute beast of a zombie and it is easy to feel panicked.
AI
The AI of the game is surprisingly impressive and interesting despite your main enemy being the walking dead who are summarized as dull, brainless idiots. The normal dead are quite stupid, their strength comes from numbers and swarming you. The more active infected such as Volatiles will chase you and surround should there be more than one around. They will also pounce onto you, in which you must get them off you as soon as possible.
The humans that are hostile are also quite varying in what they do. They will also surround you, and they are will parry or dodge your attacks and then follow up with a lunge. It gets most interesting when they are grouped up, and they have guns. They will take defensive positions and move on you or flank you to get a good shot.
Conclusion
Overall I think it is a great zombie game, and I certainly appreciate that it is an open-world game (we need more of these). I think it's got great game-play and it certainly plays to the theme's strengths. The story is pretty good to, it is somewhat believable with realistic characters and for once I could say that for once there is no real romantic sub-story (despite there being an opportunity for one), which is a nice change. Everyone is just a friend in the story. I would highly recommend this game to fans of zombie games, developer Techland has done a great job developing this game and I look forward to seeing what the DLC holds, most looking forward to potentially story content.
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