DaRmaZat Dying Light is a masterpiece. What made it so good? The arguments follow here, in order of personal relevance…
One: the story.
The interesting characters help to shape it into perfection, among other by very convincing voice acting. Just like in The Last of Us, more and more important people get infected and die along the way, resulting in intense feelings of grief and remorse at their surroundings. As a player, you can really empathize with them. In its core, Dying Light is all about raw brutality, but at the same time it succeeds in staying enough serious. The cruelty never goes over the top and feels as one of the necessary means to stay alive. Also, the tension in the storyline is built up very well to the perfect climax.
Two: the visuals and the sounds.
Harran is a visually stunning place to be, even for a zombie town. Ray tracing is an absolutely otiose thing here, as it’s impossible to get the lightning any better than it already was implemented. Even the character models were amazing for the time of release.
And then, we have the sound effects. Getting lost in the dark while terrifyingly screaming Volatiles or other bloodthirsty monsters are chasing you for a bite, the sound of the breaking legs when you hit them with a hammer, seeing the blood splatter around when stamping a zombie’s head until his skull crunches, the snapping slice when cutting off an arm… The quality of the soundtrack makes you wonder if it was already written for the movie adaptation. It’s all done so perfectly.
Three: the addictive gameplay because of the level of freedom, even for a linear story.
Harran is a huge and vivid world, where new events can be discovered all the time. The parkour helps you to get to places from where you never thought you would be able to enjoy the beautiful outsight. You can play as you want and how you want. Go for stealth or for the attack. Craft and mod your own weapons, or just buy some expensive ones. Switch between playing offline and online. It is really immersive to play and realize which chances you still have to survive, because of the remaining level of control.
To finalize this hymn, I’ve added some gameplay footage material below.
Yes, it took me some time, better weapons and upgrades to get a better fighter, but this is a game you definitely SHOULD play someday!
