“I don't know how I'm gonna fix this, but I'm sure as hell gonna try.” -Kyle Crane

8/10

It feels refreshing coming back to a zombie game in the past years of gaming, especially getting this recommended to by my friend Jacob. From Resident Evil to Dead Rising, Dying Light is something special in the zombie genre, at least to me. For its many problems the game has it still is a fun and enjoyable experience if played on the "right" difficulty. But I'll be going more in depth about that and much more in this review.

Did I have fun playing this game? Absolutely.
Were there periods of frustration and bore? Indeed.
But is this a game worth playing and giving your hard-earned money towards? Well, that depends on how you feel for this game and this review will hopefully help you decide the outcome of that last question. Now without any more dribble it is time to get into the review!

1. GAMEPLAY
To be frank…Nightmare difficulty is an absolute NIGHTMARE! The experience can be likened to driving 80 MPH on a freeway in a vehicle held together by duct tape. The challenge of the difficulty was fun and engaging the whole way though the game, yet the combat felt to spongey when it came to killing zombies with any type of melee weapon, even with high tier weapons that you would think will definitely slice through a zombie like butter cave in the scull of the dead…It felt lack luster at times when I couldn't kill a zombie "easily". And what I mean by "easily" is taking into consideration the rarity and mods to the weapon. It felt like even the top tier weapons had no gusto to them, making the dinky grey tier shank feel antiquated compared to the Bad-ass Golden tier or Dev tier weapon. Gun-play on the other hand felt nice and easy, really nothing to complain about since hitting head in the game can guarantee instant kills at time. Firearm variety isn't much to consider, you have your basic pistole, shotgun and Assault rifles. Each having different variants if you have found higher tiers or bought DLC. But the new and extremely fun addition to this is the parkour and abilities you unlock through the upgrade tree system. From jumping, climbing, and vaulting around the city to instantly smashing zombies’ heads in while drop kicking them from streets to roofs. Mixing parkour with melee weaponry is a fantastic and new way to take this genre in, especially if you wish to have something new for your pallet.

2. STORY
Now this is a mediocre at best narrative, its dialogue can be questionable at times, characters motivations seeming irrelevant or outright idiotic to the point it could be comical or annoying to you. The opening to the game is a nice way to introduce you and your character to the city of Harran, but beyond that it'll test your patience from the story quests to side quests. Not feeling any emotions to characters in the game besides Rahim, Kyle Crane "the main character" and Jade to certain extent, the "Villain" of the game is nothing to write home about. A ruthless, cut-throat politician turning into a crazed and deranged war leader in the zombie infested city of Harran is nice, but the characters dialogue and drive doesn't hit well. I get what they were going for but the actor portraying Rais could have been better or switched out for anyone really. The story in general can be forgotten when still playing the game right after hearing someone speak. There are interesting dialogue parts in the game coming from both main and side quests respectfully yet having poor acting makes its retention abysmal. The story arc hits decent climaxes but fails to impact the player most parts of the game. Yet the ending for the base game could have been handled better than what we got in the end. What keeps this game going is the parkour, killing of thousands of zombies and superb music to my ears.

3. MUSIC
Speaking of music, this OST is something I wish was on physical media to purchase. Pawel Blaszczak’s haunting yet somber opening sets up the perfectly to enter Harran. It's use of electronics, and traditional instruments hits the ears nicely. This soundtrack goes through a wide range of emotions from triumphant victories to high octane parkouring to depressing moments. I am glad the tone settles in with the decaying city of Harran, the severe adrenaline rush of being chased by zombies and the depraved people of a tyrannical faction that does not care for the lives of anyone but themselves. Listening to this in game while playing is a great addition when blasting through zombies and going from A to B in quests. Even after getting off the game, I would recommend having some of these tracks on tunes.

4. SOUND
Going into sound now, this also hits hard from bone crushing skulls and clean slashing of anything that is living. Nothing too crazy here besides having great sound effects for running, jumping, climbing and vaulting anywhere in the world of Dying Light. The burning of zombies sounds disgusting and the shocking of them is satisfying to the soul. Characters sounds decent with nothing breaking the flow and there have been no cutting in and out of audio for me.

5. ART DIRECTION
For a 2014 game "graphics" are visually impressive and easy on the eyes. But art direction is what we're talking about here. Besides it's hit or miss story, fun, engaging and infuriating gameplay, fantastic soundtrack, and tolerable sounds the direction compliments all that and more making it "just work". The art to for Dying Light is beautifully grotesque and horrifyingly on point for a zombie apocalypse game. All of this is good and helps the game flourish. But I do wish there was more to the zombies and humans, more personality for sides, more intrigue and less cookie cutter format specifically when it comes to the human aspect of the game at times. The "Nightrunners" are a great concept to the game and the special types of zombies are good, but the BEST part of the zombies are the fast, strong, and terrifying Volatiles. The way they look, and sound fits perfectly for the game.