- Drew Beausoleil

Great I found batteries, now to craft those with our baseball bat, that should help electrify and smash these zombies! If all hell breaks loose I can run, running is always an option.

A story of survival in an apocalypse filled with zombies seems to be the go to story lately by a lot of developers but Techland knows zombies and are able to create a compelling story with one of the best opening cinematics I've seen in a long time. From the minute the game begins your heart is racing with intensity and everything goes from bad to worse only allowing you to briefly catch your breath for a short while to learn the tutorial and head back out into the zombie infested streets of Harron. The characters are interesting with each having their own story to tell and how their life has been drastically changed due to the circumstances of the outbreak. The people around you become people you care about and feel the need to help and protect them as the story progresses while expanding the story with further side missions, giving you a reason to move forward and giving you a feeling self doubt on your personal goals and the objective at hand.

Day and night cycles drastically change the feeling of the game, it’s the night life that will bring out the most intense moments within Dying Light. During the day you can find yourself easily surrounded by zombies. But they are predictable and often slow moving allowing you to quickly get out of harms way. As night falls everything changes and though our slow paced zombie friends may still be out and about, it’s the high flying zombies that scare the living crap out of you as the night life completely flips Dying Lights game mechanic on its head. These zombies are frightening and scary as hell as you are trying to lurk about before being seen, only to find yourself fleeing the area as fast as possible with your free running parkour abilities. With a fast running zombie that will also jump right at you, it not only adds another level of intensity to the game, but the need to be always on the move. The parkour is very well done with a sense of Mirror’s Edge but set in an apocalyptic zombie infested setting. Jumps are smooth and sometimes difficult but of no fault but my own inability to time my jump just right. The moment you miss that jump it becomes everything you can do to get yourself back up above to stay off the streets below that keep the game excitingly terrifying.

Crafting is definitely a big part of the game and a lot of the story will send you to places to gather items for others that will lead you to find blueprints for weapon upgrades. Something of a fetch quest game, but it’s the free running that will keep you eager to go out and find the items others need or that you may need to upgrade your weapons. The 3 tier ability upgrade system is great allowing you to customize your own character to your preferred play style. The more you free run the faster your Agility ability set will open up to allow upgrade while the more you smash in the zombies the quicker you will unlock Power abilities, it really becomes a matter of how you like to play the game.

Facing the hordes of zombies in the single player campaign alone is good, but, playing co-op with friends as you progress your way through the campaign is great. They say there is safety in numbers and playing co-op with a few friends of mine lead to some of the most exciting times I’ve played in a co-op experience in a long time. Myself and two others were out at night with the mission of getting to a drop zone. After making it there it was a mad rush to a safe zone near by that really changed the experience of playing alone. We were slip up, all being chased in different directions. We were all yelling through our headsets asking where each of us had gone. This experience is a thrill-ride that needs to be played with others and not alone, incredibly done!

Be The Zombie in this competitive multiplayer game that has you playing the role of a zombie, trying to hunt down 4 other players that are trying to eliminate your nests. It’s your job to take out the other players before they get to your nests by any means necessary. Using your zombie abilities will help you but facing off against a group of players is no easy task. Tip: Look for the lone wolf for an easier kill or follow behind the group, never take them head on as you can easily be stopped with their flash lights. The zombie is very weak with an almost one hit kill coming from the opponent. Upgrading your zombie just like the single player campaign system will definitely help you survive in your quest to protect you hatchlings, but it’s finding a match each and every time that will leave you frustrated. Once in a match against others it can be as intense as the single player game, but once the match is over, finding another game to continue your on-line quest is cumbersome.