How Dying Light's everything Dead Island could have been
There's good reason why Techland's developers weren't satisfied with what they had. For all its boisterous, energetic charm, Dead Island was a scrappy, often ugly mess. First impressions of Dying Light put some of those fears to rest: this is an attractive, coherent take on the zombie genre, and one that looks to offer plenty more than just cheap thrills.
It helps that it's being shown on a high-end PC, in a vision that's set to reflect the target being set for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Looking out upon the slum that's part of Dying Light's open world - the tropics of Dead Island having been replaced with a more downbeat but no-less sunny clime - the detail astounds. The shanty huts reach out into the distance until, at some point near the horizon, they blossom into a cluster of tall tower blocks, and when a plane swoops through the skies with its engines ablaze, the trees all sway convincingly under the drama of it all.
And once the scene's stopped being admired Dying Light impresses again, the player moving urgently across the rooftops as they scramble to investigate the scene of the inevitable plane crash. It's more than just a tweak of the slow, trudging walk that made playing Dead Island feel like wading through treacle: it's a part of Dying Light's key new feature, dynamic traversal, an addition that adds as much to the zombie genre as it lifts from Mirror's Edge.
"This is something we felt was missing from zombie games," says Krakowiak. "You're human, smart and agile and you can just jump over chest-high walls and maybe climb over stairs. We want to give players the actual advantage that people always see in movies, in comic books. You can climb rooftops, you can explore interiors of buildings, there's a huge seamless city - well, you really have to go a long way until you see a loading screen."
In practice, it's fluid, dynamic and promises athletic exploration. Telegraph poles can be shimmied up to reach high-up platforms, and overhanging awnings can be grabbed and clambered up. Traversal skills can be upgraded, to a degree - unlike Dead Island there are no set classes, just a set of skills you can choose and specialize in - but from the off there's an impressive and far-reaching set of basic skills.
It's in zombie encounters that it really comes alive. The melee-based combat of Dead Island returns, as does the ability to craft and upgrade weapons, but the most impressive tool in the player's arsenal is now their agility. When hordes attack it's possible to beat a retreat, scrambling up the sides of buildings as undead fingertips grasp at their heels. Find yourself fleeing from enemies and it's a feature that's pushed into subtly different territory. There's an ability to glance back over your shoulder with a single-button press, as well as sliding under gaps in walls making escape a dynamic, potentially thrilling event.
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