If you take away the parkour.....

[TRIPLE A ®™]

Dying Light becomes another garden-variety zombie game flick. One of the more boring ones, actually. I'm 15% into the main story and I'm on the verge of quitting. Beautiful game, upgraded combat mechanics compared to its predecessor.

BUT.

Bland characters, really bland storyline and extremely boring fetch-fest. What makes it even worse is the fact there's hardly any environmental/visual variety. And before you say "shut your ugly face, 15% progress is nothing", I've seen late-game play vids, nothing barely changes. And I shouldn't have to fork out 20 bucks for a DLC just to finally get some variety.

Dead Island had 4 acts, each area different than the other. You had a haven, a slum village, the jungle and the prison island. It kept you visually and environmentally interested, which is why I find myself more inclined to replay Dead Island & Riptide for the 15th or so time than finish a game I just started playing a week ago.

It's a damn shame for me, because I couldn't wait to get my hands on DL. Since I love DI/Riptide, I assumed DL would be a significant evolution in all aspects of those games, as Techland loves to boast "Dying Light is the game that Dead Island should've been".

If Dead Island's major selling point was Parkour (a system that doesn't even BELONG in a zombie game to begin with) and kept you in the same area for the entire duration of the game, then the franchise would've been in real deep *bleep* indeed.

Try it. Imagine Dying Light without the parkour, and see if you can come back to flame my face off with your zealous defending.

[BlackWater]

Sorry its not your thing, but I spent almost 50 game hours just wandering around thinking whats in here and whats over there before I even did a single mission. Wound up with a ton of craftables that way.

[kaay]

Very good points OP, i agree with you.
I keep playing Dying Light for the graphics and atmosphere despite the failed game design.
Some reviewer said that DL should have showcased everything that Techland learned from Dead Island, instead it showcased everything they did not learn....while this is a bit unfair, i have to admit it holds a lot of truth.
Techland has great artists but lacks game designers.

[BaconPancakes-]

Well I agree with op, the mechanics is Dead island is kinda bland, like you can't climb walls or even a desk but instead you have ti jump over it.

If they combined dead island's atmosphere with dying light's mechanics, the game would be awesome, still I am not regretting my hours in the game, it is that good.

[VaypaFett]

If you're tired of zombie games, but need one last hurrah, this is IT. I got this game release day, and have been playing ever since! The replay value is completely worth it - you can set your games to have randome co op encounters, to even having random hunter encounters ( hunters are actual other players who invade your game as a super zombie to "efk your day up") Ive played the story several times and i still am finding new aspects to this game. The graphics are amazebals and anyone who tells you different...well, they're blind or they're too immersed in VR

[Frag Maniac]

To each their own, but I have to ask, if you don't even think parkour belongs in a zombie game, to the extent of using underlines and caps, why did you have such high hopes for it in the first place, or even bother getting it?

Sounds a bit disingenuous, like you're holding back some of the reasons you don't like it. I suppose next you'll get The Following, and come back and tell us buggy racing doesn't belong in a zombie game. LOL

[TRIPLE A ®™]

Originally posted by Frag Maniac:

To each their own, but I have to ask, if you don't even think parkour belongs in a zombie game, to the extent of using underlines and caps, why did you have such high hopes for it in the first place, or even bother getting it?

Sounds a bit disingenuous, like you're holding back some of the reasons you don't like it. I suppose next you'll get The Following, and come back and tell us buggy racing doesn't belong in a zombie game. LOL

Heh others might, but I never hold back. There's no filter between my brain and mouth (in this case, my fingers).

I love DI/Riptide and Dying Light is supposed to be 100 times better.......according to its own developers anyway. I certainly didn't preorder it for the parkour.

I WANT to love the game, because it's the no1 game I've been looking forward to the past few years. Maybe that's why it might sound "disingenuous" to some. The gameplay itself is fun, improved combat mechanics, superior movement compared to DI etc.

But making parkour the main attraction is ridiculous because it's a zombie game. You're supposed to kill zombies, not run away from them. And the fact that we're stuck in Harran from beginning to end bores me the hell out. I want visual variety, not the same old crap.

Putting it another way. If all maps in Left 4 Dead 2 were of the same location, how many hours would you put in it before you got sick to death of it? Playing through the exact same content over and over again? It's madness, and a HUGE step-down from Dead Island.

DI might not be the most polished game in the world, but for me it's 100 times more fun that this thing.

[Father Doug]

So you're saying if you take away the things the make the game good, then it makes the game not so good.....agreed.

[Ped_UK]

@OP , you are of course, entitled to you're opinion. I think you're giving the game a bit of a hard time. I know you've adress the "15% into it" statement, but please, go further YOURSELF , don't watch YT vids...there is a lot more to it. I completed it a month after it came out, then again 2 or more times on NM mode, I loved it that much. Stick with it man, you've payed for it, you may as well. Look at my hours in the game, and 99.9999% is Single player. ...and then of course you have the custom maps in the Steam Workshop, some of the top rated ones are arguably better than Techlands maps..have a look at "Little big world" . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oclRvovHyyM

Ignore the annoying little $hit in the top left corner :) .

[extremeshock]

really?
I play the game just for the parkour aspect, because there're so many baddies and I can just escape from them by climbing up and laugh at them.
But then there's the night baddies and I usually stay home sleeping xD

[JackBaldy]

I see a common theme with your complaints. You want visual quantity and you feel Dying Light does not offer that. However, I'd say that in it's three main environments (The Slums, Old Town, and Antenna) it provides far more gameplay quality than Dead Island can produce. It's not really fair to say that if you remove one *big* component of a game, it becomes trash. To me it's very akin of taking a story game and saying that if you remove it's good story, the game is trash.

Yes, I did not find Dying Light to have a good story, personally. However, I did not find Dead Island to have a good story either. The difference between Dead Island and Dying Light was that Dying Light attempted to be serious about it's story, but I still ended up laughing even in the moments that were supposed to be serious simply because of the stories structure and how it feels as a whole (Nonsensical, hurr durr main character, and too much suspension of disbelief).

With that being said, I never really came into Dying Light expecting a good story. For me, right from the get-go they let me know that it was going to be a story that I would be laughing throughout because of how bad it was so in that sense, it was comedically bad at some points instead of just being bad-bad.

Honestly, I feel you have to enjoy the gameplay to enjoy Dying Light, because that is it's main attraction. From how you're speaking, it would seem as though not only have you not progressed far in the game, but you haven't progressed your character either. While you can use parkour to avoid enemies, short of playing on the Nightmare difficulties (Nightmare and Nightmare NG+), you should have no trouble confronting and killing zombies en masse to your hearts content.

Granted I do feel the game was better balanced prior to the Enhanced Edition, it's still very possible to be the hunter as opposed to being the hunted. You never mentioned what difficulty level you were playing in. Perhaps bringing it down to Normal would be more your speed (If you are not already playing on the Normal difficulty). Playing the game cooperatively could also help with your zombie killing needs (Although not necessary) and fun factor (As with many other co-op titles).

I should further elaborate on progressing your character by mentioning that in progressing your character, you unlock far more gameplay options. There's quite the difference between a Survivor 1/Agility 1/Power 1/Legend 0 character and a Survivor 25/Agility 24/Power 24/Legend +++. While the Legend levels are quite grindy, they do open up alternative gameplay options like the bows being more effective or your fists being more effective.

Although in the game's current state, I wouldn't recommend playing on the Nightmare difficulty setting. It's too gun-centric if you want to be effective. You can, however, switch to Nightmare difficulty to turn in Distress Relief Packages and gain the legendary experience bonus of Nightmare then switch out. This is something to think of later down the road though, if you ever get that far. o.o...

Anyhow, that's just my two cents.

[Frag Maniac]

Originally posted by DJ-General Aëtius:

You're supposed to kill zombies, not run away from them.

That's very disrespective of the fact that with such a feature, you can also add more horror to the game, because now you have the ability (and often the need) to get to safer places rather quickly. So you can add tougher enemies like volatiles.

I think you're making far too much out of the parkour. It isn't there just for kicks, yet it's fun too. I also feel you're making too much of the story. Dead Island and Riptide's stories aren't really any better, just a bit different.

[Ironman]

god you peope are hard on the dam story. its a freaking zombie story my only problem with the entire game is the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ending the following give i love the dlc but i wish i would have never beat it and just assumed something good happened at the end. and i guess everyone thinks jade is pretty bland? i thought she was pretty cool and whe she died it actualy really pissed me off and made me want to go kill rais but i guess thats just me. i dont feel the need for a story to be incredible confusing just for me to enjoy it.

[Xx3liteSnip3rxX]

You finished Dead Island/Riptide more than once...and you compare it to this game? Holy crap - I forced myself through Dead Island and more so enjoyed Riptide, but in no way would I ever compare these games that happen to come from the same developer. I don't believe you finished Dead Island that many times - the game is so repetitive and the changing environments are entirely cosmetic.

Dead Island is the terrible and the incomplete beta-version of Dying Light. Dead Island was supposed to be something like this, but they ran out of time and money.

The story isn't intended to be "good", its more of a premise from a TV show, than it is a full feature experience. It doesn't need to be anymore than it is for this kind of title. A zombie game with a good story? Are you kidding me lol. People don't play these kinds of games for the story.

Parkour is a new addition to this genre and I hope its not the last. Escaping a zombie or monster in this game is intense and adds to the fear factor. I've had my heart racing more times running from Volatiles then I've had being surrounded by zombies.

I am defending this game, but it also sounds to me like you expected something different than what you got. There are lots of videos and reviews for this game, so if you bought it AFTER you did research on the game then its your fault.

Techland deserves major kudos for the kind of experience they introduced to the zombie genre and this game plays like a passion project rather than a cash cow - and with that being said - milk away Techland!

[JackBaldy]

Originally posted by ironman909:

god you peope are hard on the dam story.

To be fair, it's because most people think it's hot garbage. Also, I'd use spoiler tags because some of the folks in this thread have not completed the story in it's entirety or played the Following DLC. Just sayin'.

Originally posted by Xx3liteSnip3rxX:

The story isn't intended to be "good", its more of a premise from a TV show, than it is a full feature experience. It doesn't need to be anymore than it is for this kind of title. A zombie game with a good story? Are you kidding me lol. People don't play these kinds of games for the story.

I'm sure the story isn't intended to be bad. They wanted to take a more serious approach with Dying Light and it's general story, and it's still laughably bad just in different ways. Granted, if you do the slightest bit of research before your purchase you would *know* the story is bad.

With that being said, the game's enjoyable. Just not for the story. If you're playing Dying Light for the story, I'd say there's a good chance you'd be disappointed.

[injected11]

Originally posted by DJ-General Aëtius:

Parkour (a system that doesn't even BELONG in a zombie game to begin with)

It belongs in EVERY game. Even Tetris.