Dying Light.
What I loved:
Art Direction: This game is one of the most aesthetically pleasing open world games Ive ever played. The amount of work that went into making the two major 'hub' cities into looking gorgeous is mind-blowing. The second 'hub' reminded me of Venice from AC2 and so much nostalgia came flooding back, but the first 'hub' is gorgeous aswell and definitely felt it couldve been in Far Cry 3 or something. Ofcourse we have some gripes here and there (low quality textures, repetition of certain motifs, and layouts) but the world is fucking beautifully realised. Every character was unique and looked different, the damn lighting, most of the texture work, this game is a damn looker. Its the best thing about the game.
Voice Acting for the Main Character: Kyle Crane is voiced fucking amazingly, what a stellar job by Roger Craig Smith. Of course he blows everyone else out the water, and lets face it nearly every other actor sounded amateurish and 'off'.
What I hated:
Checkpoint and Save System: In a first person 'parkour' zombie game, you would expect a fucking great checkpoint system. Lets face it, the gameplay is so damn inconsistent, so when you die because a jump that looked easily doable, and you have to spend 5 minutes getting back to the location from a safe house, then something is fucking wrong with the game. The checkpoint system is only okay during the main missions, but it still sucks.
Modern Open World Design: This game is pretty much an Ubisoft open world game (mainly AC and Far Cry). The same bullshit that you hate in those games, is persistent here. I dont even need to go further. Fucking towers, fucking safe houses, clutter my fucking map with objectives and fetch quests. Fuck off.
Story: This is a complete fucking shambles. Again, they pretty got the structure from a Far Cry Game. Insert generic, violent and chaotic bad guy, insert city with diverse cast of people and accents, insert American who gets attached to said city and disobeys his objectives to 'save it'......you know. Generic, boring and utterly forgettable. I just finished it and I couldnt give a shit about anything that happened in the game. Other than 2-3 side characters, every other character is entirely forgettable.
Game Design: Some of the worst thought out mission designs Ive ever encountered in a game. Fucking seriously. Do better than 'fetch quest version 2. Whoever decided that 'sliding' and 'vaulting' should be unlockable skills in a parkour game should be ashamed. The unlockable skills shouldve been what the character starts with. The menus fucking suck, looting in this game is a hassle, and monotonous. You never get interesting shit anyways. God whoever designed the final mission, needs to change jobs, that was the worst in the game. Thanks for the fun QTEs that popped outta nowhere for the final encounter. Thanks for the shouty children enemies plopped infront of you killing any momentum in your free running. So many baffling decisions made for this game confused me. Human enemy balancing, and overall balancing in this game is completely off.
Overall:
One second, you feel like Spiderman running around the city, and when the gameplay flows, it feels and plays fucking amazing. And then the other second, you're fucking frustrated because Kyle isnt doing what you want, or youre running from Zombies in a mission, to have one fucking exploding bloater hiding behind the door killing you and restarting everything. When I loved the game, I really did, and I stopped multiple times to look at the gorgeous views. I can keep going on and on about what they did wrong but the design for the open world is fantastic, and so much care actually went there. I just wish locations had multiple entry points. So much attention to detail, and whilst I wish it was more physics based (breakable glasses, objects etc), its a damn fun game when it allows it self to flow uninterrupted.
The game couldve been so much better, and shouldve been.
6.5/10.
