Dying Light: The Following Review

<p>So about a year ago <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;dying-light-review&sol;">I reviewed<&sol;a> Techland’s immersive zombie epic&comma; <em>Dying Light<&sol;em>&comma; which is best summed up as <em>Mirror’s Edge<&sol;em> meets <em>Dead Rising<&sol;em>&period; It was an epic&comma; bloody&comma; and fast paced action-tastic game&period; Aside from some flawed mechanics and a crappy story&comma; I enjoyed the experience&period; Techland has expanded the experience and given us <em>Dying Light&colon; <&sol;em><em>The Following<&sol;em>&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re given another massive playground to wipe out legions of zombies with more weapons&comma; perks&comma; and a new addition that includes four wheels and 1000 horsepower&period; Will this satisfy the thirst for blood and zombie rampaging&quest; Or should we turn off the motors on the zombie genre for good&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;239140&sol;ss&lowbar;e15c13e0151e549c3dd44b8d09be0cdbf336e936&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1455265338" alt&equals;"Dying Light&colon; The Following 1" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Outta my way&comma; jerkass&excl; &lpar;Dying Light&colon; The Following&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>After the events of <em>Dying Light<&sol;em>&comma; our leading character Kyle Crane has had enough of the city life and decides to venture out into the farmlands of Harran&period; He hears from a wandering explorer that there is a place in the outskirts of Harran where people are immune from the virus&comma; under the watchful eye of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Mother&period;” Crane is interested in how or why these people aren’t infected and ventures to the wide open for answers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This&comma; of course&comma; opens the expansion to an entirely new location and one that’s wholesomely open and bursting with undead life&period; The landscape of the Harran countryside is vast&comma; beautiful&comma; and filled with new possibilities for traversing and murdering&period; Introducing the buggy&excl; Yay&excl; This is what <em>Half Life 2<&sol;em> did and&comma; to be honest&comma; it wasn’t the best addition&period; Yet for <em>Dying Light&colon; The Following<&sol;em>&comma; it seems as though the new method of transport works rather well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you&&num;8217&semi;d expect&comma; the buggy handles like hell&period; It’s fast&comma; to be fair&comma; but so are the bloody Voltiles who catch up to you with surprising speed&period; But that was part of the charm&semi; to have something of great advantage allowing long distance travel&comma; and something to be used as a battering ram in overwhelming situations&period; But it also has some disadvantages&comma; such as its crappy handling&comma; and its need for constant repairs and refueling after going a few feet over a bumpy road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But these predicaments also open further gameplay elements and only strengthen the survival experience as a whole&period; Exploration and scavenging are given new life&comma; as players will have to search for fuel and parts for repairs from broken down cars scattered across the landscape&period; It immerses players further into the joyous aspect of resource management and brutal survival&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;239140&sol;ss&lowbar;9304ab3d4770507b0f5a91ec6727f71bf4ccb4ed&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1455265338" alt&equals;"Dying Light&colon; The Following 2" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">What a view&excl; &lpar;Dying Light&colon; The Following&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Searching for critical items in abandoned cars is a great treat for a scavenging addict like me&period; The sense of exploration is enhanced by the upkeep of your only means of transport&period; In return&comma; you can go further into the land for important items and better gear&period; The change of pace is refreshing in comparison to the focus on free running in the original game&comma; as things become even faster without over stepping the mark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is a good deal to explore and find&comma; with plenty to do and see during your time within <em>Dying Light&colon; The Following<&sol;em>&period; But things aren&&num;8217&semi;t so close together&period; The feeling of isolation is even more powerful when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere&comma; whether you&&num;8217&semi;re venturing into a random house or broken down at the worst possible time &lpar;night time is still insane&comma; but in a good way&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many story objectives also revolve around the buggy&comma; and often enough it’s a race from point A to B&period; But again&comma; the change in pacing and the buggy&&num;8217&semi;s intergration into the story breaks away from what players have already experienced before in the main game&period; Hand downs&comma; the co-op is made even better&comma; given that now you can race your buddies with the buggies or go cursing across the lovely sunbathed farmlands &&num;8230&semi; while mowing down plenty of zombies in the process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;239140&sol;ss&lowbar;6f6a8fb8d4037f0eb4f678acd9689c4bf54e5e86&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1455265338" alt&equals;"Dying Light&colon; The Following 3" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">He don&&num;8217&semi;t look too happy&excl; &lpar;Dying Light&colon; The Following&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The new narrative brings in some interesting components that actually play a stronger part in the framework of the game&period; <em>Dying Light&colon; The Following<&sol;em> actually feels very close in terms to the design of <em>Far Cry 4<&sol;em>&comma; where players will have to earn the trust of the people in order to progress further&comma; and meet the cult led by the mysterious Mother&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the story is short lived&period; The whole expansion will last between 10-12 hours&comma; plus more with co-op&period; The story itself is fairly short and pretty forgettable towards the end&period; But by the end of this expansion&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll gain some new weapons&comma; skills&comma; and rewards that the game makes you work bloody hard for&&num;8211&semi;As mentioned in the next paragraph&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Following&comma;<&sol;em> like the main game&comma; is extremely difficult and&comma; often enough&comma; your character feels inferior to the NPCs that roam the world&period; It’s too easy for enemies to grab you while performing attacks &lpar;mostly during charged up strong attacks&rpar;&period; While the car is very useful to get around in&comma; enemies who corner you can cause some serious damage&comma; which will often result in death and a massive&comma; unfair penalty&period; <em>The<&sol;em> <em>Following<&sol;em> has the same problem that the core game does in that it’s still unfair and too punishing for all the wrong reasons&comma; with rewards that just don&&num;8217&semi;t match up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;239140&sol;ss&lowbar;a8f95ffe2e85093aec91d2fbcdadc744cd9f301d&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1455265338" alt&equals;"Dying Light&colon; The Following 4" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Most epic shot &&num;8230&semi; EVER&excl; &lpar;Dying Light&colon; The Following&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the additional skill tree perks and the driving perks do give the game enough of a reason to invest your time and skill into&period; It’s tough&comma; but with enough play time and work&comma; you’ll get the hang of things once again and start leveling up further to become stronger&period; It just takes some time doing so&period; I&comma; myself&comma; had to do a rough playthrough for a few hours and start again to really get to grips with the mechanics and the adjustment of difficulty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dying Light&colon; The Following is truly an expansion worth acquiring and another reason to dive back into the title&period; While the difficulty remains a challenge and the storyline still falls short of being deeply compelling&comma; the introduction of new features&comma; like the buggy and additional skill trees&comma; offers an engaging experience&period; It’s interesting to see how new gaming trends&comma; such as the increasing popularity of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;japancasinosonline&period;com&sol;">Japanese online casinos<&sol;a> with their innovative rewards and gameplay mechanics&comma; seem to influence developers to bring fresh ideas into their titles&period; These additions make Dying Light feel more immersive and interactive&comma; adding depth to the original game that keeps players coming back for more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Following<&sol;em> looks and sounds fantastic&comma; yet still has a number of bugs and minor issues that original game held&period; Still&comma; this is a solid expansion that I would highly recommend over any military shooter map pack&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>An Xbox One code for Dying Light was provided by Warner Bros&period; Interactive for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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