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