[BLOG] Eurogamer 2013: Dying Light Presentation
Posted: 27 Sep 2013, 17:32
This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »
When a Eurogamer Developer’s Conference starts with a member of Eurogamer staff addressing the floor prior to the presentation starting, and says we’re about to see a “sizeable chunk” of a game, you take an interest. When the speaker tells you the preview constitutes "the first ever live public presentation of the live gameplay", even more so.
That’s just the opening of the presentation for Dying Light, an Action Survival Zombie Game by Polish game developer Techland - famous for the two Dead Island games. But this description isn’t enough to fully explain the game, says host Tymon Smektała. Asked to describe the game, Tymon starts with a high-impact 30-second trailer as the “short answer”. The long answer? "Dying Light is a First Person, Open World, Action Survival Horror Game. It's a long description, but all of these words are important."
What this means is Dying Light is not your everyday zombie survival game. Here, you’ll be interacting with a large game world in order to complete missions and escape being turned into a zombie yourself. Utilising a natural movement system, players will be jumping on crates and ledges, zip-lining down angled wires; and pulling themselves over gates to reach different areas, in a form of zombie apocalypse parkour; and there’s no need to look for doors if the wall is low enough to pull yourself over. When you have to come face to face with zombies, you can always kill them of course, but unlike many other zombie survival games, Tymon is quick to point out that isn’t the only option available here. You can run, you can escape, you can lay traps, you can use what you just built to defend yourself, or you can make use of the environment - it’s all about your approach to the situation. This is crucial, because not even higher ground makes you automatically safe. "Zombies can climb just as well as you can", says Tymon.
To help you out, many missions will see you laying traps to kill zombies or provide distractions that will let you pass them safely. Some of these include car bombs and electrical boxes with exposed live wires. All traps will be triggered remotely, so until you make them live, you can run through at any time and wait for the zombies to follow - and sometimes you’ll come across traps set by other survivors, which you can trigger too. Another example of a trap is powerful lighting - useful at night, overhead lights can flood an area when triggered to not only make them more visible, but also disorient zombies by essentially blinding them with light.
Dying Light’s whole gameplay rests on a continuous day/night cycle mechanic. In the daytime, zombies are less active, giving you a chance to build up defences and prepare for the night ahead. Once night falls, the real challenge begins, as zombies spawn more frequently and become aggressive. For 95% of Story Missions and 100% of Side Missions, so claims Tymon, you can start a mission at any time of the day, giving you as much or as little time as you desire to complete tasks before the zombies get serious. Hints were dropped that night-time action will lead to greater rewards, leading to a serious risk/reward mechanic - do you start a mission in the day to stay safer for longer; or wait to later in the evening and potentially get more value out of difficult situations? Between one and four players can play at any time, dropping in or out at will. But even though co-op players will share a game world, there’s no requirement for them to perform the same missions - the choice is up to them.
Dying Light also makes use of a dynamic encounter system, making every playthrough different. You may never know when a survivor needing help; or a super-tough zombie that’s harder to defeat will appear. Helping others can lead to rewards as well, but at night-time saving others might be risking your own life. Additional help comes in the form of air drops sent from outside to provide survivors with extra resources, but do you take the time and risk to go pick them up? Your actions in the game will develop your character differently, letting you build yourself up the way you want to play and customise your character the way you like.
Dying Light hits PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows next year.
When a Eurogamer Developer’s Conference starts with a member of Eurogamer staff addressing the floor prior to the presentation starting, and says we’re about to see a “sizeable chunk” of a game, you take an interest. When the speaker tells you the preview constitutes "the first ever live public presentation of the live gameplay", even more so.
That’s just the opening of the presentation for Dying Light, an Action Survival Zombie Game by Polish game developer Techland - famous for the two Dead Island games. But this description isn’t enough to fully explain the game, says host Tymon Smektała. Asked to describe the game, Tymon starts with a high-impact 30-second trailer as the “short answer”. The long answer? "Dying Light is a First Person, Open World, Action Survival Horror Game. It's a long description, but all of these words are important."
What this means is Dying Light is not your everyday zombie survival game. Here, you’ll be interacting with a large game world in order to complete missions and escape being turned into a zombie yourself. Utilising a natural movement system, players will be jumping on crates and ledges, zip-lining down angled wires; and pulling themselves over gates to reach different areas, in a form of zombie apocalypse parkour; and there’s no need to look for doors if the wall is low enough to pull yourself over. When you have to come face to face with zombies, you can always kill them of course, but unlike many other zombie survival games, Tymon is quick to point out that isn’t the only option available here. You can run, you can escape, you can lay traps, you can use what you just built to defend yourself, or you can make use of the environment - it’s all about your approach to the situation. This is crucial, because not even higher ground makes you automatically safe. "Zombies can climb just as well as you can", says Tymon.
To help you out, many missions will see you laying traps to kill zombies or provide distractions that will let you pass them safely. Some of these include car bombs and electrical boxes with exposed live wires. All traps will be triggered remotely, so until you make them live, you can run through at any time and wait for the zombies to follow - and sometimes you’ll come across traps set by other survivors, which you can trigger too. Another example of a trap is powerful lighting - useful at night, overhead lights can flood an area when triggered to not only make them more visible, but also disorient zombies by essentially blinding them with light.
Dying Light’s whole gameplay rests on a continuous day/night cycle mechanic. In the daytime, zombies are less active, giving you a chance to build up defences and prepare for the night ahead. Once night falls, the real challenge begins, as zombies spawn more frequently and become aggressive. For 95% of Story Missions and 100% of Side Missions, so claims Tymon, you can start a mission at any time of the day, giving you as much or as little time as you desire to complete tasks before the zombies get serious. Hints were dropped that night-time action will lead to greater rewards, leading to a serious risk/reward mechanic - do you start a mission in the day to stay safer for longer; or wait to later in the evening and potentially get more value out of difficult situations? Between one and four players can play at any time, dropping in or out at will. But even though co-op players will share a game world, there’s no requirement for them to perform the same missions - the choice is up to them.
Dying Light also makes use of a dynamic encounter system, making every playthrough different. You may never know when a survivor needing help; or a super-tough zombie that’s harder to defeat will appear. Helping others can lead to rewards as well, but at night-time saving others might be risking your own life. Additional help comes in the form of air drops sent from outside to provide survivors with extra resources, but do you take the time and risk to go pick them up? Your actions in the game will develop your character differently, letting you build yourself up the way you want to play and customise your character the way you like.
Dying Light hits PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows next year.