Dying Light

[LESS T_T]

Another free update:

Content Drop #4 is out now for free on all platforms.

Introducing Prison Heist - a brand new game mode set in a never-before-seen location. Break through to the armory as fast as you can either in solo or in co-op. The faster your time, the better the rewards.

 

[sexbad?]

and who doesnt love a free prison level

 

[Ivan]

going to buy this on Ash's recommendation, as well as the Gervais youtuber bro

 

[Ivan]

Dying Light - Impressions After A Handful of Hours & a Difficulty Restart

what I expected: a mix of Left 4 Dead & STALKER w/emphasis on melee combat

what I perceive: an first person ARPG w/underwhelming whack a mole combat. Maybe I need to unlock more gameplay altering perks, but so far the dodge isn't doing it for me...wondering if maybe there'll be a parry or a grab unlock later.

Disappointed to learn that loot resets, which reinforced the feeling of playing an ARPG.

I switched from Hard to Normal once I learned that every zombie was an hp pinata. Ridiculous.

I really like the night here, it's super dark and achieves what it set out to do.

I'm gonna try to adjust my expectations to see if I can get out more enjoyment out of this. I'm wondering if people enjoyed this b/c of the power grind/diablo esque itemization. B/c I highly doubt it's the combat in and of itself. Also, I can't wait to level up the movement abilities, tired of looking at elbows/climbing animation.

In hindsight I wouldn't have purchased this, hopefully my opinion changes, time will tell...

 

[Ivan]

So I've been reading up about how poorly optimized the base game is. Any tips to get better FPS? I can't hold a solid 60 even with my 1080

I've read lowering draw distance helps, will try that

 

[Ivan]

Update:

Refunded w/10 hour playtime.

 

[MasPingon]

what I expected: a mix of Left 4 Dead & STALKER w/emphasis on melee combat

Yeah, I had exactly same expectations, but it's nothing like that. It got multiplayer mode tho, where you can play as L4D Hunter on steroids, it's pretty fun for a while.

 

[Ash]

All about the Parkour.

Expecting a Stalker-like experience from a AAA studio, you mad bro? The point I make is among the sea of decline that is AAA formulas, this is actually p.good and gameplay-centric. Just don't expect anything nuanced whatsoever, unless you're a fan of platforming gameplay.

FP platforming doesn't get much better than this:



Nor platforming in general in modern AAA, which almost universally disregard its existence despite it being present in most action games of yore.

Also, L4D is mediocre. This is a much better game.

 

[Ivan]

Nah, the parkour didn't do it for me. I had a much better time with said mechanic in Dishonored.

Glad you really dig it though, you seem to cite it pretty often!

 

[Zombra]

2:04.80/2:05.00

 

[Ash]

Nah, the parkour didn't do it for me. I had a much better time with said mechanic in Dishonored.

...there's mantling only in Dishonored. And it's semi-automated (when blinking). And the conditions for performing a mantle are for the most part just needing to be facing a mantle-able surface on the Y axis. With Dying Light you have to aim more precisely at what you're climbing. There's parkour rolls which need to be timed to reduce fall dam. There's shimmying. There's running up walls and pushing off them in the other direction. There's different surfaces resulting in different fall damage (soft = less). There's climbing, not just waist-high mantling. Well, Dishonored had the chains...used approximately twice. Awesome.
And much, much more. Most importantly, Dying Light's world is actually adequately laden with engaging platforming challenges. Dishonored doesn't even compare in this regard. It's not even half the platformer/Parkour sim DL is.

 

[Ivan]

Again, glad you enjoyed the parkour. It was too tedious for me, reminded me of the platforming in Ass Creed. Again, I think this just harkens back to player expectation. With all the talk of "muh zombie virus, I need some antizin" I thought this would have had a much stronger emphasis on survival.

I do find it interesting that they're selling us the sequel on "muh narrative focus" w/MCA.

 

[flyingjohn]

All about the Parkour.

FP platforming doesn't get much better than this:

Nor platforming in general in modern AAA, which almost universally disregard its existence despite it being present in most action games of yore.

.

Cough:


Mute the audio.

End cough.

 

[Multidirectional]

Also, L4D is mediocre. This is a much better game.

I really doubt this provides anything remotely as cool as L4D2 Versus.

 

[Wunderbar]

All about the Parkour.
FP platforming doesn't get much better than this:
Nor platforming in general in modern AAA, which almost universally disregard its existence despite it being present in most action games of yore.

Cough:

Parkour in Mirror's Edge is too linear and restrictive. Nice sense of speed though.

 

[Ash]

Again, glad you enjoyed the parkour. It was too tedious for me, reminded me of the platforming in Ass Creed.

So the platforming/parkour is inferior to Dishonored and comparable to the mostly automated and shit-tier braindead Assassin's Creed where parkour consists of holding the awesome button and watching your character scale everything with zero effort?



Regarding Mirror's Edge, yes, this is a good comparison. It is basically Mirror's Edge parkour (which is good) in a sandbox, mixed in with combat and survival elements.

 

[sexbad?]

For me the parkour was hindered by some common zombie who could run as fast as I could and climb all the things that I could and took like forty hits to kill. I think I tried to run around, but I encountered a few of them like that, and it just sucked all the fun out of fleeing from zombies.

 

[Ash]

All the parkour zombies take is one dropkick to send them flying off a rooftop (never underestimate the dropkick), a couple wacks to the head with a well-maintained weapon (40 hits? are you beating them with a broken stick of wood?), or knock them to the floor and stomp/wail on their head with a simple one-two combo, among many other simple methods, like crafting some firecrackers, molotovs, throwing hatchets or grenades. Using the shitton of crowd control abilities you unlock etc. There is literally a move you unlock right away where any zombie running at you can be grabbed and thrown in any direction. You can just throw them off rooftops without them touching you, or throw them to the floor for an easy kill, or throw them into a spike trap. Also the parkour zombies mostly only spawn when you make a loud noise (gunfire, explosion, car alarm). So the conditions surrounding them even spawning in the first place is easily controlled.
I am looking forward to replaying this game.

Also, L4D is mediocre. This is a much better game.

I really doubt this provides anything remotely as cool as L4D2 Versus.

Eat a dropkick.

 

[Ivan]

anyone else find it cute/adorable how much Ash seems to defend this.

Godspeed sir

 

[Ash]

Stick to Dishonored. Meanwhile I'll enjoy some actually fun gameplay.

 

[flyingjohn]

One thing ruins the parkour.You have no control as what crane will grab.
Your character grabs ledges above him you aren't even pointing to.Also all it takes is a extra second and your character won't just jump but will decide to grab a ledge above you that you aren't even seeing.
Also the grab mechanics are wonky at best.A lot of the time it feels like you missed a grip and the game just gives you a magnetic grip which clips through stuff.
It is weird.In the video above around 1:30 you can see it clearly.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Completely altered game in multiplayer, find a bro to tool around with. You dont kite as much when you have someone to watch your back, early game you dont have any tech tree unlocks so you are a bit weak to the zombies and have fewer escape/evade options, the grapple hook is a whole lot of bullshit when you get it and helps a tremendous deal. Been playing it with a bro first time last few days, pretty good co-op to gang up and kick a zombie to death with, havent played much solo so cant relate there. Will have to though, we just speed ran through the campaign to kill shit quick, still trying to figure out what half the shit is, not the most ideal way to learn but it works

 

[Ivan]

Ash What are your hopes for the sequel? What did you think of the itemization/combat in the first. I didn't get much farther than getting my first purple but I found it unbearably anemic. Also, it seemed to be like the zombies would respawn with the same sample size ad nauseum. Even basic loot would respawn the same way. I was so sold on the game until I learned that there's no permanence to the items in the world.

I did find a gun quite early once I switched to Normal, but I didn't get to use it as I turned it in for a sidequest.

 

[Primordial Ruination]

For me the parkour was hindered by some common zombie who could run as fast as I could and climb all the things that I could and took like forty hits to kill. I think I tried to run around, but I encountered a few of them like that, and it just sucked all the fun out of fleeing from zombies.

Unfortunately, I remember the common running zombies getting worse as you advance the story or increase your survivor rank (including higher difficulties). Regardless of how quiet you are during the daytime, you'll occasionally hear an explosion off in the distance along with the screaming viral cue (normally triggered by your own loud noises), and a group of them pop out of nowhere to sprint after you. It's not just every once in a while either, like the game trying to keep you on your toes as you progress, as they're shat out over and over again to the point of making the encounter extremely tedious. By the very end, I couldn't stop to admire the scenery or rummage through trash without several rabid retards sperging out in every direction around me.

 

[Ash]

Ash What are your hopes for the sequel? What did you think of the itemization/combat in the first. I didn't get much farther than getting my first purple but I found it unbearably anemic. Also, it seemed to be like the zombies would respawn with the same sample size ad nauseum. Even basic loot would respawn the same way. I was so sold on the game until I learned that there's no permanence to the items in the world.

I did find a gun quite early once I switched to Normal, but I didn't get to use it as I turned it in for a sidequest.

The combat is certainly not bad for FP melee. Weapons have a sense of weight and impact to them. Zombie decapitation is of course satisfying. You got dodging, dropkicking, headshots, throwing items, all sorts of crowd control moves, and everything is useful without being overpowered. You get enemy encounters that progressively get tougher and are fun to fight. The worst thing is the exploding zombies that appear late game, as they blend in with the crowd of normal zombies and as a result get you nearly every time, even though the previous Techland zombie games has the same enemy type but with very distinct visual and audio cues. People that suck at the game complain about the Parkour zombies but they're vital, as otherwise any kind of elevated ground would be complete safety from most other zombie types, and they are a test for Crane's god-like agility.

Itemization: yeah the MMO-style loot isn't great. Elements of randomisation, level scaling, loot respawning, but it works for what it is. I would prefer 100% hand-placed items, no respawning, no scaling but these things were obviously implemented with a bunch of goals in mind e.g co-op, casuals, and extended play time so you can mess about in the starting areas and not have to worry about weapons breaking and not being able to fix them, or running out of medkits etc. Doesn't hurt the game too much.

Very good: Parkour/platforming.
Good: combat, world design, challenge isn't non-existent like many AAA.
Meh-but-it-fits: loot, RPG progression, quest design. (hopefully these things will be improved in the sequel).
Story is crap but who cares [insert Carmack story in games is like story in porn quote].

As for DL2, the focus on story seems like a Marketing ploy. They say they're "improving upon all elements of the game"...like sequels used to do. I believe them, since DL was an improvement over the Dead Island games in every way, and they were rewarded for it (DL sold pretty well). To reiterate, I mean the focus is the ploy, to lure in storyfaggots. There will be better story aspects (yet not a great improvement) but it will still be a gameplayfag game at its core, as it should be.