The Fun of Running For Your Life in Dying Light

When the sun goes down get ready to flee.

The Gamescom Dying Light hands-on demo is a taste of exactly why you should be scared of the dark. This game's day/night cycle is much more than just window dressing: it's core to the gameplay, with a radical shift in how you approach the world once the sun goes down.
The demo kicks off in more introductory territory, of course. The mission you're given seems simple enough: get out and help fortify your camp ahead of nightfall by setting a variety of traps for the infected in the area.
Waypoints highlight the next trap location on the mini-map, but since Dying Light is open world, you can get there any way you like. The streets are thick with the infected, so the smartest option is to avoid them, either by using the environment to circumvent them, or through distractions. Or both.

If you haven't been following Dying Light, think Mirror's Edge set in a slum town during the zombie apocalypse. The game is anchored by robust first person free running movement mechanics, and has a good sense of weight and momentum when moving, and the ability to really make the environment your playground.
The ramshackle shanty town my mission took place in gave me plenty of opportunities for creatively tackling getting around. There's always a corrugated roof to clamber onto, a telegraph pole to climb or a door to bust through, while leapfrogging fences are a great way to quickly put something between you and a mass of zombies. The button layout is a little unintuitive at first, but moving around feels great. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop or sprinting along then smoothly sliding under a barrier is spot on.
You may not feel quite so elegant in combat, however. Timing and positioning is key here. That two-handed axe you're wielding may be capable of cutting an enemy in half, but it takes a while to wind up. Thankfully, you've got a kick move to create space, while you can carry a number of weapons at once, so switching to the right tool for the job is important. There are also a couple of crowd control options. Moving from a sprint into a leaping kick can knock back a group of infected, for instance, while firecrackers are very much your friend. Toss them out on a busy street and all the infected will flock to the sound, leaving you (somewhat) clear to sneak by.

Oh dear lord.

In the Gamescom hands-on, the traps I was charged with setting to complete the mission ran the gamut from electrified flooring and booby-trapped cars through to huge floodlights designed to illuminate an area and disorient the zombies within. Activating each was straightforward enough, but by no means the only objectives in the world. Random (or not so random in the case of this demo) events will pop up in the world – instances that you can choose to engage with or ignore.

The recently released 12 minute demo (embedded below), for instance, highlights a dynamic event where the protagonist overhear some cries, which turn out to be a small child whose father has recently turned. The video also reveals that there will be random supply drops that you'll have to try and reach first. In my demo it was a little less evocative than either of those examples; I came across a survivor, holed up in a shack, surrounded by zombies. I dealt with them by tossing firecrackers onto a nearby oil slick and watching them stumble towards it and be incinerated: pulled like moths to the flame.

After activating the final trap, the electricity to the entire district blew. It was getting dark, but I'd have enough time to repair the damage, right? Not exactly. I climbed up to the nearby sub-station, and as I kicked the power back into gear, night fell. That's a problem on a whole bunch of levels.
The infected turn at night. They have heightened perception and are easily enraged. If they hear you, they'll come after you, and in their 'Night Walker' form, they can move as fast as you and can climb just like you. And that's not the worst part: other beasts also come out at night. Beasts that can't be fought.
The next couple of minutes were intense: leaping over fences, ducking down alleyways, sliding through gaps, triggering traps and generally running for my life with a pack of angry zombies close behind. It was thrilling stuff, although it'll be interesting to see how the nighttime gameplay is balanced in the final game: it's potentially a fine line between thrilling and frustrating.

I thought I told you to run...

While flight is definitely the most tempting option when night falls, my guide during the demo assured me that it is possible to stealth back to home base. The key is to avoid sending the infected into their heightened state by staying clear of groups and taking out any individuals quickly and quietly. It may not be as exciting as a brisk sprint through the barrios late at night, but it's cool that the option is there.
There's still plenty more to learn about Dying Light: who the four main protagonists are, how the hub areas are structured, how the crafting/XP systems work, and so on. Even so, Dying Light should definitely be near the top of your next-gen watch-list: it's shaping up really well and has a huge amount of potential.

Dying Light

Published by: Warner Bros. Interactive

Developed by: Techland

Genre: Action

Release Date:

United States: TBA 2014

UK: TBA 2014

Australia: TBA 2014

RP-M+ for Rating Pending, Targeting a Rating of Mature or Above

Also Available On: PC, Xbox One