Dying Light – Everything You Need to Know

Who’s developing the game?
Dying Light is being developed by prolific Polish game development studio, Techland.

What else have they made?
Techland is perhaps most famous for developing Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, both zombie-infested, open world survival horror games. They’re also well known for developing the Call of Juarez games, including 2013’s excellent but overlooked Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. If only they’d consider a open world game featuring cowboys and zombies.

So is Dying Light a sequel to Dead Island?
Nope. Well, sort of… but not really. The Dead Island games were published by UK based Deep Silver. After development on the first Dead Island game wrapped, Deep Silver wanted a sequel created quickly to take advantage of the title’s unexpected success. The result was the lackluster Dead Island: Riptide. It quickly became clear that Techland and Deep Silver wanted to take the idea of open world zombie survival in different directions. In an interview with IGN, lead game designer Maciej Binkowski said;

There were a lot of discussions with Deep Silver, and they had a completely different idea of where they wanted to take the franchise. Right from the beginning the deal was they keep the IP, and since we had differing ideas, they said they’re going to give the game to someone else. There’s not really a lot we could do about it. At the same time, we have this experience, all these ideas – we had to make another game.

The two parted ways, and Techland went on to create Dying Light.

Will there be a sequel to Dead Island, then?
Yup, but it’s being made by German developer, Yager, the guys who made Spec Ops: The Line, and er… Yager. It looks fun!

What’s Dying Light’s gameplay like?
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but there’s been a zombie apocalypse. Now, picture the bastard child of Far Cry 4, Mirror’s Edge, and an evolution of the first Dead Island. The developers have focused heavily on freedom of movement, giving players the ability to quickly and easily traverse the ubran environment in which you find yourself. Combat is primarily melee based, and you can craft makeshift weapons from acquired parts and upgrade abilities via skill trees to your heart’s content.

Zombies in Dying Light are generally of the slow variety… until night falls, then things get hairy. Zombies become increasingly aggressive, much faster, more agile, and their numbers increase vastly.

How long is Dying Light?
Techland have promised over 50 hours of gameplay, so it’s a pretty hefty game.

Does Dying Light have multiplayer?
If you’re hoping to brave the apocalypse with a friend, you’re in luck! Dying Light features 4 player online co-op, and a Demons’ Souls-esque mode called “Be the Zombie” that allows you to join a friend’s gmae and wreak havoc. This mode was originally planned as DLC, but will now be made available for free.

Is Dying Light coming to PS3 and 360?
Sorry, the last-gen versions of Dying Light were canceled to let the developer focus on achieving its creative vision on current-gen platforms and PC.

When’s the release date?
Dying Light’s release date has been chopped and changed numerous times, you’re forgiven for not keeping up to speed.  Here’s what you need to know; it’ll be available digitally in North and South America starting January 27th. You’ll also be able to pick it up physically on that date. In Europe, the Middle Easy, Asia and Australia, it gets a digital release on January the 28th, with physical copies being released on February 27th.