Zadzooks: Dying Light review

Yet another zombie apocalypse rears its grotesque head and dares gamers to survive in the Dying Light (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Techland, Rated Mature, reviewed with Xbox One, $59.99).

Trying to climb the bloody pillars already built by such games as Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead, The Last of Us and Call of Duty Zombies, players get a Frankenstein mash-up of all of the above with a pinch of innovations.

A story finds a player becoming the Global Relief Effort’s under cover operative Kyle Crane and dropping into the quarantined, Middle Eastern city of Harran where an infection has turned its citizens into flesh-eating monsters.

Mr. Crane’s mission is to find a high-ranking government official who might be the key to curing the virus.

Unfortunately, our hero is bitten almost on arrival and now must contend with not only fighting off the infected and dangerous humans but also staving off the rabies-like infection (with help from shots from the mystery drug Antizen).

Essentially, we get a mild-mannered version of “Escape from New York’s” Snake Plissken as Kyle attempts to survive.

Cleary developer Techland, makers of Call of Juarez and Dead Island, do not need to reinvent the wheel here.

They liberally draw from their own zombie game mechanics of Dead Island as well as the standards set in most free-roaming, survival games starring flesh-eating lunatics.

Let’s look at three of the most important features for any zombie game and see how they mesh up to Dying Light?

• Escaping zombies by running, sneaking and often climbing? Check.

Certainly not as wild as Sunset Overdrive, Dying Light offers plenty of chances to parkour through environments and never even encounter a ghoul. I did find the action of climbing, dangling and jumping over to metal roofs, beams and poles, and later grappling to take some getting used. Also, using the shoulder button to jump was not intuitive and I occasionally fell into a swarm of the infected. Suffice to report, it was not as intuitive as say first-person parkour gaming champ Mirror’s Edge.

• Collecting junk to craft weapons and tools to help survive. Check.

Kyle becomes a hoarder (even searching dead bodies) and grabs everything from duct tape to alcohol and saw blades to build everything from weapons to med kits, Molotov cocktails, flares and firecrackers on the fly. Carrying large amount of junk (and stashing it in bags in safe zones) is important since his melee weapons such as crow bars, spiked baseball bats, wrenches, sledgehammers and pipes often break after too much use.

Now, the weapons are not as inventive as Dead Rising but using flaming ninja stars to turn stampeding undead into fireballs was certainly a fun.

• Brutally violent, though satisfying, encounters with the creatures. Check.

For those who prefer to be the aggressors, simply start kicking or swinging away at the dumber zombies until their heads pop like a ripe watermelon. Now, they also add some clever and not-so-clever nuances such as using a light to back a creep into a spiked barrel containing a fire for gory results.

And, let’s not forget the pockets of looting humans and gangs of killers roaming Harran. That dimension adds to the variety and danger when out in main or secondary missions. Although, it certainly does not thrill as much watching an affectionately named type of infected called the Bomber (suffering from overgrown internal organs) explode into pieces during suicide attacks.

However, most important, beware of what happens when night falls. The zombies gain strength, and now the action becomes more stealthy scavenging as Kyle moves between well-lit safe houses and uses UV light to keep the a collection of prowling monsters at bay.

Especially terrifying are the Volatiles, a bunch of pack-minded creatures with superhuman strength and mobility (tentacle actually) that howl to gather forces and attack.

They look plucked from the Guillermo del Toro ghoul school. Nothing was more terrifying in the game than running though deserted, dimly light streets and back alleys and just hearing the cries of anguish coming from the creatures chasing me.

It’s also worth noting the story won’t win any awards. I found standing on rooftops and admiring a third-world city under siege quite the panoramic, thought-provoking event but having to talk to its citizens and representatives of various factions in cut scenes to propel the tale was occasionally painful.

If one compares the compelling journey of Clementine in Telltale Game’s The Walking Dead series, for example, this plays out like a Grindhouse, Roger Corman film.

Especially amusing is a guy named Rahim Aldemir who reminded me of a cousin of “Saturday Night Live’s” Festrunk brothers.

Despite my grumbles, the game has its intense moments often defined by some inspired online action that helps salvage Dying Light from succumbing to a lethal dose of repetition.

First, the co-operative mode works well to have up to three other buddies watching your back against the variety of speedy, exploding or lumbering, but always quickly amassing, zombies. Working as a team to exist, unleashing chained attacks and even competing to kill the most zombies with winners gaining extra experience points kept the multiplayer varied and exciting. By the way, make sure someone is wielding a katana sword. It’s a beauty to behold at a distance as he slices and dices the enemy like Michonne from “The Walking Dead.”

Next, a Night Hunter mode actually allows online players to become a powerful breed of the infected, and they watch over nests of incubating Volatiles. The player can then enter other player’s games in a new type of challenge and attempt to kill the human survivors, which offers a new level of game variety.

Overall, Dying Light is certainly worth appreciating for fans of the genre but never quite focuses enough to propel the survival horror game to new levels of greatness.