In July, Techland introduced that Dying Light is getting ten new pieces of free content over the approaching yr. In a really uncommon transfer, this can imply the sport may have acquired semi-regular content material for over three years since its launch.
Fans have, understandably, thrown their palms excessive in celebration – free is free, and Dying Light is relatively good, proper? Well, sure. But it’s additionally necessary to grasp what these expansions imply, and simply how far this budding collection has come within the comparatively quick span of only one sport. After all, Dying Light has been ten years within the making.
But with a view to absolutely perceive Dying Light’s beginnings, you additionally want to contemplate Dead Island – Techland’s first foray into the zombie survival style.
As it must be, Dying Light is in our listing of the best zombie games on PC.
There had been murmurs of Dead Island’s existence in 2006, however for lots of us, it began with a trailer in 2007. The quick proof of idea featured panning pictures of serene vistas, swaying flora, and swinging music. Oh, and flesh-eating fiends tearing their means by paradise. The trailer hinted at ideas that no different sport was doing on the time. Sure, Dead Rising might have been knocking on the door, however no sport previous to 2007 supplied such a recent tackle the perennial zombie apocalypse fiction.
As shortly because it arrived, nevertheless, it was gone. Like a screaming survivor set upon by a horde of zombies, Dead Island’s PR channels fell eerily silent. In 2009, Techland supplied some hope by confirming their zombie survival game was still in development. But it was fleeting contact.
It wasn’t till 2011 – effectively after Left four Dead had already twice proven what trendy zombie survival video games may very well be, and Call of Duty had set a military of undead Nazis in opposition to gamers – that this occurred:
And similar to that, 5 years after that first glimpse, anticipation for the sport was renewed in full.
Dead Island launched later that yr, however the gradual cook dinner of the sport’s growth had left the meat uncooked within the center. One massive drawback was that the announcement trailer – put collectively by exterior inventive company Axis Animation – promised a really completely different, extra nuanced Dead Island. The one delivered wasn’t what followers thought it could be. Was it dangerous? Well, if you happen to had been ready to dig by the quite a few visible glitches and risible voice appearing, at its core there was a sport value reaching. Subsequent updates mounted lots of the launch sport’s issues, nevertheless, and regardless of this early setback, Dead Island turned a monetary success. It’s right here that the strands of a brand new story started.
In 2013 – only a month after Riptide, Dead Island’s remaining piece of content material, launched to a ho-hum reception – Techland introduced Dying Light. If it weren’t for the decaying letters that spelled out this new sport’s title on the finish of the trailer, many would have assumed it was Dead Island’s sequel. But after a cut up with writer Deep Silver, Techland knew it was time to create one thing fully new, but acquainted: the zombie survival sport they now knew tips on how to make.
Even the announcement trailer urged that classes had been realized. Instead of a cinematic that pulled on the heartstrings, Dying Light’s debut kicked within the door with fast-paced parkour motion set to Woodkid’s ‘Run Boy Run’. The tune’s Mad Max-like battle drums completely set the stage for what Dying Light was going to be about: placing your ass into gear.
“Having Dead Island reach the success that it did helped us a lot in seeing what we felt works and what doesn’t,” Maciej Łączny, producer of Dying Light’s forthcoming DLC, tells us.
When Dying Light launched, followers and critics alike agreed it was every thing that was beloved about Dead Island, however freed from many of the issues that weren’t. With the inclusion of freerunning and a wide range of new gameplay parts, Dying Light shortly made a reputation for itself. But, maybe extra importantly, regardless of being one other open-world zombie-killing FPS, it remained distinct.
“Dying Light was just a natural progression for us into flexing our muscles a bit more and trying out new and different things,”Łączny says.
That flexing underscored the truth that present style moulds could be reformed or shattered totally. A style doesn’t must outline a developer, however a developer can redefine a style.
Techland made it clear that Dying Light wasn’t going wherever, rolling out new content material for the bottom sport effectively into 2016. And now, with a lot extra to sit up for within the yr forward, you’d think about spirits are perpetually excessive in Techland’s Poland-based HQ.
“Working on such a great title has been extremely satisfying on so many levels,” Łączny says. “We’ve been doing all these DLCs and The Following expansion because we love the game, and we’re fans of it too.”
2015 was an ideal yr for video games. Dying Light was simply one in all many main titles that achieved astounding ranges of success, however none of these different video games are nonetheless receiving content material. The Witcher three gave us incredible DLC, but that’s done now. Fallout four? That ship sailed to Far Harbor, then to Nuka World earlier than closing the gates for good. But Dying Light, even after releasing a number of content material packs – together with, in The Following, an growth that added the biggest playable zone so far – remains to be cranking out content material.
But the forthcoming updates characterize greater than a reward for a devoted fanbase. The actuality is even sweeter. Łączny, alongside together with his staff, proceed to pour free content material into an nearly three-year previous sport as a result of they honestly love what Dying Light has change into, and what it took to get there. They, like us, are the followers and so they’re not able to put it to relaxation fairly but.
It’s necessary to recollect Dead Island did a variety of issues proper. It was, in spite of everything, the primary zombie sport to go as massive because it did. But maybe its best achievement was to assist a staff of proficient builders develop to some extent the place they had been absolutely of their component for the apocalyptic highway forward. Without Dead Island, Dying Light might have by no means existed.
Every sport leaves a legacy, good or dangerous. Dying Light’s is one rooted in ten years of successes, in addition to failures – trying again, we’ll be capable of bear in mind it for example of how a growth journey doesn’t have to finish if a brand new path could be solid. Developers additionally go away a legacy, after all, and Techland have made a sterling addition to theirs by the way in which they’ve handled Dying Light.
Source
