What if there were zombies in Mirror’s Edge? The creators of the original Dead Island are looking to answer that question…sort of. Dying Light is yet another zombie survival game in a genre that is currently beyond crowded, but developer Techland is trying to set it apart by emulating the first person free-running acrobatics made famous in DICE’s 2008 action adventure.
Published by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, Dying Light puts you in the role of a zombie apocalypse survivor who must scrounge for supplies during the daylight hours…and run for your life when the sun goes down. Scrambling over rooftops with parkour agility and grace, you’ll cross paths with other survivors (friendly and not so friendly) while gathering equipment, weapons and scoping out hiding places to elude the shambling hordes. For when the sun sets, apparently things get a little more terrifying.
Showcased at a special pre-E3 showcase, one can’t help but look at these screenshots and read about how you’ll be mostly using melee weapons and wonder if this is just another Dead Island game with free-running and a day-night cycle pasted on. Techland brand manager Blazej “Blaze” Krakowiak told Kotaku that they believe Dying Light is “original” enough on its own saying, “…I think the day-night cycle, the way the world lives by it—and the complete freedom to explore it based on the free-running—are, I think, defining elements for the game. [They are] not the only important parts, but definitely the parts we used to set it up as something different.”
Dying Light is being developed primarily for Xbox One, PS4, and PC for a 2014 release, with versions also being developed for both Xbox 360 and PS3. Will the free-running twist be enough to make this title stand out in the crowd? More info (and hopefully a trailer) is probably on its way the closer we get to E3.
