Dying Light was a bit of a surprise to many. Most, including myself were not only pleasantly surprised by Dying Light but captivated with the game’s solid movement and combat, incredible visual fidelity, and overall top-notch execution. Techland could’ve easily resorted to a “more of the same” approach with their next add-on, The Following, but instead Techland has done right by players. They’ve put together an incredible expansion to an already great game, expanding on the core concept in ways that seemed far flung or a bit out there, but all pay off in great ways.
Dying Light saw the light of day January of 2015, so fitting it might be that the huge expansion of The Following and simultaneous release of the Enhanced Edition come roughly one year after the game took January by storm and turned a lot of heads. The Following is but a part of the larger enhancements made to the game, but serves as a great introduction to the enhancements made to the base game.
We find our hero Kyle Crane up to his old hijinks of saving people and making life in Harran bearable. Upon running low on Antizen, the drug citizens use to stay not dead and not undead, he begins following a lead that there’s life beyond the city, and in open, sprawling areas. Shortly thereafter Crane emerges outside the city and this is when the player gets the first real sense that this expansion is sizable and quite a bit lies before the player to roam and explore. The first glimpse of the new play space is pretty impressive, showcasing some tall mountains, open fields, and beaches for Crane to run, hop, and dropkick his way across.
After running around the world to your first quest marker, it becomes clear that things are strange. The citizens don’t get sick and don’t turn like those in the city. There are still plenty of infected to take out, from the basic through to the special spitters and tank-like brutes. You run into a camp on a farm with new friends Jasir and crew, who need your help. As is par for the course to move the story forward Crane is tasked with finding things, exploring areas, retrieving keepsakes and the like in order to win favor with the locals. This favor earns Crane trust and respect among them. As Crane needs to gain their favor in order to get whatever it is they have that makes them immune to the infection, we are somewhat tied into this weird cult and go along with it.
The story itself doesn’t take too many risks, and the twists you might expect, and probably will, show up throughout the journey and make for a somewhat interesting, albeit fairly safe story. The characters are interesting, and perhaps more fascinating are the stories told throughout the side missions.
Throughout the adventure you’re also granted a not-so-shiny buggy. At first glance I was personally not seeing the connection, or how the buggy, and namely driving would figure in to Dying Light at all. That all changed upon firing up the engine and getting rolling over the hills and through hordes of zombies, all the while earning driver XP which would allow me to make better parts and mow through those hordes all the quicker. Driving on the road at a good speed gains XP, hitting zombies gains XP, and similar to the base game’s way of progression, nearly everything you do makes you progress a bit. Dying Light nailed the idea that practice makes perfect, or at least makes you better by progressing, and it’s carried through in the Buggy as well as Legend branches. Legend branch is essentially a way for you to start the new content with a new character, but a version that has all the abilities from the base game unlocked. It’s a nice touch that might make parts of the game a little easier as you’ve got the option for perks like no stamina loss when swinging melee weapons or sprinting and the like.
The team at Techland didn’t just put in a little bit of a new story, add in a buggy and call it good though, they’ve put in a ton of work to just make the entirety of the game more enjoyable. Small things like the admittedly sparing use of firearms get more variety, also noticeable is more variety in about every weapon you pick up, as well as greater facial detail and overall an extremely crisp, good looking game.
