{"id":8079,"date":"2016-02-13T20:49:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T04:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/dying-light-the-following-review-thankfully-not-following-the-bozak\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T16:45:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T00:45:16","slug":"dying-light-the-following-review-thankfully-not-following-the-bozak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/dying-light-the-following-review-thankfully-not-following-the-bozak\/","title":{"rendered":"Dying Light: The Following Review \u2013\u00a0Thankfully Not Following The Bozak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dying Light: The Following
\nTechland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me start by saying any of my gaming friends or anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis knows that I\u2019m not the biggest zombie fan. For me, zombies fit right in-between wolfmen and mummies, in other words, merely fare that perhaps would have been cool when I was a toddler but is akin to ghosts & goblins at my age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, I\u2019ve been on this whole \u201chave-to-give-everything-a-chance\u201d deal for the past couple of years or so, and so I\u2019ve been stepping outside of my comfort zone and playing all sorts of games. That includes giving games that feature the good ol\u2019 shambling dead a chance as well. This began with Left 4 Dead 2<\/em>, which was sort of a guilty pleasure. Then I moved on to a couple of other zombie games that were meh, before encountering another one which I thought was fun: H1Z1,<\/em> which I also just recently reviewed for CyberpowerPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtesy – Techland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I tried Dying Light<\/em> out a while back and enjoyed the light, breezy storyline which took place on a Turkish island which the main character, Kyle Crane, was tasked with more or less saving. What really struck me about Dying Light<\/em> was the introduction of the Assassin\u2019s Creed-<\/em>esque parkour and free-running gameplay elements. Instead of having to constantly try to run around zombies at ground level like other zombie games, you could leap over them from shanty rooftop to shanty rooftop with hardly a care in the world (unless you fell that is\u2014which I never did\u2026nope not me\u2026ever\u2026). The graphics were also head-and-shoulders above any game I\u2019d seen featuring the walking dead, which was the icing on the moldy, decaying cake. Oh yeah, and the combat was great too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After playing the first Dying Light DLC, The Bozak Hoard,<\/em> which was by all accounts, rather lackluster, I didn\u2019t know what to expect with the latest DLC, titled Dying Light: The Following<\/em>. The plot revolved around a dying survivor painfully relaying to Crane that there might be a cure to the zombie virus yet, and that it is located somewhere in a countryside area that the poor dying bastard had once visited. Since the remaining survivors from Dying Light<\/em> are fast running out of Antizine (the zombie anti-virus), Crane decides to take off for greener pastures, and the countryside area becomes the new backdrop for the new zombie-maiming adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the new countryside is indeed a vast, sprawling playground, it\u2019s not ideal to try to walk\/run from point A to point B, unless you don\u2019t mind watching Crane do so for long stretches of time. Therefore, he must utilize the key new feature in the game which is the all-mighty vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtesy – Techland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vehicles can be fully upgraded, armed, and come complete with their own branching skill tree. The character\u2019s skill tree has also been expanded in The Following so that players can develop some pretty powerful avatars. Not too powerful though\u2014as there are some truly gigantic boss-level foes in this new expansion, and they come with their own life bars. I was incredibly astonished (and saddened) when I first attempted to attack one of these creatures. They are amazingly strong and deal out a lot of damage. Each and every time I tried to take one down I ended up getting smashed to within inches of death and had to speed off in my trusty metal steed. Maybe it\u2019s that I just suck or maybe it\u2019s that these things are made for groups of players to go up against, so methinks I\u2019ll reserve trying to tangle with them again until I have some co-op buddies backing me up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really did enjoy the change in the environment to a large extent, it is indeed a drastic switch. I had been getting used to the cramped, dusty streets of the city featured in the original Dying Light<\/em> and its incredibly impressive amounts of verticality-potential. I had so much fun with my zip-line, dashing between roofs, awning, and even skyscrapers, up and down and up and down\u2014and being able to attack from on-high was such a blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But alas, in The Following<\/em> the amount of vertical hijinks to be had are minimal, which makes sense given the more open-world expansiveness of the DLC as compared to the base game. It\u2019s just a different beast altogether. Fortunately (thanks Techland!) you can take your newly bolstered up character from The Following <\/em>and still go back to play Dying Light,<\/em> which will give you even greater loot opportunities (and stronger foes). You can also play either one with a friend or two if you didn\u2019t do so before. All of these factors lead to The Following<\/em> and the base game having a decent amount of reply value, and I\u2019m planning on going back to play Dying Light<\/em> again once I\u2019ve gotten pretty far into the DLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graphics in The Following<\/em> continue to be absolutely stunning\u2014the best of any undead game so far. Environments are lush and realistic looking, character models are very detailed and move naturally (as naturally as they can for digital avatars anyway), and weapon handling is hefty and has gravitas, especially on high-end gaming PCs or gaming laptops. I\u2019m not someone who has to have pretty visuals in a game, but in this case, The Following\u2019s<\/em> really do a great job of further immersing you in its rotting, zombie-infested world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy – Techland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Following<\/em> is an excellent DLC, don\u2019t get me wrong. I mean I\u2019ve been having a blast playing it. But in terms of it succeeding, that will depend on how much gamers miss the parkour and free-running elements of the original game as well as how much they like the driving aspects in The Following.<\/em> I find them separately enjoyable, but some might wish that they were combined. The skill progression is also rather slow. I\u2019m about halfway through The Following<\/em> and I\u2019ve barely unlocked anything vehicle-skill-wise. But then again, I\u2019ve hardly bothered with many of the side-quests which is one of the main ways to gain skill points so I guess I can\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, The Following<\/em> won\u2019t dazzle gamers quite like Dying Light<\/em> did when it debuted, but rather offers about 10-12 hours of additional gameplay. The storyline is decent, the action is fast and furious with the new vehicles, and there are new weapons, skills, and loot to enjoy. There is also a beautifully rendered new environment to play around in. I\u2019m giving two big thumbs up for this DLC and would recommend it to anyone who likes zombies, driving, driving over zombies (but not zombies driving), and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtesy – Techland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SCORE: 82%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kane\u2019s Conclusion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dying Light<\/em>: The Following<\/em> is one pretty game, with some really nice graphics\u2014but it\u2019ll bring even mid-range gaming PCs to their knees. Consider getting a new gaming PC or gaming laptop today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CyberPowerPC Instant Ship Gaming PCs<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dying Light: The Following Techland Let me start by saying any of my gaming friends or anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis knows that I\u2019m not the biggest zombie fan. For me, zombies fit right in-between wolfmen and mummies, in other words, merely fare that perhaps would have been cool when I… Read More »Dying Light: The Following Review \u2013\u00a0Thankfully Not Following The Bozak<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2520,741,3042,2488,2527,67,2486,2524,1791,2570,3000,2571],"class_list":["post-8079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-dying-light-the-following","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews-2","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-laptop-gaming","tag-pc-games","tag-survival-horror-games","tag-techland","tag-zombie-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15585,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079\/revisions\/15585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}