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Dying Light: The Following Review

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Dying Light remains to be one of the most impressive games that I’ve played in recent years. It’s basically the love child of Mirror’s Edge and Dead Island, with a lot of added-in polish to truly make it shine.

With the release of The Following, this huge game is now even bigger and feature an all new area to explore, along with new ways to kill zombies – and boy is it fun!

The primary premise puts you back in the shoes of Kyle Crane, but this time to leave the city of Harran to explore the countryside. There are rumors of people outside Harran who are immune to the virus, even if they’ve been bitten – they allegedly don’t turn. You’ll interact with new survivors who pretty much have their own cult, and they’re definitely not the friendliest bunch of folks. Game follows suit with the same type of fetch quest missions, but you’re almost instantly thrown into some really difficult situations. It’s not a Quentin Tarantino plot by any means, but it’s a solid fun plot that is meant to give you a little more of an experience after you finished Dying Light. The Following isn’t something you want to jump into if you haven’t either finished the main game or at least leveled up Kyle to a decent point where he can defeat gun-wielding crazies without too much effort.

The first major change to the gameplay comes in the form of the Dune Buggy. Driving around the buggy and plowing through zombies is fun as hell, but be warned, it will get damaged and degradation calls for you to repair and upgrade it using supplies that you’ll find by playing through this new DLC.  The buggy also comes with its own upgrade skill tree to enhance it further beyond its original condition. It’s a great way to explore the land a little quicker, not to mention that it’s a bit of a safety net too since the rolling hills and farmers’ fields are literally covered with the undead… and smashing them to bits is a little easier than trying to run through them.

 

Aside from the inclusion of the buggy, the core gameplay hasn’t really changed, despite the lack of a full city of buildings to scale. There are still some settlement areas, pipelines and factories – and did I mention the massive number of zombies? I probably did.  Nighttime is still terrifying, though maybe not as tough because it’s a little more open-ended for where you can run in the countryside.  Volatile hives will definitely be one of the biggest challenges in The Following.

Prior to the release of this DLC, developer TechLand announced that the price of the season pass was going to make a slight increase due to the sheer size and quality of The Following DLC package. Normally, this would be met by anger and frustration, but with an already more than fair season pass price, and a two month heads up – I think most people were pretty impressed by the way TechLand went about releasing this package. It’s a well-rounded and huge expansion for the price, with some really great new gameplay mixed in with all the old stuff that made it so great in the first place. The only downside is the fact that you cannot explore Harran and the countryside together – you’ll actually need to access The Following through its own menu option.

Dying Light: The Following raises the bar on how companies should present us with DLC. It’s well priced and offers hours of enjoyment, and it really shows how developers can make a game shine when they love their jobs.

Dying Light: The Following Enhanced Edition was reviewed using a PS4 code provided by the publisher.

Rating
Description
9.5Gameplay
The buggy is a great addition, combined with all the good ole' zombie-slaying methods - it's more of what we loved from Dying Light.
9.0Graphics
Beautiful countryside, some motion blur here and there and little bit of pop-in but nothing bad.
9.5Sound
Nothing truly noteworthy, but still keeps you on the edge, especially at night if you're not in a safe zone.
9.0Final Score
0

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