Dying Light: The Following Review

When Techland’s Dying Light was first released back in early 2015, it was the next step in design and gameplay for their zombie-infested open world, compared to their other offering Dead Island. With free-running being the big focus, players can traverse the large city and slums of Harran with ease; avoiding the zombie hordes by climbing, leaping and sliding to escape and survive another day or use the skills to fight back with creatively crafted weapons.

The Following carries on from this, but takes you away from the desolate and deserted streets of the city to the countryside. Carrying on from the conclusion of the original story, you're placed back in the boots of forgettable protagonist Kyle Crane. With a clear threat of infection still remaining, rumors have spread of a possible immunity held secret by a group of cultists. The story is original, but stretched thin. In order to learn more you’ll have to build a level of trust with the people within the countryside in order to get noticed; basically an easier and mundane way of getting you to carry out a large number of quests in order to progress the story. This is not to say the new set of quests are terrible, but it’s just that it became a drag when forced to carry out so many, this became annoyance for me in the Mad Max game. Those who have played the main story in Dying Light will know that the quests either involved searching and doing something or fetching something for someone and it’s no different here.

The Following’s biggest addition is of course the countryside itself. A vast open area full of fields, farms, hunting towers and factories. Unlike the urban environments of the city, the countryside isn’t as dense, but the areas within are varied enough that it doesn’t feel like a copy and paste job with added fields. Techland have said that the new map is larger than two found the main game combined, and it shows, standing from the cliffs above you can see the scope of it and getting around couldn’t be easier with the new buggy. With the introduction of the buggy, you get a whole new level playing field and alongside you can gain new driving skills. The more you drive, the more exp you gain towards unlocking abilities such as: Faster repairing, nitro, roll cage, UV headlights and best of all a flamethrower. Going off-road, avoiding abandoned vehicles, ditches, trees and if you choose to, zombies makes the whole driving experience great, and whole lot of fun. Certainly the highlight of the expansion. It was clear that Techland didn’t hand you the keys just to get from point A to B, as there was nothing more satisfying than putting the pedal to the metal and barrage through a group of groaning zombies, feeling and hearing the crunch as they bounce off. Just take care that you don’t trash your buggy too much as repairing and upgrading costs.

Away from the buggy, free-running still plays its part and you can carry over your gained skills and abilities from the base game and this includes all your weapons. Combat handles no differently, so you can still tackle the zombies with the right weapon in hand, although with now wider open areas, trying your luck against a horde will be troublesome. The environments around are not just limited to fields and safe houses, you’ll be venturing to new areas such desolate factories and the remains of military outposts overrun.
The same goes for the night, remaining as frightful and fearsome as it was before. If you’re brave enough you can tackle the night and earn that double EXP. You still have the task of avoiding the Volatiles, the bloodthirsty creatures that will hunt you down if spotted. Keeping in the buggy is recommended for nighttime runs, as if spotted, things go downhill and it is just as intense as the main. Even when driving you’re still vulnerable, so by keeping your foot down and getting to a safe zone is recommended should you find yourself out still at nightfall.

As for the package itself, it’s starting become a common trend for european developers to re-release their titles with enhanced versions of their already released games. CD Projekt Red are perhaps most well known for this, with both their Witcher 1 and 2 titles getting the treatment. Techland have now carried on the trend with Dying Light. Bundled together with The Following and the main game is the Enhanced Edition. You don’t have to own the season pass or expansion to gain the enhancements included, it’s all part of a free download. It is basically all of last years patches, updates and improvements bundled together alongside all previously released DLC - the last part isn’t included if you only own the base game.

Overall, the package has got its fair share of improvements. The Legend System - which rewards those players who have maxed out their skills by giving them with an additional 250 levels. Nightmare Mode - which makes the game closer to a real apocalypse by being much harder and immersive, playing in co-op definitely recommended for this mode. Lastly you have Bounties - a long list of additional challenges to earn more EXP, ranging from simply killing with fire to more skillful such as performing instant grab breaks consecutively without getting bitten.

Performance and visual enhancements felt negligible, but this could be due to the fact that I hadn’t played the game in some time and they weren’t apparent enough for me to notice. I must admit though that I have played through the Enhanced Edition on PC, but originally base game on PS4, so from the get go I had a real big difference in quality. Techland say the animations have improved and added more, but I couldn’t tell, I guess a direct comparison would be needed, facial and NPC animations still look jarring at times and occasionally speak out of sync, but it’s nothing deal breaking as the enhancements cover it well. Packaged altogether the enhancements make for an excellent first time buy, you get all the additional DLC and the already excellent base game, which you can read our review for here.

The Following expansion pack is a fantastic, enjoyable addition to an already great game, the story hooks from the beginning and holds more intrigue than the main story. The disappointment comes from the execution of the said story. The characters, while not unlikable, are forgettable just like the protagonist, but thankfully there is plenty to do in the countryside with a generous serving of new quests - you’re bound not to find a dull moment within. By the end though, you’ll be wanting to do nothing more than get behind the wheel and creating chaos as you speed across the dirt roads, taking down zombies in a field of blood splattering glory.