GOL Cast: Avoiding Zombies, Bugs And DMCA Claims In Dying Light

So... Dying Light. A triple A day one Linux port. Now that would sound awesome but sadly releasing games in a horrible state is trendy and Techland seems to have wanted a piece of that cake. Let's list the problems, shall we?

Dying Light is an open world zombie survival game where you are sent to a zombie infested city of Harran to fetch a stolen file that contains a recipe for an experimental cure for the infection. An ex-politician in the city is threatening to release the said document to all of the world. The catch? That medicine in its experimental state would be poisonous and releasing it to the world would only cause pain and suffering. So, you need to blend in to the world of survivors and attempt to find the target and get it back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXgOAG8iShI

You probably have already noticed that I'm not too happy about the state of this game. Before we found our own little tweaks, the game was absolutely unplayable. It was so bad that it couldn't even be called cinematic because the framerate often dipped down well beyond 24 frames per second, something that even Hollywood wouldn't accept. And this was accompanied by a boat-load of bugs, including the lips not moving when NPCs talked, inability to secure safe zones, frequent freezes, co-op not working properly and graphical glitches. Many people were ready to excuse these issues because ”it's a AAA, they always have problems at launch”. Well I don't think that's an excuse. If you release a full game I expect a full game. If you have a high budget you should have enough money to afford quality assurance. But apparently that was not a case, considering the state of the Linux port.

Luckily some of these issues have been addressed and it seems lips are now moving when NPCs are talking. However, it's still an extremely buggy game. And it's also extremely heavy. Even with everything cranked down to low it uses around 8GB of RAM. Yes, you read that right. When I play this game on my Intel i5-2500k, GTX 760, 8GB RAM setup I constantly go onto swap. After about an hour of gameplay, I'm certain that I have around 1 GB of swap space in use. And that's when I only have Steam and Dying Light running. The game also still suffers from the inability to secure safe zones, which is vital for your sanity because without them you have to walk long distances after dying and especially during nights you might get into big trouble due to the lack of safe zones in your area.

I guess I should also talk a bit about the game and not just the issues I'm having with it. In theory the game isn't bad. The gameplay is well thought out and the map is fun to roam around in. The parkour elements also tie into the game very nicely. The combat also requires some tactical thinking because your combat stamina will run out after just a couple of swings with your improvised hammer or lead pipe. Combined with some of the moves you unlock later on, like the dash that allows you to jump out of the way of enemy attacks, the combat is very enjoyable and also somewhat difficult. You won't be just mowing through hordes of zombies. In fact, avoiding combat by staying on rooftops and cars is extremely important for your survival.

The day and night cycle is a nice addition to the game as well. During day you will mostly encounter normal virals with a couple of special infected thrown into the mix for some extra difficulty but at night the streets become infested with nightmarish creatures known as volatiles. They are virtually immortal, extremely fast and they will hunt you down and absolutely murder you if they catch you. But at night your rewards also get bigger. Rival factions won't be touching any air drops that fall around the map and you get an experience boost to your power and agility levels. Some of the missions in the game also require you to stay out at night to complete the objectives.

I have to say, I have enjoyed Dying Light but I absolutely can't recommend it. Especially with all of the shady stuff that's happening around the game at the moment. The review keys were sent out to the gaming press extremely late and the preview versions of the game apparently didn't have as many problems as the full release. And it seems that Techland is focusing more on cracking down on modders than actually fixing their game, sending DMCA claims at modders who, for example, created a mod that removed the film grain from the game. I guess their artistic vision of the game is more important that having gamers enjoy their game. Why would modding even affect this game in any bad way? Sure, hacking is not okay but this is mainly a singleplayer/co-op game, so who cares? If I wanted to make myself immortal and run through the game without a care, why would you stop me? And these mods in question only removed artsy fluff like the film grain. Hell, even we might get a DMCA claim for spreading around a tweak that effectively doubles your performance by disabling some shadow related features.

Verdict: don't get this game. There are plenty of other zombie games to play while you wait. And voting with your wallet is the most effective way to get all of this crap fixed. Yeah, I know that we need to support games for Linux gaming to grow but supporting broken games will only get us more broken games. And finally, DON'T PRE-ORDER ANYTHING. Dying Light showcased very well why companies push this pre-order culture on us. Get your games when they are actually out and make sure you know what you are buying into. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.