THE DEAD TIMES
DEAD ARE COMING...
Dying Light 2 - Is infection a good idea?
It's been only four years since the original Dying Light launched on PC and major consoles, three since the follow-up expansion game The Following, but it seems like longer than that. With Dying Light, The Following and, to some extent, it's pseudo-prequel Dead Island, developers Techland cemented their place in gaming culture by bringing us a host of truly stupendous Zombie games; first-person games where the actions felt physical and immediate, environments felt real and the Zombies were brought to life in hideous detail (for the development of Dying Light, they even had a real-life Zombie called Steve in their office to act as a consultant, ensuring the living dead were just right). Since these games were released, no one - not Undead Labs with State of Decay nor, even, Capcom with Resident Evil 2 (although this gem does come close) - has matched Techland's Dying Light series in terms of sheer open-world quality.
In 2018 a sequel was announced; Dying Light 2. The exact nature of the incredibly exciting follow-up remained under wraps but the announcement trailer did show off a very enviable slice of gameplay. For the most part, going by what was revealed back then, the game would remain true to the series' roots with the symbolic fast-action parkour movement across semi-run-down cities returning, even being expanded upon to incorporate new moves. However, the major surprise was the endless possibility of a new 'choice and consequence' system. This mechanic was not just to be limited to dialogue or how certain factions of non-player characters treat the hero of the story, as may be expected, but would actually change the entire look of the world, the actions performed by human inhabitants of that world and what resources were available to you in the future.
E3 2019 came around and I could not wait to see another big trailer to really get my inner Undead-loving heart racing. Instead, most of the Techland presentation remained behind closed doors, a demo showcasing the system teased last year actually working 100% dynamically in the game - no video trickery and no unproven promises. While slightly disappointing we did, however, get one tantalising piece of new content in the released cinematic trailer; namely the hero, Aiden Caldwell, and the fact that he is infected. Yes, you read that right: Aiden is infected with whatever Hell-borne disease turns the living into Zombies. This is a shocking twist on the fairly straight-forward 'Survivors and Zombies' tale of the original game which, to be honest, has got me a little worried; it could be a great, new step in the Zombie genre but it could equally be a grave, game-breaking design error, a tired stumble in a legendary history.
It could be fantastic
1. It's an entirely new concept - Dying Light pushed the Zombie genre forward by introducing the 'day/night' concept where you only face classic, slow, Romero shuffling Zombies during the day but come nightfall, a whole new breed of super-fast, super-agile, super-deadly breed of the dead come out; Volatiles. Playing as an infected character who has to manage that infection and, in whatever way the developers decide to handle it, has to live with that infection is an intriguing idea. To my knowledge, no video game has ever done this before - Dead Rising hinted at this in the story with Zombrex and the infection-meter wristbands of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 came close - so being infected but still having some task to undertake in your life, being stubborn unwilling to turn into a shambling monster, could be that next step to give a flagging Zombie genre a new lease of life.
2. Death may not be the end - With Aiden already being infected - the Zombie virus pulsing through his veins - can he really die? I mean, on the surface, of course, he can be killed but would he then not just become a Zombie? Perhaps, given the 'choice and consequence' theme of the game, there is a Zombie half of the story for you to play if you die early on or let the infection take complete control - a sort of 'you died, now deal with the consequences'. That would be brilliant if done well and really make the game unique. Imagine, dying and then rising again as a Land of the Dead-style, intelligent Zombie like Big Daddy, leading the less intellectual Zombies against the living who ruthlessly killed you. Or maybe you could play a more passive Zombie, still leading the untrained masses, but simply looking for a place to call home.
3. A boost to replayability - Given the fact that choices you make throughout the game will fundamentally alter the game, it is ripe for being played over and over, each time making different choices to 'test out' how they affect the game. If the story takes twenty plus hours to playthrough, you are less likely to want to go through it again; they'll be more games out by the time you reach this enviable milestone which you may prefer to delve into instead of re-treading a road already followed. Aiden being infected means his days are numbered - you may be able to stay his execution somewhat by downing some medicine (or whatever it turns out to be) but Aiden is going to become a Zombie eventually. This can easily be utilised to keep the single-player game short, boosting peoples' urge to play again.
It could be dismal
1. Replayability at the cost of enjoyment - Following on from point 3 above, I'm not sure anyone really wants a short single-player game where the main character dies at the end, no matter of how well they play. Again, this comes back to the whole 'choice and consequence' thing; if you are making your own choices throughout the entire game and seeing this positively or negatively affect the game world, the last thing the player wants is to be funnelled down a 'canned' ending with no choice and no possible deviation. If you give people the freedom to do what they want and actually focus on this aspect of gameplay, you have to keep this up throughout the entire game or else players will get frustrated.
2. Boring 'fight-the-infection' mechanics - Infection obviously needs to be managed in some way to avoid becoming a Zombie early on (assuming this is not actually intended). On a 2-dimensional level, this could be represented by a simple slider; minimal levels are fine but, while it constantly ticks up, if it gets too high, it's goodbye Aiden and hello lumbering ghoul. To keep that level low, Aiden would have to regularly find and down bottles of pills in some form of soul-sapping, repeating fetch quest. This would kill the game; handling a life with the Zombie virus running through your body needs to be exciting, strenuous and threatening, not just a boring survival meter to keep track of.
3. Being bitten is a good thing - One of my biggest fears is that Techland will make being bitten by a Zombie - having contracted the Zombie virus but not yet succumbed to it - an oddly beneficial experience. They could make it that Aiden, being a weird half-Zombie, has super-powers or abilities that normal humans would not; like a Zombie version of Blade; all the advantages of a Vampire (or, in this case, a Zombie) but only one of their weaknesses. Being bitten by a Zombie must, must, must be an extremely bad thing. I suppose it would be possible to pull off this angle if done well but it's just so different to everything a Zombie-fan has been 'brought up' to know by classic films that to try it may be gaming industry suicide.
There you have it; three reasons the decision to make the playable hero of Dying Light 2 infected could be golden and three reasons it could be a disaster. In general, I'm hopeful and I'm sure Techland can pull it off given their track record of ground-breaking Zombie games (plus, the prospect of actually becoming a Zombie and playing a Zombie-themed story is simply mind-blowing). Still it does add risk - risk that Techland could easily have avoided and still produced an awesome sequel. Only the future holds the answer, a future that will not be too far away by the sounds of it.
DESCRIPTION:
In this article, I debate whether Techland's decision to make the hero of Dying Light 2 infected is a good idea or not. On the surface, it is a cool new concept that could push Zombie games forward in bold new ways but, delve a little deeper, and it becomes a major risk - one that, ultimately, may prove fatal.
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DATE UPLOADED:
07/07/2019