Dying Light: The Following (PC) – bigger isn’t necessarily better

Last year’s smash hit zombie game gets a standalone sequel that has more new features and ideas than most sequels.

You know that sense of finely crafted artistry you get with the very best games? The works of Valve, Nintendo, or Naughty Dog – where every control system seems to have been tuned to perfection, every line of dialogue perfectly hewn, and each map and landscape optimally designed down to the smallest detail? Dying Light is the opposite of that.

We’d be lying if we said we didn’t understand why Dying Light, and spiritual predecessor Dead Island, had such a large following. They’re open world zombie games, like Fallout with the undead, and as such they offer lots of freedom and an infinite number of opportunities to bash walking corpses in the face with a monkey wrench.



But they’re also, and we don’t think even the series’ most ardent supporters deny this, so rough around the edges it’s a wonder you don’t cut yourself on the game disc. This standalone expansion offers a considerably different experience, but we’d hesitate to call it a better one. Its greatest virtues are that it’s cheap, it has lots of content, and it steals from a slightly different set of games than before. Oh, and it has zombies in it. Obviously.


The most interesting thing about the original Dying Light was its first person parkour system, which although simplistic and inelegant got the job done and even managed to avoid some of the mistakes of Mirror’s Edge. But all that has been pushed very much to the background in The Following, and instead Polish developer Techland has decided to recreate the open world buggy-driving from Half-Life 2.

That’s a curious direction to take, especially since many consider that to be the worst part of Half-Life 2, but there’s an undeniable joy to ploughing through hordes of zombies while firing machineguns wildly. It creates a real low budget ‘80s action film vibe, which in hindsight is a very good fit for Techland’s brand of junk food gaming.

Dying Light: The Following (PC) – now it’s Carmageddon instead of Mirror’s Edge

Predictably, the handling and physics aren’t particularly good, but the most frustrating aspect of driving is how easy it is to get hung up on small obstacles like walls and potholes. Your buggy may look like a sturdy off-roader but even after several upgrades it’s a frustratingly unreliable ride. There are certainly plenty of customisation options though, and even a new dedicated skill tree. Although all the different parts can degrade and break down just like your melee weapons, so maintenance is important and something of a chore.

The best bit about the buggy is having a friend riding shotgun with you. Indeed, the co-op options are a lot more fun in The Following than they were in the main game. Although the competitive races with other players are typically half-assed.

The countryside setting is the practical reason there’s not much leaping across rooftops, and in terms of graphics the game definitely looks more impressive than the original city setting. Although it’s still beset by lots of minor glitches and performance issues. The open world map is also huge, bigger than the main game apparently, and Techland definitely deserve credit for not trying to charge more or trying to sell it as Dying Light 2. The map isn’t very well designed though, and is awkwardly cut in half by a mountain range that is a pain to deal with.



Predictably, the storytelling is as bad as ever, with Techland missing the opportunity to ditch personality vacuum Kyle Crane as their protagonist. The plot revolves around a group of cultists who appear to be immune to the zombie plague, but who need to be won over before they explain their secrets. This quickly devolves into an excuse to perform an unending series of fetch quests for people. Mission variety was another major problem with Dying Light, and here there’s so much repetition in terms of mission types that it all quickly begins to blur into one.

Dying Light: The Following (PC) – the crossbow comes in very handy

Since there’s no fast travel this leads to the size of map actually working against the experience, as you question whether travelling halfway across the game world just to complete another identikit mission is a worthwhile use of your time.

The new setting has also had a significant effect on the night encounters, because not only does it make it even harder to avoid obstacles but the Volatile zombies that come out at night can run faster than your buggy. They zero in on it the second you come into range and are near impossible to deal with. The Following is clearly meant to be harder than the main game – you can import your existing character but Techland advise that he be at least level 19 – but playing at night is just no fun at all. Especially when you die and get respawned miles from a safe zone.

In other words The Following is just as sloppily designed as ever, and although there’s fun to be had it’s only by recognising what the developer was trying to do and making your own excuses for why not achieving it doesn’t matter. If you don’t mind the clumsy combat, and now equally clumsy driving, and you really love killing zombies then there’s still a lot to enjoy here. But there’s even more to get frustrated and bored by.

Dying Light: The Following In Short: Just like the original Dying Light, nothing works quite as well as it should and although there are some interesting new ideas here none of them are realised without significant flaws. Pros: Extremely good value for the amount of content. The buggy and its customisation options can be fun, despite the problems, especially in co-op. Cons: Frustrating driving, awkwardly designed world map, and repetitive missions. Night sequences are worse than ever and there’s very little parkour. Score: 5/10

Formats: PC (reviewed), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4

Price: £15.99

Publisher: WB Games

Developer: Techland

Release Date: 9th February 2016

Age Rating: 18


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