For those who enjoy these kinds of multiplayer zombie scavenging games, Dying Light manages to shine brighter than the rest. The storyline, voice acting, and supporting animations and in-game cutscenes are superb, you couldn't really ask for more in this day and age, even four years after the release of the enhanced edition. There are constant updates, events, and new DLCs (such as the Hellraid DLC just released a few days prior to this review). In what I've covered, including the scavenging and crafting systems, other similar games (e.g., Division 2) simply don't even come close to comparing. The progression design also deserves lots of recognition. That's not to say there aren't issues with this title. After being out for so many years, there has been a difficulty creep incorporated to the game so that its simply more annoying than it needs to be in couple ways. Also the amount of time required to the reach the next area means that it can quickly become tiresome seeing the exact kinds of areas and buildings before reaching the second part of the game. There is no cross-play, and while playing with friends on GoG Galaxy definitely works well, there are slight issues that can be occasionally frustrating, but most of these will likely be ironed out once Galaxy graduates from Beta. Also, some features that may have existed before (such as easy mode and friends only modes) are not available. Another issue is that zombie sounds (and sounds in general) travel way too far, and don't seem to have a gradient dropoff. So that the sound of a viral busting out of a door 5 blocks away, sounds as its happening right next to you. Which is aggravating when you're already doing something like lockpicking. There's a random issue thats causes non-stop Viral spawning, which is unbelievably frustrating and immersion-breaking. To solve this I always recommend installing a simple drop in mod called 'No Random Virals'. Its increased the fun and immersion of the game by 1000%.
I couldn't believe it when I saw that this game was available on GoG. This was one of my all-time favorite RTGRPGs, Newer titles in the genre like Grimrock may look good with updated graphics, but they feel empty and soulless, capitalizing on the nostalgia of the better and greater games that came before it. I kept the original box and manual for this game for decades until a freak accident occurred, I thought I'd never have a chance to play it again. While it may be extremely dated, the core game experience is still very solid, all the "class" choices are viable, and in a sense each one provides for a different flavor to the story, I don't want to give any spoilers away. (Go Wizard!) The combat is also solid, everything makes sense, and you feel like you can (and sometimes have to) employ tactics to win the day. The soundtrack is fantastic, hopefully someone like OverClocked ReMix will remaster the OST someday. Until then, you can enjoy it in-game or from YouTube. I loved the voice acting too. The whole game is dark, gritty, grim, with a serious, and bleak tone to it. You really feel like the pressure is on you to save the day. It may not be the most engaging storyline like a modern RPG, but as far as the setting is concerned, it was done masterfully. Like many great games back in the day, despite many hours thrown into the game, it was super stable and apparently devoid of bugs. There's a reason this game won GOTY, now go and save Tempest!
One of the truly great RPG experiences. You can really feel that the original game & story designers hand-crafted this new universe with loving hands. This game has been brought to life in a way that not only truly immerses you, but makes you care about the characters, the factions, and the events. You are not only a part of the story, but you feel like your choices make an impact (and they do!). The combat, magic, and skill systems were also tended to, taking full advantage of the PC and its peripherals. This is right up there with Baldur's Gate II and Witcher 3. It is truly unfortunate that the sequels slowly destroyed all of the things that made this original a classic for the ages. If you have stayed away from this game because of how atrocious the sequels are (especially the contemptible DA2), don't fear, this first entry in the series will not let you down. You can tell that the game designers had not yet become embittered and hateful. There is no criminal copying of levels here, oh no, every single area, dungeon, tower, town, and glade has been carefully designed and built. You can tell that the devs actually cared when they began this series. Unfortunately you can tell things started to go south immediately with the Awakening expansion (unlike the colossal achievement of the Baldur's Gate II expansion, Throne of Baal). Of course, its not really fair to compare any RPG to BGII nor its expansion. We haven't seen their like again except for the Witcher 3. If you do get to enjoy this game, you can play the expansion, but stay FAR FAR away from the sequels, especially DA2, the game designers worked on it like they wanted to punish gamers. In DAI, they just didn't care about the IP any longer. Please don't let those terrible titles affect your decision to get or play this game.
This game is such a steaming broken pile, its hard to know where to begin. I've kickstarted every HBS game, but after this disaster, I don't see myself re-entering the fold. Disregarding some extremely unfortunate gameplay choices and unintuitive design, there's some fundamental foundational things that can't be fixed even with patches. They are definitely going to be needing a steady supply of patches as this thing is the most unstable game yet released by HBS. I'm also shocked at the abysmal performance. I tested this on three different systems using both nVidia and Radeon cards, and on Windows 7, 8, and 10.1. I would've tested Linunx, but they won't be releasing that for a couple months, and I'll try and update the review when they do. There actually seemed to be fewer crashes in Windows 7 and 10.1 when using the nVidia cards, though some strange problems did seem to popup here and there, particularly in multiplayer mode. (Which became extremely frustrating for everyone involved). Win 8 the game had serious problems when paired with the nVidia card, but the Radeon actually shined (if crap can shine). Performance was better than even the more powerful 1080 TI on the 10.1 sytem or the SLI GTX 980s on the Win 7 machine. (Both of which were suffering from what seemed shell shock). It was more the randomness and the fact that prior HBS games exhibited no similar problems that really threw me for a loop. After a while the graphics started to really become noticeably dated. It almost felt like I was back in the 90s playing Ghost Bear's legacy or Mechcommander.. and not in a good way. The sound is abjectly uninspiring and becomes annoying after you've heard it enough times, but it can be turned off. Another major disappointment was the "storyline". While HBS has never been accused of award-winning plots, long campaigns, proper character arcs or deep character development, this just seemed lazy and frankly offensive. Unfortunately, that leads to the multiplayer disaster. Only skirmish mode is playable, and that gets real old real fast (even for die-hard Batteltech fans, for casuals, forget it man). Adding in a Co-op mode, especially for the campaign could make things interesting (provided you haven't already gone throug the "story"). Of course that would be if the game actually performed well. While there were other problems with the game (biggest problem being that it feels more like work than fun after the initial rush) they really did an amazing job with the *very* informative GUI, props to them on that. This game manages to provide all the info you need when engaging the enemy in a way that makes sense and is a huge evolution from their previous entries, even their latest (Shadowrun Hong Kong). Even if all the bugs and performance issues are cleaned up (and seriously doubt they can be) and with the edition of a full-blown Co-op mode, this game is already yesterday's news. Just move along and save your money for a better game.
This game is such a steaming broken pile, its hard to know where to begin. I've kickstarted every HBS game, but after this disaster, I don't see myself re-entering the fold. Disregarding some extremely unfortunate gameplay choices and unintuitive design, there's some fundamental foundational things that can't be fixed even with patches. They are definitely going to be needing a steady supply of patches as this thing is the most unstable game yet released by HBS. I'm also shocked at the abysmal performance. I tested this on three different systems using both nVidia and Radeon cards, and on Windows 7, 8, and 10.1. I would've tested Linunx, but they won't be releasing that for a couple months, and I'll try and update the review when they do. There actually seemed to be fewer crashes in Windows 7 and 10.1 when using the nVidia cards, though some strange problems did seem to popup here and there, particularly in multiplayer mode. (Which became extremely frustrating for everyone involved). Win 8 the game had serious problems when paired with the nVidia card, but the Radeon actually shined (if crap can shine). Performance was better than even the more powerful 1080 TI on the 10.1 sytem or the SLI GTX 980s on the Win 7 machine. (Both of which were suffering from what seemed shell shock). It was more the randomness and the fact that prior HBS games exhibited no similar problems that really threw me for a loop. After a while the graphics started to really become noticeably dated. It almost felt like I was back in the 90s playing Ghost Bear's legacy or Mechcommander.. and not in a good way. The sound is abjectly uninspiring and becomes annoying after you've heard it enough times, but it can be turned off. Another major disappointment was the "storyline". While HBS has never been accused of award-winning plots, long campaigns, proper character arcs or deep character development, this just seemed lazy and frankly offensive. Unfortunately, that leads to the multiplayer disaster. Only skirmish mode is playable, and that gets real old real fast (even for die-hard Batteltech fans, for casuals, forget it man). Adding in a Co-op mode, especially for the campaign could make things interesting (provided you haven't already gone throug the "story"). Of course that would be if the game actually performed well. While there were other problems with the game (biggest problem being that it feels more like work than fun after the initial rush) they really did an amazing job with the *very* informative GUI, props to them on that. This game manages to provide all the info you need when engaging the enemy in a way that makes sense and is a huge evolution from their previous entries, even their latest (Shadowrun Hong Kong). Even if all the bugs and performance issues are cleaned up (and seriously doubt they can be) and with the edition of a full-blown Co-op mode, this game is already yesterday's news. Just move along and save your money for a better game.
