Despite the presence of many first person adventure horror titles – and even games like Mirror’s Edge that encourage free-running – Dying Light developer Techland finds it a bit lazy that discussion about their game should end there.
As producer Tymon Smektala puts it when speaking to AusGamers, “I think it’s a lazy thing to say. If you look at the game, it has zombies in it and it’s melee-based, so it is Dead Island, then you look at it again and see that the motion has that free-running aspect to it, so it is Mirror’s Edge.”
But there’s more to it than that. “Of course, that description is okay, and covers the basics of Dying Light, but I don’t personally really like that description because it’s just a very small part of the picture that we’re trying to paint here.”
Smektala also believes that Dying Light will be comparatively less linear than Mirror’s Edge, in which there was usually only one right way to get to your destination. “With the current demo of Dying Light, and how the whole game plays right now you’re really not limited. You can think of any way to get around the environment and you can use that way, if it looks like it’s realistic for you to go there.”
Dying Light is currently scheduled to release in 2014 for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.