AdministrarotGreetings. Perhaps when you came to this blog you decided that this was some kind of belated review of Dying Light, but no. In this blog I would like to touch on the topic of immersing myself in the world of Harran and its surroundings. This blog is intended for those who have completed the game and have just started playing, but do not understand why it is so catchy. Why I like her so much and why she has a pretty high score (75 on Metacritic)? Here I will not touch on the gameplay features of the game, but will only consider the atmosphere of the game. So let’s not hesitate!
I will divide the entire blog into three small parts: Picture, sound, progress.
By the word “Picture” I mean the general impression of the graphics and the overall range of the game. So, the entire game, with the exception of a few moments, is orange-yellow. And this is not without reason, because the fictional city of Harran, according to the developers, is located in Turkey. Unlike many zombie games, where the events take place in the dark, perhaps in a city with a green tint (like in the Last of Us), the environment of Dying Light is more reminiscent of a town somewhere in a deserted place. The color of the game during the day, as stated earlier, is yellow and orange. Yellow, for example, is the color of the disease, which somehow complements the picture of the infected area. This choice of gamma and color gave players a feeling of alienation and even created a certain melancholy. Is it beautiful? This is a matter of taste, but if in Resident Evil 2 Remaster we saw black and gray colors, which of course was scary, Harran gave us a slightly different impression. In Dying Light, colors were chosen to calm the player without escalating the situation. But who said that peace cannot fascinate and frighten at the same time?? Here I would like to say that the game feels different at different times of the day. Now I’m looking at the day. The developers did not intend to intimidate the player with the environment so that he would be afraid to leave the safe zone. Who then will study and explore the world?? The warm color of the game during the day gave the player the opportunity to look around Harran for points of interest. Dying Light doesn’t try to be a horror game, but at the same time it doesn’t relax the player to the maximum. The result is a killer combo of atmosphere and a false sense of security. Yes, yes, exactly false. The line between fear and the desire to quickly find out, for example, what is in that building, is thin. In my opinion, the developers managed to stay exactly in the middle, without simultaneously giving complete peace and without hindering movement. Running across the rooftops of houses illuminated by the bright sun, knowing that zombies are roaming somewhere below, who are very strong at the beginning of the game and can send the player to the loading screen in a couple of seconds, is not scary. And this is all thanks to the yellow and orange colors. People usually associate these warm colors with something pleasant, and from this the city of Harran does not repel with its mutants and bandits, but rather attracts with its pleasant atmosphere. The atmosphere of the world of this game is 70% the color of the environment. We’re done with the day in Dying Light, but there’s still night ahead.
So now it’s night in Harran. What has changed?? And a lot! Firstly, the primary colors changed: from yellow and orange to black and bright purple. While playing Dying Light, a player could learn one very important rule during the first hours of the game: night is not the time for travel. At this time, especially dangerous infected people come out onto the streets, and the difficulty of the game increases significantly. As the sun sets, the tension increases and the player’s heart begins to beat faster. But this is not only because of the difficulty of survival, but precisely because of the flowers. The darkness can hide from the player the infected, who are many times more tenacious and stronger than daytime zombies. The player hears them, but does not see them. The player’s awareness that he could be attacked at any second makes him start to worry. The purple color comes from UV lanterns, which both the player and NPCs have. UV lights are also placed in safe areas. The bright color of these lanterns is even a little annoying, as it is against the backdrop of black, which has swallowed up the entire city. The contrast between black and purple complements the already uncomfortable atmosphere of the game at night.
To summarize, I would like https://gamblingsitesnotongamstop.co.uk/ to say that many simply do not consider color to be an important role in games. But it was in Dying Light that color became most important, because without this special ambience and atmosphere, the world of Harran would not impress us as much as it does now.
Sound is a very important part of the game. Even more important than you think. The sound of a breaking roof or exploding gas tanks is very loud. And this is important, because loud sounds give unpleasant sensations. Considering that the city itself makes certain sounds, such as grinding or knocking, the player understands that the city, ironically, is alive. As the player thinks: “Well, if I can throw something at a wall and it makes a loud sound, or if I fall from a great height onto a pile of garbage and it makes a characteristic crack, then those sounds that I heard in the distance are apparently also caused by something."But the most important thing is that these sounds affect the gameplay. Hearing a loud sound, the infected will come running to its source. They are quite intimidating in the early stages of the game because of their high speed. And before they run to you, they themselves will scream, and very loudly. This is undoubtedly terrifying for beginners, because upon hearing a scream, the player will begin to panic. If the infected were initially nearby, but somewhere in a locked building, they will knock down the door with a roar, which leaves the player in shock.
The music is very good in my opinion. She is not fast, but even calm, which complements the serenity I spoke about earlier. And I even downloaded some songs. However, in the original Dying Light there is not a lot of catchy music, but in the DLC The Following, many are etched in the memory for a long time. Here are some tracks I would recommend:
Paweł Błaszczak-Stealth
Paweł Błaszczak-Last Turn
Paweł Błaszczak-What Next
What is progress? In this case, progress is pumping up the main character. But I said that I wouldn’t touch on gameplay aspects, right?? Exactly. I would like to talk not about progress in levels and gaining new skills, but about Crane’s progress as a participant in the events of Dying Light. Previously, I wanted to write about the plot in Dying Light, but you understand that it has practically no importance? So, progress. At the beginning we play as a VGM agent who is trying to become “one of us” in the Tower, having, of course, his own goals. Later we become imbued with people from there. Then we become attached to Rahim, and so on. By the end of the game, you play not as an agent, but as a person who is not indifferent to the fate of Harran. People recognize you and you feel like your actions have not gone unnoticed. Personally, I liked Crane, mainly because he didn’t follow the government’s lead. Yes, we basically play the role of an errand boy, but this is more of a general plot problem. The hero develops. We see this in the DLC The Following, where we go, by the way, to find something that will help everyone. There he helps many, and this is progress. Progress from a follower of orders to a person who acts as he wishes. And the most important thing is that the player feels the same. The beginning of the game is a short briefing for the task from the VGM, and a very important task. The player feels a connection with the VGM and understands that the task needs to be completed, but since we communicate with them only using a walkie-talkie, the influence of the VGM decreases. We cease to feel whose task we are performing. This is due to the fact that the only person from VGM with whom we communicate is the instructor, and in Harran itself there are many living people. Trust in the VGM is falling due to their orders and lack of personal approach. In their eyes, we are just an executor of orders.
And the bottom line is this: the game Dying Light is not just an action game in a world with zombies, but something more important. To be honest, after watching the gameplay trailer for Dying Light 2, which has not yet been released (or maybe you are reading this at the moment when it came out), I was a little upset, because there I will most likely see the usual green and gray colors, I will not be able to feel what I felt while passing Dying Light, but we have gone somewhere wrong. As a result, Dying Light is a unique project that we will never see. It’s a pity, of course, but what’s stopping you from launching it again, even after so many years?.