Dying Light's release pushed back

Dying Light is no longer one of the next gen console games I'm looking froward to being released this year. Why? Because a recent press release (in full below) has the release date pushed back to February 2015.

Dying Light - Release Timing Announcement

Dear Gamers,

We know you've been waiting on a Dying Light release date for quite some time now. After careful consideration, we have decided to release our upcoming game in February 2015. Since this means Dying Light will launch a few months later than originally planned, we feel obliged to explain the reasons that influenced this important decision.

When we started the development of Dying Light, we were committed to innovation. We wanted to give you a freedom of movement unprecedented in open world games. After many improvements and months of hard work, we have now come so close to realizing our initial vision we feel we cannot stop before it is ready.

We believe the Natural Movement element of our game will change what you expect from the genre, and we don’t want to sacrifice any of its potential by releasing too early. This quality-focused thinking underlines all our development choices and we hope you share our belief that the gameplay must always come first.

The new date ensures that we can fully realize our vision of an innovative open world game. We won’t need to make compromises or trade-offs on any of the five platforms we’re working on. For you, it means an outstanding, original game that makes the wait more than worthwhile.

Finally, we would like to thank our publishing partner, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which fully supports our decision. It’s a real pleasure to work in an environment where quality is universally accepted as the top priority. We believe that this is the only way to make truly incredible games.

We also have an additional announcement for you: starting next month at E3 2014, we’ll be telling you much more about all the exciting features and different aspects of Dying Light. Stay tuned!

-- Dying Light Team

I'm quietly enthusiastic about Dying Light. It looks like it'll be an impressive game, given the gameplay videos that have already been shared. The fact that there were already videos of the gameplay surfacing two months ago, makes the delay in release quite surprising. I'm guessing the developers wouldn't delay this release, unless they felt that the game would benefit from the delay quite drastically.

At least now I'll have more time to play either Alien: Isolation or Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, depending on whether the PS3 versions of these games do titles justice. I'm hoping that there wont be too much of a difference between the PS3 and PS4 versions, although that be a little too optimistic on my part. Either way, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel should keep me busy for quite some time.

A new reason to be afraid of the dark

Apart from Evolve, Techland's Dying Light is the only "next generation" console game I'm looking forward to the release of. The difference though, is that Dying Light will also be getting a "previous gen." release. While the version for older consoles will no doubt lack all the bells and whistles of the next gen. edition, it still looks to offer an interesting gameplay experience. 

While the developers are endorsing this as the game that will make you want to upgrade to a next gen. console, it's the seamless integration the touch control, and voice recognition features that I'm more than a little sceptical about. To me these still come across as gimmicky extra that Sony and Microsoft added on in order to outdo the opposition. As you may have guessed, neither is particularly appealing to me. 

It would be really disappointing if the overall gameplay experience of this first-person, zombie survival horror story were to be let down due to clumsy implementation of these added next gen. features. However if the team at Techland manage to pull it off, I can see Dying Light becoming a popular title, with the obligatory sequel being developed in a few years time.

In terms of the actual story, I really like the idea of the zombies becoming stronger, faster, and more agile after the sun has set. It'll require the player to be able to adapt their playing style in order to survive various situations, dependent on the number of zombies in the area, as well as the amount of ambient light. Depending on how long the in-game day/ night cycle is, as well as whether or not zombies will actively seek out the player at night, could mean that hiding, and waiting out the night might actually be a viable option when you find yourself outnumbered, and alone in the dark. Oh, and during the day, you'll have to contend with other survivors who may pose just as much of a threat as the undead.

If you want to see some of the actual gameplay with developer commentary, then watch IGN's trailer below. I suggest setting the resolution to a minimum of 720p so that you can get an idea of just how detailed the environments are.