hanselthecaretaker said:
This got me wondering, since I?ve been away from zombie-based games for most of the past decade (or roughly since TLoU anyways): what is the better game between Dead Island and Dying Light? In terms of game design quality, feel of gameplay, fun factor, etc.
Kinda curious to try one or the other.
*edit* well it appears I might like Dying Light more, after reading this [https://steamcommunity.com/app/383150/discussions/0/357287935554315258/] and that [https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/22/why-dying-light-didnt-become-dead-island-2]. Plus this [https://amp.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/77paav/dying_light_vs_dead_island_what_does_each_game_do/] kinda put it over the top in DL?s favor.
I never played Dead Island, but I freaking love Dying Light. The plot isn't superb, but, I mean it's a zombie survival game/story, those are never that complex. They all boil down to "group of random survivors, try and survive, and go out and fight zombies along the way." They try to give the Big Bad a Vass (Farcry 3) vibe, but it doesn't go over well. The villain is the weak link in the story for me, I'll freely admit that. But everything else, the voice acting, the controls, the gameplay, the setting/mood/atmosphere, it all works great for me. The fact that the city is a Middle Eastern city gives it a relatively fresh feel from the typical "America City 127" setting you frequently see in games these days. The motivations of the cast of characters feels legit and realistic, and the main thrust of the story plot, is a good one, with the bit of a flop in the villain category.
It's got humor in it, but that's relegated to the side/optional missions. And some of them are really silly and just goofy fun. But some of the missions to re-establish various infrastructure, can be really tense. Like there is one mission to try and re-establish the powergrid, so they can keep using the UV lights, that the really dangerous undead are allergic to. Problem is, for you to get the power station back online, you have to deal with the issue...at night...which is when all the dangerous zombies come out. And you end up going into a really zombie-dense area to deal with it. You can't see crap because it's night, and if you turn on your flashlight to see, you instantly draw all the zombie attention...which is what you don't want. So you have to either deal with running in the dark, or risking too much danger by zombie attention. And if you complete the mission, then it has a direct impact on the game, as you now have power to a set of lights outside the safe houses you establish around the city, to let you have islands of security from the horde.
Sorry I'm gushing a bit, because Dying Light is seriously one of the most fun games I've played in a long time. It has it's flaws yeah, but it's story is on par with your standard good zombie movie/game, which has never been really in depth to begin with for the genre. The gameplay is fast and engaging, easy to pick up, and fun, with pros and cons to the different tactics you can employ. It rewards thinking cleverly and using the environment to help you deal with threats, and the game just constantly keeps things fun, at least for me anyway.
Also, as another tidbit in Dying Light's favor....my wife loves playing it. And she's not a huge gamer, nor a fan of gross, zombie stuff. But for some reason, whenever I play that game, she gets hooked, and starts up a game of her own. And it sucks her in hard for like several weeks.
I still find myself engaged in the story, even though I know how it ends, because the fun of parkouring my way across the ravaged city of Harran is just so much fun. It feels more "real" as to how people would handle a zombie apocalypse, at least on the survivor side. The streets become a death trap, so they learn to parkour, and turn the rooftops into highways to get across in relative safety. The time of day heavily factors into if you will travel or not. The XP rewards for doing stuff at night, are doubled, but that's when all the REALLY nasty undead come out to play. So the risk/reward is a big factor. 
