Most zombie games that have hit the market emphasize either heavy weapons or timid stealth. Games either have you mow through a horde with a minigun or sneak by them, praying they don't see you. Dying Light's Natural Movement system gives you a third option. Run.
Check Out This Dying Light Gameplay Trailer
One of the game mechanics that developer Techland's first-person zombie game has been advertising from early on in development was its system of freerunning. Now called Natural Movement, this mechanic is featured in a new video that shows just how much freedom the game gives you in terms of getting around the city.
The movement has a very Mirror's Edge look to it, just because of the similarity of the "first-person parkour" concept. As the developers mention in the video, however, their game gives you tons of options for how to scale a building or circumvent a wall. Climbing by hand seems to be a quick and efficient option for ascent, though players also seem to have some sort of grappling hook (more like a knife tied to a rope) that they can use to surmount buildings in a jiffy. The whole experience seems very fluid and looks to provide players with many options, letting each player discover their own favorite way of going from A to B.
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Other than providing quick movement, Dying Light's freerunning system doesn't seem like it give the player much benefit in terms of survival during the daytime. Players seem to reliably be able to one-shot foes with a variety of weapons, and the zombies don't move fast enough to present a terrible danger. Natural Movement becomes much more useful, however, when another game mechanic comes into play: nighttime. Once the sun goes down in Dying Light, zombies become quicker and more numerous. Combine that with your limited vision in the dark and suddenly running seems to be the preferred option.
As an aside, the video very deliberately shows a tester playing with an Oculus Rift, meaning that there's a really good chance Dying Light will show up on Facebook's new plaything. Other than that, though, it's definitely encouraging that this video has a "#1" attached to it, meaning we should start seeing more and more from this game ahead of its February release.
