Dying Light: The Following Review (PS4)

Sorry Lena, I’m busy running over zombies.

And of course, it’s time to get into Dying Light’s story DLC, The Following. Soon after the ending of the main game, some runners found and brought in a severely injured and delirious man that was talking about a group of people that were immune to the Harran Virus. Even when they get bit, they wouldn’t turn despite not taking any Antizin. Also some rambles about someone called The Mother and that everyone needs to stay area from the area he came from. However, in turns out that Antizin is running low (burning a whole bunch on the first few days in Harran must really haunt Crane now) and Lena wants to see if this is true. If it’s not, it’s best knowing than constantly thinking “what if”, but it’ll be great if it was true. Luckily, the mystery man had a map with him, which does help verify what he’s trying to say.

Crane, being the go-to man, is sent out to investigate and he succeeds at not only getting out but also that there were people out here in what the game calls The Countryside. While communications between The Slums and The Countryside is spotty at best, Crane does come across a farm that was luckily not that far away from where Crane entered from. After you gain a bit of trust with the survivors here, you learn that they are basically in a cult (or at least cult-adjacent). The cult, dubbed as The Children of the Sun due to their masks shaped as the sun, and The Mother is the leader and is the one that holds the secret of the immunity you’re seeking. Of course, getting to the point where you can talk to her isn’t going to be easy. So get out there and help these people out.

You’ll basically need to raise your trust with The Children of the Sun so The Mother’s acolytes, The Faceless will start speaking with you and hopefully take you to The Mother. You do get a way to track your ranking with them, and this can be raised by turning in D.R.O.P.S., helping survivors out, doing side quests. Though, the side quests are really more like required quests as it does feel they are a more effective way to raise your rank and even then, I found the main story quest not progressing despite being on the highest rank, Disciple, for a while. I had to complete all but five side quests before the main quest finally progressed. I’m not saying the side quests are bad, as they’re still good and interesting and even our favorite twins pop up again, ot that I didn’t like how you had to gain their trust, but a lot of them are often placed on the other side of the map and I did get a bit annoyed having to turn right back around when I was given the next quest in the questline. I do feel this is also due to The Countryside being shaped like a “C” so you often do have to go all the way around as opposed to in The Slums and Old Town where there were really only a couple situations where you couldn’t make a straight shot to where you needed to go.

With a whole new area to explore, and a new group of people to interact with, brings in some new changes. For one, The Countryside is a vast and open space. Where you were in areas where buildings populated the lands and cars abandoned so you can parkour around to easily avoid most of the zombies that settled in Harran; you are now in a space empty of those buildings and the safe places where people gather are farms or buildings. There is a small area with densely packed buildings that brings in that parkour action, but that place is really filled with zombies due to four annoying Screamer zombies. Anyway, zombies are still roaming around The Countryside, with some areas having groups of zombies hanging out. Considering that it would take way longer to travel on foot, you get something new to help you travel across it faster, the buggy.

If you ever got a fleeting thought during the main game wishing that you could jump into one of the many abandoned cars, The Following brings this wish to light. One of the first things you do in The Following is getting an old buggy and it’s pretty cool honestly. Not only can it go fast, but you can also take ramps (which it will never freak me out thinking I won’t land safely) and you can ram into zombies. Though, granted, it does attract more zombies as it is loud and it is fragile starting out. You’ll have to manage your buggy throughout The Following as not only are there five components that can and will break down and there is a gas gauge to keep your eye on. The five components basically tie into how the buggy handles and you can really tell how much the buggy suffers once a part breaks down. Luckily you can repair them, but they have a limited amount of repairs you can do before you have to either craft or buy new components. Repairing or crafting components also requires the new crafting materials that are added in, which you can look from abandoned vehicles. Gas is also something you need to think about, and it can be looted from abandoned cars and gas stations… just remember to manually fuel up the buggy.

There is also a new skill tree added, Driving, which is leveled up by driving, ramming into zombies, jumping on ramps, and completing challenges. This skill tree will grant you blueprints for crafting better car components (which will make your buggy look way better in addition to having it handle better of course), add components to your buggy automatically like a ramming bar or a reinforced cage around where you’re sitting, adding ways to deal elemental damage with the buggy, and make it more fuel efficient. The buggy also has its own set of cool skins you can out on it, though it won’t really show starting out apart from the basic cage. I really liked how you slowly build up your buggy though, with each better component you put on showing more of the skin you picked for it.

I did end up missing the parkour aspect, I can’t lie about that, but the buggy is fun to drive around in.

Interestingly enough, there are some changes to the zombies themselves as well. The basic zombies have a change at changing into virals at any time, which brings in more danger but also was pretty annoying to deal with. Virals will also jump onto the buggy to claw at you, and the only thing you can do is to try and shake them off. Bolters, which only came out at night in The Slums and Old Town, also now come out during the day as they feel safe in a open space. You can just sneak up on them or try and chase them down with your buggy, but they do tend to zig zag when they’re being chased. There are Freaks of Nature that are that are stronger and deadlier than their counterparts and are treated as mini-bosses that you can go up against. And finally, the Volatiles are also here but in greater number, but this time around you can go into their nests and destroy them to lessen that number a bit. You can enter nests at any time, but they will be easier at night when the Volatiles are out.

Though, I did become annoyed towards the later half of my playthrough with The Following, which was weird since I didn’t when I was playing the main game. It could be because of how the map was shaped, which made traveling annoying especially when side quests were on the other side of the map, and how you won’t be going to another area before you’ll get sick of it. Like I said before, I do think the Trust aspect could have been done better as it was annoying knowing that you maxed it out, but still need to do more side quests before it actually continued. I found myself just wanting the main quest to start up again. I also ended up wishing there was a way to speed up time due to the addition of Volatile Nests. Considering that the newly added Hunting Towers count as a safe spot, I wished that I could just skip hours without having to sit there waiting in real time so I can be close to a Volatile Nest before Night came. Sure, I can do other things, but most of the time I’m too busy and too far away.

Verdict

The Following is a good story DLC, and I do recommend getting it when you purchase the main game, you’ll either like it or hate it depending on what you enjoy. If you like Dying Light’s side quests and don’t mind the majority being required, if you’re fine with parkour not being the focus this time around, okay with guns being more leaned into, and just want a whole new area that also changes up how zombies act; you’ll most likely enjoy The Following. However, you won’t enjoy yourself much if you think you can just do the main quest without doing a lot of side quests, don’t want another thing to look after (the buggy), and don’t want parkour to be put on the back burner. I, myself, did enjoy playing The Following despite having some annoyances here and there so those with a middling ground on the aspects The Following takes and gives may also find themselves enjoying it too.