Techland Shows Off Early Dying Light Gameplay

Techland, the development team behind the Call of Juarez and Dead Island series, has released 12 minutes of Dying Light pre-alpha gameplay.

Dying Light, which was revealed as a first person, freerunning survival horror game back at E3, features mechanics similar to a combination of Dead Island and Mirror’s Edge. Hordes of zombie-like infected roam the streets and stand in your way from care package drops containing much-needed food and medicine. Speed is key, as you must get to your objectives before sundown.

In this playthrough you run, leap and jump through urban favela surroundings in order to get what you need before your enemy faction does. On the way you stumble upon a sidequest that can be either completed or ignored. Your decisions will affect the storyline, but to what point is unknown at this stage. They do take up time, which may result in you forced to traverse back to your safe house at nighttime, when the infected turn into super mutants with enhanced abilities.

The exact style of game Dying Light remains a mystery. The video above puts you in the first person view with a limited UI. All you see is your weapons and arms as you fight against monsters (and possibly other humans, as time goes on). At nighttime you develop a “Night Sense” which allows you to see where enemies are and if they’ve noticed you in the dark. Dying Light looks to prepare you for action in the day and stealth in the night.

There are some oddities in the trailer. Your jumps look superhuman, to the point of jumping over a 6 foot infected from a stand. As well, the hit detection from your melee weapons makes it look like your arm reaches and bends in a fashion impossible to human anatomy. However, it is just pre-alpha footage, a taste for a more developed game heading into next year.

Dying Light will be released for Microsoft, PC and Sony consoles sometime in 2014.