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For an overview of other uses, see The Following (disambiguation).


Dying Light: The Following is a downloadable content expansion pack for Dying Light. It was released on February 9, 2016, and was included in Dying Light: The Following — Enhanced Edition.

Official Description

"Experience the untold chapter of Kyle Crane’s story set in a vast region outside the city of Harran. Leave the urban area behind and explore a dangerous countryside packed with mysterious characters, deadly new weapons, and unexpected quests. Gain the trust of the locals and infiltrate a centuries-old cult that hides a dangerous secret. Take the wheel of a fully customizable dirt buggy, smear your tires with zombie blood, and experience Dying Light’s creative brutality in high gear.
Steam Store Page [1]"
GameSpot Expert Reviews

Summary

Protagonist Kyle Crane learns about a cultist group successfully controlling the Harran virus and living in the Countryside, Harran's outback outside the infection-filled quarantined city of Harran. With Antizin needed, Crane decides to go investigate and heads out to the countryside. In order to gain information about the immunity and gaining the cult's trust, he must assist the survivors living out in the Countryside.[2]

Characters

  • Kyle Crane — The main protagonist of the game.
  • Lena — Medical resident from the Tower. Desperate for Antizin, she contacts Crane via radio and keeps any received information in mind.
  • Jasir — One of the survivors living in the Countryside.
  • Ezgi — Another survivor living in the Countryside, and the daughter of Jasir.
  • Kaan — The main antagonist of the game, leader of the Bandits and Rais's Men. Among the first of the survivors encountered in the Countryside. He informs the players about the Buggy's location and is also encountered towards the end of the game.
  • Bilal — One of the survivors and quartermaster living in the Countryside.
  • The Faceless — The high-ranking members of the cult. One of them eventually approches Crane and gives information to him about the immunity.
  • The Mother — The cult leader of The Following and The Faceless, she is the source of the immunity to the infected.

Gameplay

Set in a map that is twice as large as the two previous maps of Dying Light: The Following, gameplay wise is similar to the first game, in which the infected are slow and fragile in daytime, and become aggressive and fast at night time. Players can use parkour movements, such as climbing ledges, leaping, sliding, jumping and zip-lining, to move between places and kill enemies. One of the new features introduced is a drivable Buggy. Players can use them to travel across the game's world quickly and mow down enemies. It has its own separate skill tree, and weapons, including spikes, flamethrowers, UV lights, electrical cages and other upgrades can be added to the buggy to increase its combat abilities. The buggy's performance and efficiency are affected by factors including the power of its suspension, engine, and brakes. Players can also choose from 40+ different paint job to customize their car, and must collect fuel in order to drive the buggy.

The game features several new weapons, such as a crossbow and a variety of new firearms such as submachine guns and revolvers. A new "bounty" mode, which split missions into three different categories: "Basic", "Dailies", and "Community", is introduced. The missions and objectives included in this mode change everyday, and players gain experience points by completing them. The game also features a new difficulty mode named "Nightmare Mode", which extends the duration of nighttime, and increases the strength and health of enemies. Every action made in this mode drains stamina from the player's character. Players do not have to complete the base game before starting the expansion, but the character progression players earned in The Following will be carried to the base game. Similar to the first game, the game supports a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode. The asymmetrical multiplayer mode from the first game, Be the Zombie, also returns in Dying Light: The Following.

Quests

Story Quests

Side Quests

Challenges

  • Carnage

Development

According to lead designer Maciej Binkowski, the team decided to implement dune buggy into The Following as they felt that it was a "fantasy" of the zombie genre, and they missed the opportunity when developing the base game. The process of implementing them was described as "hard", as they must ensure that the new system must work functionally with other gameplay mechanics, most notably the parkour system. The development team looked at players' feedback and requests regarding the first Dying Light, and decided to add the most demanded features, including a new story and new firearms, to the game. The new campaign lasts for at least ten hours, and centres around the theme "mystery". Gameplay elements from The Following were originally part of the core Dying Light game, but were later left behind as the core game was becoming too large for the team to handle. According to Binkowski, the development of the game continued after the release of the first game, and numerous improvements were made to the parkour system, animation, artificial intelligence, and graphics.

In May 2015, it was announced that the development of another Techland video game, Hellraid, had been put on hold so as to allow the studio to allocate resources and time to concentrate on the development of the Dying Light franchise. The game was teased by Techland on July 23, 2015, before being officially announced a week later. To reflect the increased scope and scale of the expansion, Techland raised the game's price on November 25, 2015. Although the game can be bought separately, it was included in Dying Light: The Following — Enhanced Edition, which bundles The Following with the base game and its downloadable content. Players of the original game can upgrade to the Enhanced Edition for free. The Following is also free for players who have purchased the base game's Season Pass. Both the standalone release and the Enhanced Edition were released on February 9, 2016.

On October 7, Techland tweeted a 3D model of the new Tech 9-like SMG with a secret docket code, the docket code was G4BXIN98BA.

On October 15, a video was shared by Techland, where a car's registration plate indicates that the DLC will be released in Q1 of 2016, some people speculate that it will be released on January 27, the day the game was originally released this year.

On October 30, another video was released on the official Dying Light YouTube channel celebrating Halloween while promoting a Steam sale. The video featured dancing and pumpkin head wearing zombies in one of the houses featured in The Following landscape.

Critical Reception

Reception towards the expansion was generally positive (some considered more positive than the base game), with the gameplay elements being the positive highlights.

  • GameRankings gave the Playstation 4 version 83.83% based on 12 reviews, the Xbox One version 85.70% based on 10 reviews, and the Windows version a 78.92% based on 12 reviews.
  • Metacritic gave the Windows version a 79/100 (indicating "generally favourable") based on 25 reviews, the Playstation 4 version a 82/100 (indicating "generally favourable") based on 16 reviews, and the Xbox One version an 86/100 (indicating "generally favourable") based on 7 reviews.

Gallery

Official Screenshots

Promotional Artwork

Concept Art

Box Art

Videos

Official Trailers

Gameplay Trailers

Gameplay Demos


References

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