A battle royale game with only 12 players? How is that going to work? We recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with Dying Light: Bad Blood - Techland's answer to that very question, and came away really impressed. While the sheer size and scope of the concept is miniaturised somewhat, the action is no less thrilling - in fact, the close-quarters intimacy of the encounters, paired with Dying Light's parkour traversal system makes for a unique take on the battle royale concept.
As it's based on an existing game, a lot of Dying Light's fixtures and fittings are transplanted over into Bad Blood. While the player count is limited, that's not to say that the world is lacking in occupants - the Infected are back from the main game, giving you more to worry about than your PvP opponents alone. But the basic aim remains the same: to be the last (human) player standing, and the sole survivor that makes it out on the helicopter at the climax of each session.
Looking closer at the core mechanics, it's fascinating to see how Dying Light transplants so many of its game systems so well into the battle royale concept. Encounters in the likes of PUBG are often over in a flash, while Bad Blood revels in extended encounters. It starts with the bone-crunching melee combat, where getting a kill is a longer, more protracted, bloodier affair. And then there's the parkour system and the sheer verticality of the environments - opponents close to death can run off in an attempt to regroup, scaling buildings using the existing parkour mechanic. It's a whole lot of fun and adds a new dimension to the PvP action.