Dying Light

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2268 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,710 out of 2268
  2. Mixed: 365 out of 2268
  3. Negative: 193 out of 2268
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  1. mixxalot
    May 14, 2017
    7
    Unique approach to zombie games but nothing new. First the good:

    Graphics and animation efforts are top notch! Weather, wind, sounds, scenery is quite good with high level of detail. Parkour is cool addition to the game play. Good crafting options Online coop is good The bad which ruins a lot for me 1. Horrible gameplay mechanics! Was a pain for climbing and jumping.    Unique approach to zombie games but nothing new. First the good:

    Graphics and animation efforts are top notch! Weather, wind, sounds, scenery is quite good with high level of detail.

    Parkour is cool addition to the game play.

    Good crafting options

    Online coop is good

    The bad which ruins a lot for me

    1. Horrible gameplay mechanics! Was a pain for climbing and jumping. Combat is clunky.

    2. Lack of good story and character development. The Last of Us has superior design in contrast.

    3. Artificial difficulty makes game less fun. Zombies are super hard to kill.

    4. Too many stupid fetch quests.

    So it is ok but not worth paying full price. Wait for it to cost $4 than buy it.    … Expand
  2. ThinkSamich
    Feb 1, 2015
    7
    As many have already stated, Dying Light seems to bring together a bunch of good features from other titles without actually trying anything new. It's like a vegetable stew of tried and tested features with Dead Island as a base. The game feels like what Dead Island should have been in the first place, in fact I spent a lot of time saying "oh, I've done this before in Dead Island."

    "Oh    As many have already stated, Dying Light seems to bring together a bunch of good features from other titles without actually trying anything new. It's like a vegetable stew of tried and tested features with Dead Island as a base. The game feels like what Dead Island should have been in the first place, in fact I spent a lot of time saying "oh, I've done this before in Dead Island."

    "Oh hey, it's the office building with an excessive amount of breakable glass, just like Dead Island. Oh, it's that annoying part of the game where I have to traverse the sewers again, just like Dead Island." Techland, no more long corridor sewers please.

    I'm on the fence with Techland, there's so much they do undeniably right. They seem to be experts at setting atmosphere, the city overlooks in Dying Light are beautiful. The map was done by a group of studied individuals who must have planned it meticulously. Walking into a room and reading the story of the last moments from the corpse on the floor, just from the visual cues in the room is something only a handful of games do right. Dying Light is one of those games. One final standout feature, zombie AI evolves throughout the game. The zombies get consistently more aggressive and it's a fantastic touch, most RPGs would have scaled the health and been done with it. Techland goes above and beyond.

    At the same time, there are a lot of issues with the game, and several reoccurring mistakes Techland seems to make. Optimization is one of them, if you think back to the launch of Dead Island, the game was notoriously poorly optimized for the PC to the point where hundreds of Steam users demanded and received refunds. Dying Light isn't quite this bad, but it does have a barrage of optimization issues that will keep the average PC user from enjoying the game.

    From here there are just several design issues that I personally do not agree with. The permanent film-grain effect is horrible. The way the dead island/dying light engine makes the textures of everything in the environment look like they have a thick layer of wax over them bothers me. There seems to be far too many dark places unoccupied by virals during the day. The Parkour system works most of the time, but when it doesn't it will be during the worst times possible. The way the game handles death seems rushed at best, you're slapped with an XP penalty and respawned at the nearest safehouse. You can watch virals spawn from the air endlessly if you make enough noise, shouldn't they stop coming at some point? The way they handle zombie hordes is tricky, there are much more zombies on screen than can be active at one time. It seems like roughly 8-10 zombies can be actively pursuing you at any give time, the other zombies on the screen are idle. There are lots of assets reused from Dead Island. It's important to note that the things listed in this paragraph do not necessarily change the score of the review. I understand they're quite specific, just issues I find bothersome.

    With all of that said, Techland is a company I am excited to see grow. I would be excited to see them on a fresh game engine. They just need to step out of their comfort zone.    … Expand
  3. epeternally
    Feb 4, 2015
    7
    Fun, flawed, and suffering from a story that is so bizarre and stilted that it is substantially worse than if the game didn't have one at all. It's a good game that could be a great one with a couple more patches, and even without is worth playing, even if it isn't worth the $60 asking price. At the end of the day, the sheer amount of fun that there is to be had here carries past the awfulFun, flawed, and suffering from a story that is so bizarre and stilted that it is substantially worse than if the game didn't have one at all. It's a good game that could be a great one with a couple more patches, and even without is worth playing, even if it isn't worth the $60 asking price. At the end of the day, the sheer amount of fun that there is to be had here carries past the awful writing and neverending stream of fetch quests to make this still a good experience overall. It's just a shame that the time and effort wasn't put in to make it a great one, because with more QA and much better writing this could have been an early GOTY contender.… Expand
  4. mathewdbarlow
    Jan 29, 2015
    7
    I have been eagerly awaiting this game for some time since seeing a teaser trailer released last year. Unfortunately I've been left slightly disappointed with the end result. Not being a great fan of multiplayer, I like to complete a game on my own first so this review is based solely on single player action. I'm around 18 hours into the game and at 45% story completion.

    First the    I have been eagerly awaiting this game for some time since seeing a teaser trailer released last year. Unfortunately I've been left slightly disappointed with the end result. Not being a great fan of multiplayer, I like to complete a game on my own first so this review is based solely on single player action. I'm around 18 hours into the game and at 45% story completion.

    First the bad:
    The most disappointing element for me was the very limited map size, which you can run across end to end in around 7 minutes. I explored the entire map area and restored all safe houses within 8 hours of playing, leaving little in the way of exploring for later in the game. As far as I can tell there are no areas inaccessible that will require later missions to unlock. Compared to a truly open world game such as Skyrim or GTA, Dying Light's world is minute. With other games soon to be released with maps 20-30 times bigger than this (eg.The Witcher 3), this doesn't seem enough to satisfy my adventurous side.

    Another disappointment is the repetitive nature of the environments, NPCs and zombies. There are around 5 or 6 types of zombie lurking around so far, and they all wear basically the same outfit or carry the same injuries etc. The same can be said for the rival gang members you encounter, with each roving band being the same as the last. Buildings and textures are continually repeated throughout the landscape as well, and many buildings are not accessible, again questioning whether it is truly an 'open world' experience.

    Now the good:
    Story is engaging and voice acting is good quality. The NPCs are well characterized, some likeable, some genuinely sinister. The day/night mechanic adds a new dimension to the zombie/survival genre I have not encountered before and being chased by the virals in the dark can be an edge of your seat experience as you strive to make the nearest safe house with your survival points in the bag!

    The graphics are also gorgeous, even without being on the highest settings, and the world is well designed to accommodate and test the parkour mechanics.

    Level up system is also well balanced and nicely opens up new skills such as crafting and extra combat techniques, as the story progresses.

    Performance:
    In terms of optimization and performance, personally I have had no issues and have been averaging around 45FPS outside on low/medium settings (which still look good). This is with an ATI HD 6870 gpu and a 3rd generation i5 processor at 3.3ghz. I am running the game off a dedicated SSD which I think helps, and have windows 7 running of another SSD. I have turned down field of view (FOV) settings below default which boosted frame rates instantly, given the limited RAM onboard my graphics card.

    In summary, it's not a bad game and a great concept, I just think they could have done so much more with the size and depth f the environment in order to make it truly immersive.    … Expand
  5. Chaeote
    Jan 31, 2015
    7
    This game is simple to describe:

    The Last of Us ... kinda

    meets

    Mirror's Edge ... kinda

    meets

    Fallout ... kinda

    It's not bad, it's just sorta.... meh.
  6. Veska
    Feb 2, 2015
    7
    It is Dead Island with parkour. However, do not expect more. The best thing in this game in night and fight in night. But take 321895656 weapons, because every thing, that i use for killing sweet zombies was destoyed until 10 maybe 15 zombies. What is this? Some people say, that this game has nice graphis and i say it is true, but in some parts. Face and texture are very nice. But others?It is Dead Island with parkour. However, do not expect more. The best thing in this game in night and fight in night. But take 321895656 weapons, because every thing, that i use for killing sweet zombies was destoyed until 10 maybe 15 zombies. What is this? Some people say, that this game has nice graphis and i say it is true, but in some parts. Face and texture are very nice. But others? Boring environment, repeating textures and building were created by CTRL+C and CTRL+V.

    And story? Ou **** it is as porn. You see (play) it for other things then story. If you like series Dead Island it is game for you. But for others? Maybe but try it then you will buy it.    … Expand
  7. J4MESOX4D
    Jan 27, 2015
    7
    Dying Light is an enjoyable game from Techland but despite a much more polished title than its Dead Island predecessors, this game still suffers from bad habits that plagued those games along with yet another shaky launch on PC regarding the technical aspect.

    Firstly; the game looks gorgeous, with a beautiful vast and colourful backdrop and fantastic attention to detail. The movement    Dying Light is an enjoyable game from Techland but despite a much more polished title than its Dead Island predecessors, this game still suffers from bad habits that plagued those games along with yet another shaky launch on PC regarding the technical aspect.

    Firstly; the game looks gorgeous, with a beautiful vast and colourful backdrop and fantastic attention to detail. The movement mechanics are easy to use and a joy to execute plus the crafting system is also well-implemented.

    Dying Light however lets itself down with some very mundane missions, forgettable characters and repetitive gameplay. Thankfully the parkour physics and various melee weapons keep the game interesting but the core of the product lacks any real depth. After a few hours of play; once you've seen that; you have essentially seen all that will be offered in the latter stages of the game. The campaign is a fairly weak narrative supported by a largely intolerable cast.

    Technically, the game is a calamitous launch for many. I should be able to run this comfortably as I have exceeded even the recommended settings but this is the only game which I own that suffers from significant frame rate drops and more irritatingly; cutscene stuttering/freezing. It seems to be hit and miss with other players of varying rigs, so be weary of how this could fare on your system before rushing to purchase.

    Overall; Dying Light is a decent game with a stunning setting and great mechanics. However, the story and characters along with the missions are very weak which drags the product down. Technically; the game is inconsistent and doesn't run to a good standard even on the highest-end setups which makes it hard to judge. It is certainly a massive improvement on Dead Island but Techland have not excelled in key areas which is disappointing. At £40; I find it hard to recommend at this pricepoint especially with the potential performance woes but at a cost lower down the line and with possible patches on the way; it's certainly a consideration in the future especially at a cheaper cost.    … Expand
  8. masterkiser
    Feb 2, 2015
    7
    Well I Don't really Like to Write Review's but I felt the need to Write One about this game. So Lets get to Optimization Not the best to be honest, I have a 980 and an i5 4670k along With 16 gb of ram and I was barley Pulling 40 fps. That is unacceptable So If you are planning to get this game Keep in mind that you may Encounter issues. Now with that out of the way let me tell you howWell I Don't really Like to Write Review's but I felt the need to Write One about this game. So Lets get to Optimization Not the best to be honest, I have a 980 and an i5 4670k along With 16 gb of ram and I was barley Pulling 40 fps. That is unacceptable So If you are planning to get this game Keep in mind that you may Encounter issues. Now with that out of the way let me tell you how much Fun I had with this game. The Main campaign Is Only about 5 hours long If you rush Through But With side quest's it can easily take you 12+ Hours!

    Now Gameplay Wise It's essentially Dead Island Mixed With mirrors Edge. That can be Either Good or bad But luckily in the game's case They Did it right. The Combat is a little wonky at first but you get used to it and it gets much better when you upgrade your Combat to at least adept. The parkour Honestly Sucks at first as well but Much alike the Combat all you need to do is upgrade it and it will get so much better.

    The Story is alright I mean It's not the greatest But at least it has one (Looking at you dead island) The characters are Forgettable and by the Time you Feel nothing for them. What is nice However is when you are just taking a stroll you can sometimes Grab an airdrop or Stumble upon Someone who need's help. and you can Find people who tell you about what they were doing before the Virus, It's pretty interesting.

    Now one of the major mechanics they Advertised was this Night Time mode. It is Terrifying at first Yes But eventually It Loses it's touch. But your adrenaline always Get's pumping when you're Running From Virals. Then you have this mode called be the zombie which is pretty cool actually but sometimes if you have Multiplayer on They can invade you and it gets Kinda one sided Especially If you are going solo.

    Overall I would recommend the game but it would be a cautious Purchase with the optimization issues so If I were you i would Either wait for patches, Or buy it on a console.    … Expand
  9. Retpally
    Jan 27, 2015
    7
    I have played a few hours of this game, the gameplay is good, the graphics are good, the price is good (49.99$) and the story is okay, the only big problem is performance I am playing the game at high 1080p and view distance at half and my fps is at 30-40, my computer is good (i7 3770, 12gb ram, r9 290), even if I lower the video settings I only get 3-4 more fps. I hope they will patchI have played a few hours of this game, the gameplay is good, the graphics are good, the price is good (49.99$) and the story is okay, the only big problem is performance I am playing the game at high 1080p and view distance at half and my fps is at 30-40, my computer is good (i7 3770, 12gb ram, r9 290), even if I lower the video settings I only get 3-4 more fps. I hope they will patch performance because the bad fps can affect the gameplay.… Expand
  10. dystopeon
    Feb 5, 2015
    7
    The game's not quite a solid 7, but gets a conceded pass in that respect. It runs solid in 1080p but you'll need 4x sli 980's or wait until next gen gfx to run 4k, its still that ól chrome engine. The main story is very, very bad (not CoD bad tho) - however the sides quest missions are imbued with some writing talent and are for the main part, enjoyable.

    The combat mechanics are    The game's not quite a solid 7, but gets a conceded pass in that respect. It runs solid in 1080p but you'll need 4x sli 980's or wait until next gen gfx to run 4k, its still that ól chrome engine. The main story is very, very bad (not CoD bad tho) - however the sides quest missions are imbued with some writing talent and are for the main part, enjoyable.

    The combat mechanics are extended (such as dashing) however the hit detection and pointless weapons/animations (knife) are still left in. Bizarrely, zombie grab animations can break your combat 'flow' - unless you invest in several perks to make the game NOT do that?! Why just not leave it the **** out? These former eastbloc devs need to learn from musicians - what you leave out is more important than what you leave in.

    Also, I have to play this mother****er until level 14 (many gd hrs) to get a gd katana?!, just like the last game. The RPG/Perk/item/crafting aspect is really broken, it borrows from like action/rpg games perk systems - but really it just shouldn't have used one, the items perks should have been passive, using meters. The crafting/weapons degradation system is similarly bizarre (left over from the first game), the devs seek to restrict, level and balance everything at once instead of making the game fun to grind. If they just leveled certain zone enemies and not the weapons, plus created a large variety of melee weapons it would have been fun. The Katana or any weapon should be available right at the beginning, its the weapon type that should receive perks - this would make the game much more fun. Then once you reach much higher levels, add in cool side weapons with one or two perk slots (eg. Tonfa, Nunchaku) please, I just wanna beat on stuff with nunchucks yo. Maybe next sequel?    … Expand
  11. perlbuilder
    Dec 6, 2015
    7
    I paid $20 for this game along with some DLC during a Steam sale. I can't really say anything great about this game since I've yet to find it immersive. I haven't even gotten past the first tower climb and wanting to hang it up and go back to playing Just Cause 2. I have formed some thoughts so far and I apologize if I echo others.

    - Graphics. I turned up the graphics with my GTX    I paid $20 for this game along with some DLC during a Steam sale. I can't really say anything great about this game since I've yet to find it immersive. I haven't even gotten past the first tower climb and wanting to hang it up and go back to playing Just Cause 2. I have formed some thoughts so far and I apologize if I echo others.

    - Graphics. I turned up the graphics with my GTX 970 and remain unimpressed. It's too easy to visually miss the spitters. Gee, I wonder where the spitter idea came from? At least in L4D2, you can see and hear them.

    - Story. Didn't I play this already in a game called Dead Island? No because you play as an SF operator. Wait, that was Just Cause.

    - Controls. Meh. Lots of players seem to like the Parkour, but I get hung up in it. I fall, lose health and then must loot for supplies to create a MedKit. I am I having fun yet?

    -Looting and Crafing. It would have been an OK concept like Far Cry 3 or even Dead Island but this game takes it overboard. Really, it adds nothing to the game play since you must refocus from your mission to looking for supplies that suddenly dry up. All just to remain in the game and not die.

    Right now I'm between games so I'll keep playing and maybe my opinion will change. Maybe I'll get used to the controls and getting hit by spitters that I can't see or hear coming.

    Happy gaming!    … Expand
  12. Duskycarp116
    Sep 9, 2015
    7
    Even though this is in my list of best games of 2015 this video game has many cliches at a point where is unoriginal, but the parkour made me forget all of the bad things because its really really fun to do and it kills time while traveling place to place. As I want to talk about how good this is that's really I got to say.
  13. gloriouspotato
    Jan 23, 2016
    7
    Dying Light like every other zombie game, features the typical zombie game stuff. You've got the slow zombies, fast zombies, explosive zombies, poisonous zombies and big zombies that all go "guururgh" at you. In this respect, Dying Light does sometimes feel like 'just' another zombie game in a market already saturated with other zombie games. The storytelling is not the game's strongestDying Light like every other zombie game, features the typical zombie game stuff. You've got the slow zombies, fast zombies, explosive zombies, poisonous zombies and big zombies that all go "guururgh" at you. In this respect, Dying Light does sometimes feel like 'just' another zombie game in a market already saturated with other zombie games. The storytelling is not the game's strongest point. While there is some degree of character development, I didn't feel emotionally connected to these characters, and the writing often came off as corny or overly dramatic.

    Fortunately, the gameplay mechanics are quite solid. The parkour elements reminds me of Mirror's Edge, and while the moveset isn't quite as varied as in Mirror's Edge, it's a welcome addition to the game that feels fluid and responsive. Dying Light also features a few interesting side quests, though it also has its fair share of less engaging fetch quests. My other criticisms are directed towards the visual quality and performance of the game. Low-res textures are quite prevalent, and the game has a very high consumption of vram. On graphics cards with less than 4gb of vram, there is occasional texture pop-in and stuttering.

    Overall rating - 7.2/10    … Expand
  14. asafahmed
    Jan 28, 2015
    7
    Bad optimization.And you cant walk smoothly just like dead island riptide.The game play is very fun.Park-our thing is also very fun.They should fix the optimization problem fast.
  15. Jetpil0t
    Jan 28, 2015
    7
    A really excellent game marred by fairly significant performance issues on PC. There is a lot to like here, the gameplay is smooth and well executed, difficulty level pis well tuned, story is substantial and interesting and side quests and missions are sizable, diverse and rarely repetitive.

    The enemy design and difficulty level is really well crafted, which is rare, especially in these    A really excellent game marred by fairly significant performance issues on PC. There is a lot to like here, the gameplay is smooth and well executed, difficulty level pis well tuned, story is substantial and interesting and side quests and missions are sizable, diverse and rarely repetitive.

    The enemy design and difficulty level is really well crafted, which is rare, especially in these types of open world games. Enemies are diverse and challenging and while there is no difficulty setting, players can moderate their own difficulty level through their play style which measures anywhere from moderate to quite difficult.

    The quest design is a real stand out too, as you rarely undertake any pointless or tedious quests and unexpected things consistently take place throughout, keeping things interesting and always worth doing.

    However the games performance on PC leaves quite a lot to be desired. I have played this on an R9 290 and a GTX 970, AMD GPU performance borders on unplayable while nVidia GPU performance is merely average despite the prevalence of nVidia Gameworks and proprietary features. AMD CPU performance takes a real hit too as the game seems to be not so well optimized leaving the single core performance of Intel CPUs at a significant advantage. That being said, the game presents with very few if any technical bugs, so hopefully any developer efforts will be focused solely on optimization.

    Quite a shame really as there are so many well crafted systems in the game, it's hard to fault it elsewhere and a real stand out title to get things kicked off in 2015.    … Expand
  16. PPartisan
    May 17, 2015
    7
    Dying Light is an exciting game that is let down by several mundane, anachronistic RPG tropes. In the few areas where it succeeds however, it does extremely well.

    Two parts of Dying Light deserve special commendation - the zombies, and the environments. It's difficult to describe fictional monsters as "realistic", but Dying Light takes the best depictions of zombies from various sources    Dying Light is an exciting game that is let down by several mundane, anachronistic RPG tropes. In the few areas where it succeeds however, it does extremely well.

    Two parts of Dying Light deserve special commendation - the zombies, and the environments. It's difficult to describe fictional monsters as "realistic", but Dying Light takes the best depictions of zombies from various sources and blends them into a mix all fans of the genre are sure to love.

    The standard zombie is akin to those encountered on the Walking Dead: numerous, slow and easily manipulated on the one hand, but tough and eerily silent on the other. "Virals" are more similar to the "infected" of 28 Days Later: fast, athletic and aggressive, they can spot from a distance or burst from hidden rooms, and are relentless in pursuit. There are several special zombie types similar to the Tanks, Boomers, Chargers and Spitters of Left4Dead, and by night the terrifying "Volatile" is like something from Resident Evil; practically invincible, the only effective course of action is to run through the dark to escape them. The zombie classes appear to logically correlate to stages of infection. For instance, soon after turning, a bitten person becomes a viral, which explains the occasional, human pleas for help that come from virals in between attacks. The net effect is a world that appears internally consistent and relatively realistic.

    The area of the game however that I found most impressive was the environment. Dying Light is set in a fictional territory called "Harran." Despite several cues that present Harran as a Middle Eastern country, such as Middle Eastern radio music, geography and Arabic-sounding NPC names and accents, the architecture of Old Town strikes me as more Mediterranean. When coupled with English signage, Harran presents itself as an impressively non-derivative setting. Old Town in particular is absolutely stunning, and there were several instances where I found myself mournfully reflecting on the fact that it is a fictional location. In better days, it is just the type of place I would like to visit for a holiday, and the very fact that I could picture myself going to its museum or wandering its streets demonstrates how effectively the location is rendered as a real place that has gone to hell.

    Unfortunately, there are areas of Dying Light that felt like throwbacks to inefficient gaming conventions of times past. The parkour system is a central aspect of the game that has been favourably compared to other first person free running games like Mirrors Edge, whilst simultaneously praised for its realism. Dying Light neither adopts the "hold space and W" tactic that makes free-running a breeze in modern games like Assassins Creed and Watchdogs, nor the bright visual cues so iconic in Mirrors Edge. Instead, to jump to a ledge it is necessary to centre the reticule on it directly and hold space, and whilst there are some environmental hints, such as black-and-yellow rebars that denote climbable ledges and blue awnings/trash bundles for soft-landings, they are not as consistently applied as they are in Mirrors Edge.

    The problem with this approach is that the parkour system is not sufficiently limitless to warrant such a "realistic" approach. In Mirrors Edge, the brightly coloured world, to me, as much represented the world as seen by a parkour expert as it contributed to its clean aesthetic. Climbable ledges and safe landing zones stood out to my avatar as I imagine they would to another free runner, whereas I, as a novice, would miss them. As a player, I feel that whenever my intent is clear, my character should be able to fill in the gaps and execute the move. If I fail because I made the wrong decision then that is fair enough, but failing over a technicality makes for a tedious experience. Unfortunately, there were many situations in Dying Light where I would frustratingly fall to my death trying to execute a simple manoeuvre because a certain ledge wasn't climbable, despite there being no logical reason why it shouldn't be, or because I hadn't positioned my cursor in exactly the right location during a jump. To add to the frustration, my character has two modes - sprinting or shambling along trying to catch his breath. This meant that he would often lose his puff in the middle of a zombie horde and stumble into an attack, when in reality keeping a steady paced jog would be the better tactic.

    Finally, and briefly, the crafting and skill system are too reminiscent of previous generation RPGs. Skill trees, pages of weapon stats and "crafting xxx" dialogs need to be replaced with more dynamic and interactive systems in 2015, building from Skyrim's approach where abilities progress from player use. Keep the nuts and bolts statistics hidden, and something more fun up front!    … Expand
  17. jimbobslimbob
    Apr 13, 2015
    7
    Like expected, it is similar to Dead Island in a lot of ways. So, where does it differ? Well, the graphics and general tone of the game are a lot grittier and darker than Dead Island. Think of this as the Empire Strikes Back to Dead Island's Star Wars.

    The looting and melee part of the game is very similar. You pick up, trade, craft weapons and use blueprints to upgrade them and so on.    Like expected, it is similar to Dead Island in a lot of ways. So, where does it differ? Well, the graphics and general tone of the game are a lot grittier and darker than Dead Island. Think of this as the Empire Strikes Back to Dead Island's Star Wars.

    The looting and melee part of the game is very similar. You pick up, trade, craft weapons and use blueprints to upgrade them and so on. They increase in damage as you level up and unlock rarer varieties.

    The free-running is unique here - I don't think I have ever seen it done in a first person game before. It is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because when it works, it works really well and gives a new depth to the game that would not have existed without it. It's a curse because it can be extremely fiddly and disorientating. Sometimes things just don't seem to work as well as they should and simple things turn into frustration inducing annoyances. It's a real shame too, since the system is *almost* good. Example: want to climb down and hang on the ledge? Forget it, something this simple is possibly the most frustrating thing you will ever do in this game.

    This game also features a unique night-time experience where you must run, dodge and hide from powerful super-zombies during night time. Unlike the normal Z's, these ones chase you and can run just as fast as you can. When they catch you it's game over - so a race for the nearest safe-zone ensues. This part of the game really fills you with panicked adrenaline and mixes up the pace of the game. It is a welcome and interesting addition.

    The quests suffer from the same thing they did in Dead Island - fetchy and boring for the most part. A lot of time is spent running from point to point doing meaningless fetch quests and trying to climb buildings (and failing) over and over again. It does suffer because of this and the tedious running from point to point doing nothing but boring quests drops my score down from a 8 to a 7. Sure, I can skip this content, but I would miss out on a good chunk of the game as a result.

    It's a real shame that you begin to become OP later in the game, as the "survival" aspect of the game's early hours where you are scrounging for supplies and having to come up with genius plans to tackle the horde are it's strongest, definitive moments. As the game progresses, this gets thrown out of the window and you are left with another zombie smasher game with free-running tagged on.

    Jimbo Rating: 7/10    … Expand
  18. GamestaUK
    Mar 5, 2015
    7
    More zombies? Allright, bring it on! :)

    This game is amazingly fun and visually stunning! It reminds me of Dead Island but prettier. And creepier too, I almost sh** my pants on few occasions.

    Why 7? No more zombies, please.
  19. Captainrazel
    Jan 28, 2015
    7
    My first horror game to play and make me feel good, Game made me feel like surviving in Zombie world type off. The graphics are nice, clean textures- great environments, and good character models but not completely Polish. Characters are not that much good but ok. { RAHIM was my most like/favorite person in game },

    Gameplay- It plays much like a cleaner, better looking, more fluid, and    My first horror game to play and make me feel good, Game made me feel like surviving in Zombie world type off. The graphics are nice, clean textures- great environments, and good character models but not completely Polish. Characters are not that much good but ok. { RAHIM was my most like/favorite person in game },

    Gameplay- It plays much like a cleaner, better looking, more fluid, and more fun dead island.Soundtrack is arabic kind of theme which is OK.

    {Credits to Alecmann} Story- This is the underwhelming portion. The story is far more serious than that of dead island. No dark humor, no super cheesy characters (well not as cheesy). You find yourself helping the few survivors in the city with fetch quests and the typical point A to point B. There are a couple surprises- and a passable story to match. None of it is bad, but none of it is great. It is clear the time was put into the gameplay. On the plus side the game is sizable. If you are a completion you could get 70 hours out of this game, though the average gamer can expect 30 to 40. [7.5/10]    … Expand
  20. zainyboy18
    Feb 4, 2015
    7
    I pre-ordered this game and finished it recently. I felt I needed to tell people about the serious over-hyping of this game.

    Story: The story is poor and by far the worst thing in the game, filled with cliches and plot points you can see from a mile away. But the characters are by far the worst, seriously. They're so bland and under-developed that you couldn't give 2 sh*ts whether or    I pre-ordered this game and finished it recently. I felt I needed to tell people about the serious over-hyping of this game.

    Story:
    The story is poor and by far the worst thing in the game, filled with cliches and plot points you can see from a mile away. But the characters are by far the worst, seriously. They're so bland and under-developed that you couldn't give 2 sh*ts whether or not they die. Hell, when someone died I spent more time trying to figure out who they were rather than actually paying attention to them dying. I mean, Brecken disappears halfway through the game without any mention of his name again. They really build up the main villain as well, trying to make a discount Vaas from Farcry 3, but it just wasn't working for me. He had no real substance or meaning behind what he was doing, other than just doing it for the sh*ts and giggles. He stands monologuing, telling you all of his evil schemes and actually letting you in on his whereabouts in the end of the game, just before he is about to make his escape and win! Why?! So stupid it's unreal. It takes a darker and more serious tone to Dead Island but it doesn't seem to pay off in my opinion.

    Graphics, Sound and Performance:
    I'm not really an expert on sound design or anything but from my eyes, the sound was done fairly well, it definitely deterred me from going out at night, hearing the agonising screams of the virals. The intense music during pursuits was nice, it did a good job of immersing me in the game. Graphics are nice, not The Last Of Us standard, but nevertheless they are good. However there are performance issues on the PC version, mainly stemming from the view distance. Turning it up or down doesn't really change much apart from the view distance in the interior maps or the pop-in for zombies. FPS takes a nose-dive when you finish the tutorial and go outside.

    Gameplay:
    First things first, the parkour is mostly well-done. However, you can encounter some parkour related bugs, most comical and some just annoying. It can vary from flying through a wall to getting stuck in-between 2 objects, forcing you to commit suicide. Survivor point don't do much for the game as far as I can tell, although I didn't look too intensely into what they did. The combat feels smoother than Dead Island for certain, no complaints there. The new crafting system and player stash are really nice features as well, allowing easy storage for weapons, but from what I can tell, it's used mostly for duplicating items to become a billionaire. Side quests are pretty much the same as Dead Island; "Fetch this for me", "Turn this on for me". Very repetitive point A to point B missions. I do enjoy the free running challenges though, most of them provide a nice challenge and are quite fun to do. However, the main problem from a gameplay perspective is that the game gives you a false sense of freedom. It gives you an amazing open world to explore and run the parkour, but when a story mission rolls around, especially after the halfway point in the game, you're thrown into a cramped and linear interior map. Once you get the grappling hook, the open world actually becomes a bore to traverse, just spamming middle mouse button and flying across the map in no time. The day-night cycle change is one of the games more interesting and better points. The virals become a real challenge until a very late point in the game, making it pretty much your only option to run away. Despite this it just becomes an absolute drag to finish the story, with a lazy QTE final boss battle at the end. It's such a cop-out move to have the villain you tried to big up and make him seem impossible to kill, defeated by pressing 5 or 6 buttons.

    Overall this game isn't terrible, it's definitely an improvement on Dead Island, however personally I just don't think it lives up to the hype. I'd say wait until the price drops or you see it on sale to pick it up.    … Expand
  21. dohgeh
    Mar 12, 2015
    7
    Dying Light is made by the devs of Dead Island! Oh boy....

    It's actually a blast playing with friends. The story is pretty poor, full of cliches, and predictable. The game can be unbelievably cheap, glitchy, and just flat out stupid, but with friends or random people, this game is hilariously fun! I would recommend this game for 30 dollars if you play with friends. If not, 20 dollars at    Dying Light is made by the devs of Dead Island! Oh boy....

    It's actually a blast playing with friends. The story is pretty poor, full of cliches, and predictable. The game can be unbelievably cheap, glitchy, and just flat out stupid, but with friends or random people, this game is hilariously fun! I would recommend this game for 30 dollars if you play with friends. If not, 20 dollars at the most for a singleplayer experience. It really is a poor game, but if you are looking to have fun with friends, pick it up cheap.    … Expand
  22. Scottisme
    Feb 27, 2015
    7
    Around 22% story completion you could lose all of your levels and equipment. Wish I knew this so I could have backed up my saves. ( This isn't influencing the rating i gave this game at least not intentionally).

    Play time: 6 hours Pros: -Parkour albeit a little finicky at times is very enjoyable makes running between quest far less tedious plus you gain levels -Repairing and modding    Around 22% story completion you could lose all of your levels and equipment. Wish I knew this so I could have backed up my saves. ( This isn't influencing the rating i gave this game at least not intentionally).

    Play time: 6 hours
    Pros:
    -Parkour albeit a little finicky at times is very enjoyable makes running between quest far less tedious plus you gain levels
    -Repairing and modding weapons is far faster than having to go to a work bench
    -Survivor instincts great for those who like to collect everything they can saves allot of time
    -Voice acting
    -Decent story
    -Night time brings another aspect-actually pretty scary to be stuck out in the dark. But also very easy to avoid as there are allot of beds and safe houses around the map waiting to be captured.
    -Good Music
    -Satisfying rag doll zombie. Awesome to see a zombie go flying head over heals with a running drop kick

    Cons:
    -Poorly optimized
    -Film Grain looks bad ( on PC at least you can turn it off)
    - Personally don't like losing Survivor points when I die
    -Wouldn't call graphics next gen but they're good
    -melee weapons feel weak so far.
    Consistently killing zombies faster with running drop kicks alone base zombies take two hits most times with it upgraded one hits fairly often as well.

    Other Thoughts:
    -Miss the analog combat mode from Dead Island

    Overall would give it a 6 if i counted the save deleting bug    … Expand
  23. SarudeDankstorm
    Aug 19, 2015
    7
    Dying light takes all the good elements from the Dead Island series, adds parkour and then gives you an open-world playground to explore. While the free-running is no-where near at the same level as Mirror's Edge, it still allows you to fluidly travel across the map.

    Game play wise, the game is very fun; melee combat is brutal and satisfying (as it should be) and firearms are used at an    Dying light takes all the good elements from the Dead Island series, adds parkour and then gives you an open-world playground to explore. While the free-running is no-where near at the same level as Mirror's Edge, it still allows you to fluidly travel across the map.

    Game play wise, the game is very fun; melee combat is brutal and satisfying (as it should be) and firearms are used at an appropriate rate through the campaign. The main thing that I dislike about Dying Light is the lack of character development. For a game that primarily focuses on a single player experience, only a few of the characters that are introduced in the story are really developed, and this means that you don't really feel connected to them as you would to characters in say, Last of Us.

    Overall, a very good game to pick up and play, although I would recommend purchasing it at a discounted price, as it's highly likely that you will finish the main story and a few side quests and then never touch the game again.    … Expand
  24. thetruegamers
    Apr 26, 2015
    7
    Dying Light is another zombie game we really didn't need, but... There's no doubt that this game includes some fun things to do. Including:
    >Drop kicking zombie's
    >Dynamic Parkour If you're looking for a post apocalyptic zombie survival game that includes a memorable story or interesting characters then this is not the game for you. But if you're fine with a linear story line and the    Dying Light is another zombie game we really didn't need, but... There's no doubt that this game includes some fun things to do. Including:
    >Drop kicking zombie's
    >Dynamic Parkour

    If you're looking for a post apocalyptic zombie survival game that includes a memorable story or interesting characters then this is not the game for you. But if you're fine with a linear story line and the most cliché character's then this game will satisfy you for awhile. This fun but repetitive game will definitely be classified as the "Hate" or "Like" game.    … Expand
  25. MrBlue
    Jul 28, 2015
    7
    Killing zombies so much fun but versus mode sucks !!! people can see you with their instinct while you are a zombie they are coming after you to hunt you you can't even understand who is the hunter zombies or people beside all of this poor story it is like always forcing you to collect something.Scary zombies and nights, nice looting and crafting system, nice map design.
  26. flattyfour
    Sep 18, 2015
    7
    As a knifer in the now old school COD Modern Warfare (first one), the games mechanics came easy. As a fan of Far Cry, the exploration and map mechanics were also familiar. Once and done game, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
  27. DB11
    Jan 2, 2016
    7
    One of the more frustrating games I will ever play. In nearly every facet of the game the devs came very close to making something amazing but fell just short. The combination of these shortcomings is a poorly executed mess that leaves the player saying "it was so close, yet so far away.. from a good game".
  28. dantes950
    Jan 5, 2016
    7
    history is not good just another cliche 0/2
    gameplay is good 1.8/2
    graphics are good 1.5/2 optimization is acceptable 1.4/2 the game is fun to play, the side quest are not bad, now i need parkour in all new zombie games and at night the game is intense so yeah the game is enjoyable 1.8/2 total 6.5 if you play with friends 7.5 pc nvidia gtx 750ti atlhon x4 620 ram 8gb ddr3 1600    history is not good just another cliche 0/2
    gameplay is good 1.8/2
    graphics are good 1.5/2
    optimization is acceptable 1.4/2
    the game is fun to play, the side quest are not bad, now i need parkour in all new zombie games and at night the game is intense so yeah the game is enjoyable 1.8/2
    total 6.5 if you play with friends 7.5
    pc
    nvidia gtx 750ti
    atlhon x4 620
    ram 8gb ddr3 1600
    mother board asrock n68c gs fx
    win 10 64b    … Expand
  29. MooseNine
    Jan 22, 2016
    7
    Dying Light - another zombie game. I was very skeptical (even omitting fact that i love zombie theme). But somehow i bought this game.
    Plot:
    In fictional Turkish city of Harran begins zombie outbreak. Special agent Kyle Crane is sent on a mission of recovering extremely important file about zombies from the hands of Kadir Suleiman. Story doesn't sounds like it is something special and    Dying Light - another zombie game. I was very skeptical (even omitting fact that i love zombie theme). But somehow i bought this game.
    Plot:
    In fictional Turkish city of Harran begins zombie outbreak. Special agent Kyle Crane is sent on a mission of recovering extremely important file about zombies from the hands of Kadir Suleiman.
    Story doesn't sounds like it is something special and to be honest it isn't. Story is the biggest problem of this game. Characters are shallow, empty and indescribable fake. There's a lot of clichés - stupid, making no sense scenes or speeches.
    What about the gameplay? This is what defends this game and give a reason to buy this title. Amazing parkour mechanics in open world games is awesome. Jumping on the buildings, climbing on the walls, or jumping over the zobmies with parkour tricks. It's just feel amazing. Fight is pretty good too - hitting enemies makes me belive that weapon i'm using has weight - pushing enemies back or stop on them. To bad shooting wasn't made good as melee fighting.    … Expand
  30. scottmland
    Feb 13, 2016
    7
    Dying Light.
    A perfect sequel to Dead Island without the awkward name and numeral deal.
    But really, Techland outdid themselves in gameplay improvements between these otherwise unrelated zombie combat simulators. The only thing is, how much exactly did they change? I could just say everything is extremely similar, besides what isn’t. But that wouldn’t be much of a review. What we have    Dying Light.
    A perfect sequel to Dead Island without the awkward name and numeral deal.
    But really, Techland outdid themselves in gameplay improvements between these otherwise unrelated zombie combat simulators.
    The only thing is, how much exactly did they change? I could just say everything is extremely similar, besides what isn’t. But that wouldn’t be much of a review.

    What we have here is Dead Island, with some added features. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed playing this game. Let me put it this way; I tried on three separate occasions to play Dead Island, but every time I tried I would get really bored halfway through. Three goddamn tries.
    But I beat Dying Light.

    I’m one of those strange people who thought Mirror’s Edge was a fantastic game, so naturally upon hearing parkour was a large part of the new Techland zombie killer game, I was friggin excited. But I had my reserves, and as it turns out I had good reason. Besides the midnight flights from Mr. Volatile and his friends, the parkour, and the graphics, this is a Dead Island game. It has the same weapon crafting system, which ranges from “Okay, cool” to “Holy crap thats badass” to “Why?”. It doesn't have the imagination of the Dead Rising series, where some weapons are way over the top, but it only added to the fun. In Dying Light, crafting a weapon doesn’t really come down to what is best for your situation, instead it quickly boiled down to what didn't injure me when I stepped over the burning or electrocuted bodies. Even so, I stuck with bleeding and electricity (the mod I used most was called Exorcist and it was super fun) because if it rained the electricity arced out and made a thunderous bang whenever I got a critical hit, which was very satisfying. But having to wait ages for a body to stop having electricity-based seizures, or burning before I could loot it or moved past got old extremely fast. And bleeding did not seem to do anything, but I used it just in case. Also because it didn't hurt me.
    The game also has the same constant fetch quest **** as its predecessor. ALMOST. EVERY. QUEST. I understand your options are limited, but Jesus.
    Zombie combat remained pretty dang good, but again, it got very old. Personally I hated guns in Dead Island, and while they had their uses against Rais’s thugs I hated them in this game too. It sucks when you only use a game feature not because you want to, but because you have little choice.

    The music was good. Nothing to write home about.
    The story was good. I felt for the characters, I felt they were relatable, and every encounter with Rais was pulse pounding and memorable. Again, wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was interesting.

    I played one night of multiplayer, and found it stacked against the human player. The hives are really tough to kill, and the night hunter’s Left-4-Dead-esque pounce is a little overpowered. Then again, multiplayer isn’t my forte, so maybe I was just awful.

    All in all. More of the same AAA zombie game from Techland. The new features felt like gimmicks at times. Fun gimmicks, don't get me wrong, but I really hope this developer leaves its comfort zone in the future. Play it. It’s fun, it’s action packed, and it’s a good game.

    But don't expect a complete original.

    P.s. I'll update when I play some dlc.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

11
#11 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
48
#48 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 40
  3. Negative: 2 out of 40
  1. Ten Ton Hammer
    Nov 1, 2015
    80
    Don't let the Dead Island affiliation sway you one way or the other, Dying Light is its own game and it's rightfully fun, but it's not something that is Game of the Year material to me. If you like zombie games and open world games then this is worth the pickup, but otherwise I'd skip it until it goes on sale, because it's still a really fun game no matter how you dice it.
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  2. Washington Post
    Apr 6, 2015
    40
    It’s a game of a thousand house calls, in which everyone needs something they can’t get or do for themselves. Catastrophe has made every doorstep a welcome place, with disease and death the justification for an openness that might seem unthinkable under other circumstances.
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  3. Dealspwn
    Mar 22, 2015
    70
    If you can get past the clunky storytelling and the repetitive missions, you might a diamond in the rough that really empowers you to revel in the design aspects of its zombie-infested sandbox.
    Read full review
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