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. good76
    Aug 24, 2022
    8
    I don’t know why, but this game makes me want to play it, even the plot is not very ostentatious, DLC is normal in terms of character and weapon customization. "DLC The Following" is really cool, although it raises a lot of questions. soundtrack thanks a lot
  2. Mirotvorac
    Mar 23, 2022
    8
    This game ported on Linux, I'm soo happy for this action, great story and soo fun co-op.
  3. Taken_Hades
    May 19, 2023
    8
    -8/10 story
    -9/10 gameplay
    -9/10 environments
    -9/10 characters
    -9/10 music
  4. kuchmuchama
    Sep 20, 2022
    8
    Поляки сделали игру про зомби, в которой приятно убивать этих зомбей крошить им головы прыгая ногами в лицо...
    игра года
  5. PenetratorGod
    Sep 3, 2023
    8
    It might make more sense to remake or remastered this game instead of making a second one. After playing the second game, I understood this much better. Even if it's not a remake, this game still needs a remastered version because the graphics are extremely outdated now. If it gets remastered, maybe they can make us forget the failure of the second game.
  6. AxieEzz
    Jan 12, 2023
    8
    Игра очень зашла, прошел очень много раз на разных сложностях проходя даже все побочки.
    Сюжет слабый с кучей дыр но геймплей на то время был весьма уникальным, зомби + паркур от первого лица стало чем то новым.
    Очень жаль что вторая часть игры стала неописуемым куском говна... 8 Crane on a crane из 10    Игра очень зашла, прошел очень много раз на разных сложностях проходя даже все побочки.
    Сюжет слабый с кучей дыр но геймплей на то время был весьма уникальным, зомби + паркур от первого лица стало чем то новым.
    Очень жаль что вторая часть игры стала неописуемым куском говна...
    8 Crane on a crane из 10
  7. Pmstz
    Jan 31, 2023
    8
    Excellent game !
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  8. Geraltz
    May 3, 2023
    8
    Played this in co-op and finished both the base game and the DLC. I had a lot of fun parkouring, killing zombies, and exploring the world. Decent story with decent characters and a good soundtrack.

    Overall it was worth all the time I spend on it.
  9. Naked_Snakee
    Apr 7, 2023
    8
    Just text (crutch) to save the game to the list. Such things. Maybe I'll do a review later.
  10. Suprizer
    Apr 22, 2023
    8
    I rate the story of the games so this one will be the main story and the following enhanced edition will be followings story review. I hate Crane as a character i hate him with my guts, for the choices he makes mistakes that he do etc. But overall has a nice story with unsatisfying dialogs and delivery in general.
  11. Lezzly
    Jun 1, 2023
    8
    Gra, która wywołała u mnie strach już po krótkim czasie od rozpoczęcia. Niezwykle klimatyczny survival o dynamicznej rozgrywce, która mocno przypadła mi do gustu. Na ogół nie przepadam za horrorami, ale ten tytuł jest na prawdę ciekawy i jeśli ktoś nie lubi się bać, to świetnie można się tu bawić chociażby systemem parkoura lub walką. Eksploracja działa na spoko poziomie i czasami musiałemGra, która wywołała u mnie strach już po krótkim czasie od rozpoczęcia. Niezwykle klimatyczny survival o dynamicznej rozgrywce, która mocno przypadła mi do gustu. Na ogół nie przepadam za horrorami, ale ten tytuł jest na prawdę ciekawy i jeśli ktoś nie lubi się bać, to świetnie można się tu bawić chociażby systemem parkoura lub walką. Eksploracja działa na spoko poziomie i czasami musiałem się nieźle postarać, żeby przetrwać. Niezła historia, pewnie jest dużo lepsza, lecz ja to średnio jestem zajarany w historie o apokalipsie zombie. Polecam dla tych co nie grali.… Expand
  12. BallsJohnson
    Jul 11, 2023
    8
    KERLE KRAINE MAKE ME SEEMAN EN MIEY PANTS. I LOVERE ZERMBIe GAMES AND BALLS. MOSTLY BALLS
  13. teazlunox
    Jul 26, 2023
    8
    320 saat boyunca 2 fps oynayıp en sonunda 140 fpse geçtiğimde 100 saat daha oynadım
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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.
  26. 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
  27. 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.
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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.
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