Dying Light (2015)

The first Dying Light entry is an open-world zombie survival game that stands out for its parkour movement system. Traversing the rooftops and alleyways of Harran feels fluid and exhilarating, giving you a unique sense of freedom compared to most games in the genre. The day and night cycle is one of its strongest features, dramatically shifting the tone of the game. During the day, players can scavenge and fight with relative safety, but when night falls, the city becomes terrifying as more aggressive and deadly infected emerge, creating tense survival scenarios.

The core gameplay loop combines melee combat, scavenging, and crafting, which keeps survival engaging and resource-driven. Visuals and atmosphere were impressive for the time, with detailed environments and lighting effects that enhanced immersion. However, the game isn’t without flaws. Side missions often become repetitive, mostly revolving around simple fetch quests or clearing areas. The story, while serviceable, leans heavily on familiar zombie tropes and doesn’t leave a strong narrative impact.

Despite its shortcomings, Dying Light delivers a rewarding experience for fans of survival and action games. Its blend of parkour, brutal combat, and the fear-inducing night cycle makes it one of the more memorable entries in the zombie genre. This is one of the best survival horror titles that I've played, even though it heavily focuses in action, it still delivers most of the main elements of a survival game in general. I highly recommend not skipping this one if you like this genre to any extent.

Decided to finally pick this up (The Following version) on sale for $12. I've only put about an hour in so far, but early impressions:

The Good

Collecting stuff is always fun

Story seems decent so far

Music frickin slaps

The Not-So-Good-But-I-Hope-It-Gets-Better

Controls for free-running are terrible. I keep pressing X to jump. Why is control-mapping not a thing in this game?

Sometimes I can't tell what I can reach and not reach as far as jumping/climbing. I'm sure I'll learn.

The Straight Up Bad

Finding the crafting items. The little icon will appear briefly, then disappear. It should stick around longer, or there should be an icon on the mini-map after you scan. Yeah yeah, that may be taking away some of the thrill and tension of exploring, but I just want to be able to remember/access the item I already scanned for without having to scan every 2 meters.

I think that's it! I'm excited to get more into it :)

Hour 1: Zombie parkour? Awesome! Hour 5: Wait there's really no fast travel? Hour 10: Oh I'm still fighting zombie hordes with a wrench? And combat with humans is pretty whack. Hour 15: Ok I have a gun now, but I'm starting to think first-person platforming isn't such a great idea. My guy can climb 200ft radio towers, but he somehow doesn't know how to climb down anything. Hour 20: Aaaand the story finale is just about 100 platforming deaths in a row.

Such great ideas in this game, but it eventually wound up more frustrating than fun for me. Worth $15 but not much more.

I had high hopes for Dying Light, and while it mostly delivered on an interesting core loop, and includes my favorite in-game activity of open-world parkour, I found the combat repetitive and the mission difficulty highly uneven. At some point I encountered a story mission that kept pulling large numbers of zombies to a building I was interested in via an alarm and I just gave up.

Great locations and a reasonable story line were not enough to keep me playing after that roadblock, and I think that says it all.

Essentially a Dead Island game but with parkour and guns you can shoot.

I’ve had this in my backlog for a while and thought what better time to play it than pandemic. The game is fine. Maybe a little better than Dead Island but not by a long shot - at least in my opinion.

In the game you play as a secret agent of some government organisation sent to the infected city of Harran with a job of finding some secret document. Things go south, you get bit and will try to complete the mission while trying to have a constant supply of antizyne - an infection stopper - while making friends and looking for an antidote.

Visually I’d say it’s a mixed bag. While the graphics quality is really good I did not particularly like the level design. The town seems lacking in character. The city is divided into two parts. First one reminds me of some South african town and reminds me a lot of the Dead Island game. The second part has an Italian feel to it - something along the lines of Assassin’s Creed 2. While the second is more likeable it’s also a lot easier with more accessible rooftop paths.

Gameplay wise it’s very much like Dead Island. There are a couple of zombie types, the slow walkers, the runners, the spitters, the bruts - the usual bunch. For most part you’ll be running around avoiding them and occasionally smacking them in the head with crafted weapons.

The addition of parkour is a welcomed one. Adds a lot of maneuverability and when executed correctly makes traversing the terrain quite pleasant.

The game also adds usable guns. And quite a lot of late game gets you shooting both zombies and people - a very nice change to melee combat.

The whole story is fine. Nothing particularly engaging. There’s plenty of side quest though in most cases felt like fetch quests and I quite quickly decided to skip them in entirety. I focused on the main quest and even with it I was kind of bored towards the end and wanted it to be over.

One more annoying thing which might affect my overall enjoyment of the game was that I started playing during some social event for Left 4 Dead. The event is turned on by default and even turning it off - turns it on every other game launch. And since I was not aware of it I started playing first missions with the event on. The event changed all zombies into running ones - making the game unbearably hard. And I struggled a lot to finish the first missions thinking it was just that way. And I did finish those early missions - and by that time I was fed up with the game and was going to uninstall. Checked some youtube gameplay though and finally realized what was going on.

By that time I got a little too good too quickly. The game in normal settings seemed too easy and it made at least half of the game to be lacking in challenge.

Overall I did finish the game. But it was just an ok experience. Perhaps in multiplayer it would have been better but I don’t know (or care).

Worst first impression ever. I start up the game, intro, tutorial, all fine. Go on the first mission - difficulty normal - and get massacred. To the point of almost throwing controller at the tv. Swarms of super fast zombies, and me running like crazy trying to turn on some things. Am I that old or is the game that hard?

Finish the first mission after a lot of frustrating moments, go check it out on youtube - this can't be that hard. People play same mission - do they have cheats, is that super easy, what the hell?

Turns out there is left 4 dead event going on. Turned on by default changing all zombies into super fast changing game difficulty to super extreme hard. Why is this not off by default.? Why was why I not warned?

Almost uninstalled it. Turned the event off. Now the game is too easy! I got too good too quickly.

The game has been broken.

I am so upset at this game. They took the most fun aspects and killed them with their forced story elements.

Several times they force you through a very limited, pre-defined sequence where you basically have to memorize jumps in order to escape the strictly choreographed sequences. They overuse this and force you to go through this several times before facing the big boss. One of the most satisfying and fun game mechanics, the grappling hook, they just arbitrarily disable. No story reason, just a "you can't use this now". The free running and finding your way through the world is the best part and they just killed it.

The main character has devolved from someone that understood the complexity of the world, to a dumb heroic jock that does nothing but scream angrily at the villain and run head-first into every situation. I am so tired of heroes that are just about physical strength. Why can't they actually be clever? Why does every AAA game seem to have the "this is totally a trap sequence" where they go into the villain's lair without a plan and manage to succeed using just their force of will? Ugh.

I was enjoying the story for a while as it seemed to be a departure from standard zombie survival games. I was really hoping it would present some shades of gray in the decisions that the main character continued to make. Then it took the cliché turn into ultra good guy territory. Every story beat is either betrayal or bad circumstances that almost always work out in the end.

Still playing it for now... may main-line the story to get through it.

Picked this up during the E3 sale and am enjoying it so far. Breakable weapons aren't my favorite, especially ones that I invest in by upgrading. But there seem to be enough supplies scattered around that you can find and craft new ones of similar mechanics.

The parkour is really well done. I don't normally like first person platformers but this is the best so far. The first person perspective is crucial to add to the frantic, chaotic feel that a limited view offers. If you were able to see the zombie horde in third person it wouldn't be quite as intense. I applaud their design choice.

I like that most of the characters I met so far are just normal people trying to get by in a horrible situation. It makes it seem more real and relatable. The main overarching story of zombie outbreak occurs, find a cure, is fairly standard.

I really want some combination of State of Decay 2 and this game. The story is better in Dying Light but the survivor mechanics for outfitting the base, interacting with competing survivors, perma-death, and managing your people is more well rounded. Obviously a story is a lot harder to create if your characters can die.

Play this game with a friend. Don't even think about it, find your best friend, and both pick this game up. if you both like open world rescourse gathering, slight RPG elements, and mindless, fun zombie killing, then you will not regret playing this game co-op. Find someone on a forum, maybe even this website on the update logs, find anyone, form a bond, and play dying light.

The reasoning for that overly passionate paragraph is because I played this game completely co-op with my frequent online buddy. Traditionally I don't fair too well with zombie games - I find the 'it's right behind you' scenario far too tense and I end up getting a headache instead of enjoying the game. With dying light it's not like the zombies aren't a threat, it's more of the feeling that you're quite a capable person. You can free-run, craft weapons, throw weapons, shoot guns, kick zombies back, jump over zombies, grapple zombies, stamp on their heads... the list goes on.

If you turn the lights off, sit on your own, then yeah it will feel pretty damn scary; for me I chose to play co-op for the entire playthrough, which for starters it should be said that the availability to do such thing is amazing alone. When you start playing co-op the whole game feels different; suddenly you have this playground where more laughs occur than crys for help. Some of my most hilarious moments in a game have been with Dying Light. When at first you would have been in trouble if you were corned on a bridge with 30 zombies, now your co-op partner (it should be said that you can have up to 3 other players with you too!) can swoop in from the roof top, jump on-top of a zombie, and hack them to pieces whilst you're struggling to grapple them away from you. It's like a scene from kill bill where in the background you can just see a ninja slicing heads and arms off rampaging zombies - never gets old.

As for the actual gameplay and game itself; the narrative is pretty interesting and there is an expansion if you get the enhanced edition which kind of adds a whole new full sized map. The expansion map is based in farm kind of district where there are a few buildings, but mainly open farm land. Because of this, I rarely play the expansion map because I prefer the city environment of the original game. If you're like me you'll end up completely not caring for the story and just making your own way through the game, having a blast doing it at every turn!

Without spoiling too much of the exploration for you the main aspects of the game which I think are worth purchasing for are:

• The weapon handling - the weapons for weighty and different depending on what weapon you choose to equip. Big hammers are slow but powerful, small knives are incredibly quick but don't pack much of a punch as you would expect. Even the small useless weapons like drain pipes and hammers still feel incredibly satisfying to use; you really feel like you're surviving and making the most of your surroundings. You also gain XP for all the hits you make on an enemy so don't feel like you have to have the best arsenal at all times.

• The free running is really satisfying yet easy - Running, jumping and climbing never feel old and you get that extra kick when you're running away from a zombie at night (they get incredibly fast at night, would not recommend). When jumping for a ledge it does take some practise getting used to how they handle the grabbing controls. You have to press the jump button and then kind of press the grab button (might be the same button) just as you reach the ledge.

• The size of the map - the things to do and the size quests are plenterful - you can go inside some buildings, capture strong holds etc. There's some fun to be had here for the trophy collectors out there.

• Small things - I appreciate small details in a game and this game has a few nice ones; enemies react to where abouts they're hit. If you want to cut their arm off, aim for their arm! If you cut their legs off they'll sometimes still be alive too. The weapon crafting feels really nice, when you electrify a blade and see the electric tingling around the edges of the blade, and then when you wedge that blade into a zombie and see the electric flow through the zombies body... oddly satisfying. The weapons can have numerous affects applied to them such as fire, electric, poison, heavy weight etc.

If you love open world games, zombies, and playing with friends than I can't recommend this game enough. It has provided me with months and months of laughs and 'running for my life' moments. The amount of easter eggs and pleasant surprises are frequent and there's always something to see or do. I don't really have anything bad to say about this game, and besides, if there was anything, I would instantly forgive due to the amount of fun I have had whilst playing. Please do you and your gaming pal a favor and pick this game up.

I played this game entirely co-op with two friends, and we had a blast. The parkour is well done and quite fluid, and that fluidity of movement also factors into the melee combat. Gun combat isn't quite as polished, but it gets the job done. The crafting system allows you to make some pretty awesome melee weapons and can be quite satisfying.

All that being said, this isn't really a great game. I would not have finished it if I had been playing alone. The story is a boring, jumbled mess, and honestly we stopped paying attention to it half-way through the game. To make matters worse, the devs seem to take the story very seriously, and NPCs will talk on and on about the most mundane things. Luckily you can usually skip these conversations, though all of your co-op partners have to agree to skip (which wasn't a problem, we were all bored). And although the parkour works really well, the occasional platforming doesn't always work as well. Climbing towers, in particular, could be very frustrating.

I should also point out that, although this game is very co-op friendly, the very beginning and very end are single-player only. We found this very jarring, especially at the end when we had been playing together for dozens of hours and all of a sudden we were told we could only complete the game in single player. But for all my criticisms, the core gameplay loop, satisfying crafting, and solid co-op features make this an easy game to recommend if you have a couple of friends to play with.

Zombie fans rejoice as their passions are fed further and those who are indifferent to our undead pals will find themselves pleasantly surprised when they pick up a controller and immerse themselves into Harran. Dying Light features a large open city, brutal combat, and initially clumsy but ultimately satisfying parkour mechanics. For a zombie game, it features a fairly compelling story and cast of characters, even if the villain is a little cliche and the dialogue is hampered by poor facial animation. The main story arc is not where you will find the most interesting characters or missions however. The most dynamic interactions are found in Dying Light's many, many side quests. While most of these are, in essence, fetch quests, they are brought to life by a wide range of character motivations and the nature of the randomized zombie placement, forcing you to pay attention and giving you a reason to care. Whether you are proving the innocence of a crazed hermit or heading down to the basement to put down a man's zombified wife because he lacks the will to do it himself, the experience is always worthwhile. Even many of collectibles provide character portraits rather than big picture background, and this has a far more humanizing effect. My experience with co-op has been limited given that few of my friends own a PS4 and even fewer have the game yet, but the experience was nonetheless entertaining.

The game has a fantastic sense of progression. In your first few hours the game can feel quite difficult, as you swing quickly-degrading weapons sluggishly at one or two zombies and barely make it out alive, and struggle to escape when challenged by larger groups. The mapping of the jump mechanic to R1 and RB on consoles is initially awkward, but makes a great deal of sense when the player needs to be moving quickly and looking for the next ledge, as using a button would limit the player's ability to look to his or her destination. These seemingly large mechanic problems melt away in the perfectly balanced combination of gaining experience points and engaging perks with the player's real world grasp of the city layout and combat mechanics. By the end of the game players can expect to get around the city with little to no problems and annihilate hordes of enemies in visceral fashion.

Except at night. Its surprising just how terrifying night can be at any rank. Volatiles and the aggressive horde make stealth and quick, quiet kills a necessity. The look-back mechanic used during sprinting does well to remind you of just how badly you messed up when you decided to drop down to street level without checking for enemies. It's only a shame that more missions and side quests aren't night-exclusive, as moving anywhere for any reason at night is a tense experience.

The game isn't perfect. Textures can be bland, many environmental assets were reused during development (everyone seems to have the same wedding photo), and the frame rate can chug from time to time, even grinding to a near halt during a story cutscene with a large explosion. At one point I fell through the ground and had to kill myself to get the game to reload and continue my mission. These are classic Techland issues, but they are easily overlooked. Money becomes basically worthless around halfway through the game, as your weapons last longer you can keep a few for combat and sell the rest, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars that rarely need to be spent on anything anyway. My only other complaint is the shooting missions. Had the game only featured one or two of these basically mandatory shootouts, I would have appreciated the variety and moved on, but as the game seems to feature around six or more, I couldn't help but feel as though the game temporarily lost sight of what made it fun: movement and melee combat. These could have been made more interesting by providing other pathways to eliminate armed enemies, or at least expecting the player to search for and conserve ammo, rather than load them up with it 30 seconds before the firefight starts.

All in all, Dying Light is an engaging and ruthlessly satisfying experience. With a great world, interesting characters, and a wonderful sense of progression, its small flaws can be ignored. While not necessarily the most replayable of games, it's a great game played solo or with friends, and is a wonderful piece of entertainment that absolutely should be played.

Actually thoroughly enjoyed this game. The Parkour was VERY well developed and it felt fluid, especially when the tech-tree let's you develop your Parkour skills.

The co-op was also the single most enjoyable thing about this game. The whole story can be played it co-op. Simply great cutting zombies to prices, running for your life together when things get tough and so on.

Despite the ending a 8,5 of 10 game.