Dying Light

🎮 Steam ⏳ 40 hours ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

Parkour and Night Tension #

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.

Engaging Loop, Weak Story #

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.

Memorable Survival Action #

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.