9.8 / 10. A sprawling, highly addictive, zombie epic of a game

Dying Light is a sprawling, highly addictive, survival zombie horror PS4 and Xbox One video game developed by Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

You play as undercover agent, Kyle Crane, sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in the city of Harran following a zombie outbreak, and find the truth behind it. Starting in the slums, Kyle traverses the massive open world using an excellent parkour free running system which enable you to quickly move around utilising all buildings and landmarks around you, with the help of a grappling hook. The game is played from a first-person perspective and is all the more fun for it, as you glide around the city.

A haunting soundtrack gives Dying Light a great old school zombie feeling and Harran is literally overrun with zombies, but in the day time they are slow and easy to defeat, but can still eat you up if not careful.

However, come night-time, the uber evolved zombies - volatiles - come out to play. They can spot you, chase you and have you running for your terrified life. As sunset approaches, your watch beeps in countdown to night-time and it’s genuinely un-nerving. The music change when the volatiles spot you and give chase is one of the scariest moments in any game I have played.

You can find, craft and upgrade melee weapons, but they degrade quickly, so utilise your survivals skills! Spike and electricity traps can be set during the day, but fight or flight is up to you, apart from main missions. There are many interesting side quests you can accept from NPCs in safe zones. There are lots of air drops, houses and chests to scavenge, and later in the game, firearms!

Dying Light is one of my favourite games. I recently bought the enhanced edition to play The Following DLC but decided to play through the whole game again beforehand, which shows how much I enjoyed it.

The storyline is intriguing and the radio calls come through via the pad which is a nice touch. The parkour movements are smooth and seamless, however, the map is very large, and the only fast travel is between Old Town and Harran City, which can become a little tedious when completing missions. Although running to get to a safe house across town before nightfall adds a realistic and tense aspect to the gameplay.

The only thing about the controls that bothered me is no specific aim when using the guns, as most games it would be L1/L2 aim, R1/R2 shoot, you can’t aim in this way (unless I was missing something) which can make the fights with other humans bothersome.

The Following DLC review to follow.