Dying Light

Adventure action game in the open world Dying Light allows you to fully immerse yourself in the world of the zombie apocalypse. You can expect upgrades, RPG elements, a large open world, and a dynamic day-night cycle.

During the daytime, you will explore the metropolis in search of supplies, gear, and items to craft weapons. Axes, knives, bats, hammers, and more exotic items are available in your arsenal, as well as long-range weapons to eliminate enemies from a distance. At night, dangerous creatures emerge — the infected population and deadly predators that you will have to fend off until the first rays of dawn.

The action of Dying Light takes place in the fictional Middle Eastern metropolis of Harran. Traditional low-rise buildings coexist with mid-rise panel blocks, skyscrapers, and a couple of high-rises. The design of the map even took the economy into account — slums, simple high-rises, and brick houses can be found, as well as elite areas with mansions and towers.

The developers have detailed most of the houses inside; in addition, every building in the game can be entered, however, the larger it is, the more likely it is that some spaces will be inaccessible. There are also suburbs and large open spaces.

Harran looks as if life has stopped during rush hour — there are many cars on the streets, some highways are stuck in traffic, and construction cranes are frozen, waiting for work. At the time of the game's events, the city is in complete disrepair, with some buildings on fire or partially destroyed.

A feature of the city is the ability to move quickly — any vertical ledge can be used as a platform to jump onto or grab onto to move further; cables are stretched everywhere, and the character uses a grappling hook to latch onto any point.

The main threat in Dying Light comes from aggressive zombies, each programmed with different behavior logic. Often, they remain in a stupor, but if disturbed — they will go into a frenzy and attack.

Here, parkour comes in handy — the hero jumps across rooftops, slips through gaps, clings to walls, and uses fences and buildings as natural barriers to avoid being eaten alive. If you have to fight zombies — a whole arsenal is at your disposal.

Weapons in Dying Light are divided into three types: melee (axes, bats, machetes, circular saws), thrown (bows and arrows, bombs, grenades), and firearms (pistols, submachine guns, rifles, and shotguns). Each is useful for specific situations: at a distance, firearms are the most convenient for killing zombies, at close range — melee weapons, and in hand-to-hand combat, you can fend off zombies with your hands and feet.

The protagonist also uses various gear (shields, armor) and equipment (first aid kits, potions, lockpicks), which can be purchased from NPCs or crafted from collected loot.

A feature of the combat system is the upgrading of weapons, gear, and equipment. In the game world, blueprints are scattered around (they can also be obtained from traders or by completing quests). There are the most options for melee weapons: for example, a hammer can turn into an unstoppable weapon of destruction, gaining area damage with additional electric damage.

Zombies are an important part of the gameplay; in solo mode, there are ten types ranging from regular "infected" to more powerful "brutes" and dangerous "jumpers." The former often pose little threat even in large numbers. Meanwhile, three-meter "destroyers" break everything in their path, and due to their mass, they will require a lot of effort to take down.

The most dangerous zombies are the "jumpers" — they will chase the player across rooftops and buildings, delivering multiple hits in a single attack, have high health, and are incredibly fast. Most often, the player is forced to run away from them rather than fight.

The game begins some time after the outbreak of an unknown virus, when most survivors have scattered, and the few remaining are fending off hordes of zombies.

The main character, undercover agent Kyle Crane, is dropped into Harran to gather data on the virus research and to prevent local radical terrorists from turning it into biological weapons.

Everything goes wrong immediately — Kyle falls into an ambush and gets bitten by a zombie, but at the last moment, he is saved by a community of survivors defending themselves from zombies and bandits. He needs to complete his mission, so he decides to stay and become the best among the runner-parkourists.

Although the events of Dying Light are told in several impressively staged acts, they focus on action — kill this, steal that, run there, and defeat the main bandit. As the player progresses, they will see a dozen secondary characters who serve as mere background, with only the antagonist making any effort to engage.

The writers at Techland have assembled the maximum number of clichés — an unkillable main character; a villainous villain who loves to talk; a girlfriend in the role of "damsel in distress"; fabricated challenges solely to push the story forward; issues with character logic and motivation; exceptional predictability of events and a lack of plot twists.

If we set aside the story, Dying Light is a classic "entertain yourself" attraction, with a lot of activities: you can explore the game world and peek into every house, kill many zombies and improve your skills, search for valuable items and weapons for upgrades, or complete quests.

Even the basic mechanics, like movement and combat, are a kind of mini-game. In a tight urban environment, it's interesting to determine routes and use all parkour opportunities, so you forget about fast travel.

When surrounded by zombies, you need to combine different fighting styles and parkour, and firearms will not be the most convenient option. Each zombie has its weaknesses, and knowing them will allow you to kill much faster.

The change of day and night significantly alters the gameplay — for the first time, most missions must be completed during the day while the zombies are in "hibernation," as they become more aggressive and stronger at night, and much more dangerous mutants crawl out of their burrows. The same "jumper" can break the player's plans and drive them back to the safe zone.

The main objective is to develop your character. There is leveling up and a simple RPG system. When the character kills zombies, searches the surroundings, creates new weapons, and completes NPC quests, they gain experience that accumulates into levels. For each level, you receive points that can be spent on new abilities in the categories of "acrobatics," "strength," and "survival."

Role-playing is ensured by a system of dynamic encounters – all non-story events occur in random locations and are determined randomly. The player will have to help someone or destroy someone, and if they ignore NPC requests, it will affect the state of Harran.

In Dying Light, you can complete the story or simply spend time in the game world in teams of up to four players. Connection is established through the menu, with the inviter becoming the host (the prologue must be completed).

During story missions, players receive a shared set of key items and watch the same cutscenes together, so there is no need for each to play separately. As for adventures in the game world, they are similar to actions in solo playthroughs, but much more fun, as loot hunting, exploring dangerous areas, and tormenting zombies are much easier.

There is also an asynchronous mode, where a team of human players faces off against a player-zombie. But not an ordinary one, but a "night hunter" — the most dangerous subtype, enhanced with the ability to see in the dark, move quickly over great distances, and kill with a single blow.

Humans need to destroy special "nests" to win, while zombies must eliminate all humans without exposing themselves to fire and ultraviolet light.