Dying Light

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Run the rooftops by day; flee for a safe zone when night falls.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (95% of 496,614 reviews)
Length: a long open-world campaign
Players: 1 to 4 online
Made by: Techland
Released: 2015

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What frightens By day the infected shamble through the streets, but at sundown the city changes and you go from hunter to hunted, fleeing over rooftops from fast night creatures with only a flashlight and a UV lamp.
Content: gore, violence, jumpscares.

A first-person open-world zombie game by Techland, set in a quarantined city overrun by a virus. You climb and run across rooftops, scavenge supplies and craft weapons to survive the infected. When night falls the city turns on you, and the hunt is reversed.

About Dying Light

Dying Light was released by the Polish studio Techland, the makers of Dead Island, in January 2015. It came to PC, PlayStation and Xbox, and later to Nintendo Switch, and the Definitive Edition bundles the base game with The Following expansion and the other add-ons. A free Retouched update has since refreshed its visuals and soundtrack on PC.

You play an agent dropped into Harran, a city sealed off after a virus outbreak. Its streets are thick with the infected, so you move over them instead: climbing walls, leaping gaps between roofs and sliding under fences. You scavenge supplies, craft and repair weapons, help survivors in safe houses and choose between the orders of your superiors and the people you meet.

Its horror arrives with the dark. During the day you are the hunter, carving through slow biters. At sundown the world changes: faster, far more dangerous infected come out and you become the hunted, often running flat out for a safe zone with the sound of pursuit behind you. Venturing out at night is optional, and that choice is where the dread lives.

It is a gory action game more than a hiding one, and you grow strong over time. It suits players who want movement and melee fights with a real fear of nightfall, and friends who want to take on a zombie city as a group of up to four.

How to play Dying Light

Climb and run across the city to reach missions, using ledges, pipes and rooftops to stay above the crowds.
Search buildings and bodies for parts, then craft and repair weapons and medkits.
Unlock safe zones by clearing them and switching on their UV lights, so you have places to rest and save.
At night, keep low and quiet and use the map to avoid the night hunters, and run for a safe zone if one spots you.
Invite up to three friends into your game to play the story together.

Screenshots

Dying Light screenshot: a bloated, bloody infected lunges at the player in a dark warehouse as the player raises a green-glowing weapon

Dying Light screenshot: a runner leaps across a rooftop above a street full of the infected

Dying Light screenshot: the player kicks an attacker off scaffolding high above the ruined city at sunset

Tips

Head for a safe zone before sunset in the early game.
Repair your best weapon instead of letting it break.
Kick zombies off ledges and rooftops rather than fighting every one.
Night play gives more experience, but only try it once you can outrun what chases you.