Dying Light
Techland · Shooter, RPG, Survival, Horror
Overview
First-person action survival game set in a post-apocalyptic open world overrun by flesh-hungry zombies. Roam a city devastated by a mysterious virus epidemic. Scavenge for supplies, craft weapons, and face hordes of the infected.
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IMPORTANT: Enjoy enhanced visuals, a remastered soundtrack, and graphical improvements with the Retouched Update — available for free to all Dying Light owners.
Dying Light Essentials Edition contains:
Shu Warrior Bundle
From the creators of hit titles Dead Island and Call of Juarez. Winner of over 50 industry awards and nominations. The game whose uncompromising approach to gameplay set new standards for first-person zombie games. Thanks to its legacy and seven-year post-launch support, today it goes down in history as one of gaming's greatest zombie titles.
Survive in a city beset by a zombie virus! Discover the hard choice you will have to make on your secret mission. Will loyalty to your superiors prove stronger than the will to save the survivors? The choice is yours…
VAST OPEN WORLD
Roam the city with unprecedented freedom and bask in its unique atmosphere. Use parkour to scale every building and reach remote areas.
CREATIVE COMBAT
Engage in gory combat and discover limitless options to confront your enemies. Use the environment paired with various weapon types and abilities to gain an advantage.
DAY AND NIGHT CYCLE
Experience the dramatic shift in the world, as you change from a hunter to hunted at sundown. Face the coming threat or run away without wasting your time to look behind.
4-PLAYER CO-OP
Join forces with other players and raise your chances of survival in an exciting co-op mode. Tackle the story campaign together and see how far you'll go as a team.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,999 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
More than a decade after release, nearly every review in this slice still recommends Dying Light, and the reason players give first is the first-person parkour: running, vaulting and grappling across Harran's rooftops comes up in almost half of the longer reviews. Next come the nights, when Volatiles hunt you and the game turns into survival horror, and a co-op campaign that friends play start to finish. Players also praise the weight of the melee hits, the dropkick, the soundtrack and how well the game has aged, and reviewers who mention price often quote a few dollars on sale. The story divides people: about as many longer reviews praise it as call it generic. The Following expansion splits players between those who love the buggy and those who miss the parkour.
Melee fights wear people down, mostly because of spongy, scaling enemies and human bandits who block everything. Side quests lean on fetch errands, and some players on laptops with two graphics chips report heavy frame drops. A smaller group is angry about the finale, a quick-time-event boss fight that drops co-op partners and forces you to play it solo. Among players who compare it with Dying Light 2 and The Beast, most prefer this first game.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Rooftop parkour that turns Harran into a playgroundHigh
Only the story comes up more often than movement. Parkour, free running or traversal appears in 47% of the longer reviews (760), and 21% (339) praise it outright as smooth, fluid or the best part of the game. Players describe a growth curve: Crane starts out slow and short of stamina, then skills, the dropkick and the mid-game grappling hook make the city feel like an obstacle course built around you. One reviewer wrote that the system "makes Harran feel like a playground where every street and rooftop can become an escape route." Even among the longer negative reviews, 11% (30) praise the parkour, and several sum the game up as great parkour with everything else weaker.
The praise has limits. 3% of the longer reviews (43) complain about ledges Crane refuses to grab, unwanted wall jumps from the Tic-Tac skill, or the lack of a way to climb down, and some veterans think the grappling hook makes traversal too easy. A few players coming from Dying Light 2 or The Beast find the movement here dated next to the sequels.
Nights that turn the hunter into preyHigh
What players remember is the switch from day to night: confident looting in daylight, then Volatiles, chases and a sprint to the nearest UV light after dark, with double XP as the lure to stay out. Night comes up in 27% of the longer reviews (443), and 12% (188) describe it with words like terrifying, tense or adrenaline. "The Volatiles completely redefine what fear feels like in a video game," one player wrote, and several reviewers single out their first night chase. A minority say the fear fades once you are strong or that Volatiles are easy to avoid, and a few find them overpowered on forced night missions.
Co-op that runs the whole campaignHigh
Playing with friends, a partner or random players comes up in 21% of the longer reviews (339), and 10% (157) say the game is better that way. Players like that the full story is playable with up to four people, that partners can teleport to the objective, and that strangers drop into lobbies and hand out gear. "This game gave me some of my favorite co-op memories," one reviewer wrote. Complaints about co-op target specific parts of it: the solo-only finale (see the frustrations below), the host earning more XP than guests, and co-op achievements, which are covered separately.
Weighty, gory melee and the dropkickMedium
Players single out the ragdoll physics, dismemberment and elemental weapon mods, and 11% of the longer reviews (182) call the combat satisfying, brutal or impactful. The dropkick appears in 5% of all reviews (507), often as a running joke about kicking zombies off rooftops. "Every hit feels impactful, every kick is satisfying, and every movement during combat feels natural and rewarding," one player wrote. The same combat system is also the subject of the complaint players raise most, about enemy health and stamina, covered under the frustrations.
A 2015 game that still holds upMedium
"A rare game that aged well because it was built on strong ideas, not just graphics," one reviewer wrote. 13% of the longer reviews (203) say something similar: the game has aged well, still looks good or plays better than newer releases. 7% of the longer reviews (107) mention playing it on console before, often while buying it again on PC, and 6% (97) are first-timers, several of whom watched YouTubers play it as kids. A few reviewers credit what they call the 10th-anniversary visual update, while a smaller group (2% of the longer reviews, 32) calls the game outdated or dated.
Harran's atmosphere and soundtrackMedium
The music comes up in 8% of the longer reviews (134), often the main menu theme or the synth score that some reviewers credit to Paweł Błaszczak, and a few pair it with the look of the city at sunset or the sound of distant screams. "The soundtrack is criminally underrated and should've wone awards," one player wrote. Players also praise the slums and Old Town as dense, detailed spaces, with environmental storytelling in their apartments.
Cheap on sale, with a lot of game for the moneyMedium
Reviewers often quote prices of a few dollars or euros for the base game, or under ten for the edition with every DLC, and 8% of the longer reviews (133) mention a sale or discount. Several call it a bargain at that price ("best 2 dollar game on steam"), and a small minority recommend it only at a deep discount. A few complain that the DLC costs more than the base game or that The Following is easiest to get by buying a full edition.
Where players are split
The story and its charactersHigh
The story is mentioned in half of the longer reviews (817), and opinion splits evenly there: 10% (158) call it good, engaging or emotional, and 9% (152) call it generic, predictable or weak. Fans talk about getting attached to Rahim, Jade and Crane himself, praise Roger Craig Smith's performance, and like the twist around the GRE. "But what surprised me most was how invested I became in the story and characters," one reviewer wrote. Critics see a cartoonish villain in Rais, characters who die before you care about them, and a protagonist pushed into obviously bad decisions by the script. "The story of Dying Light feels like the first completed draft, not a finished product with revisions and peer review," another wrote. Several reviewers on both sides say the side quests carry more personality than the main plot.
How it compares with Dying Light 2 and The BeastMedium
12% of the longer reviews (201) bring up the sequels, often because a reviewer played The Beast first or is replaying the series. Among reviews that rank them, those preferring this first game outnumber those preferring a sequel by about five to one (110 against 22). Fans of the original credit its atmosphere, combat feel, story and night tension; the minority who prefer the sequels point to smoother parkour and a more modern feel. Some reviews hold both views at once: "DL2's parkour might be much better but DL1's atmosphere and immersion are unmatched."
The Following and the smaller DLCMedium
Fans treat The Following as a second game, with a countryside map, a customizable buggy, a cult storyline and a better final boss; one called it "worth every single penny even if bought separately." The expansion comes up in 12% of the longer reviews (191), and positive comments about it outnumber negative ones, though not by much (74 against 42 across all reviews). Critics say it trades parkour for long drives across open fields, a buggy that gets stuck on trees, and fuel and parts grinding. "Who's idea was it for the DLC to get rid of all of the fun parkour elements with the worst map ever," one wrote.
Hellraid draws more negative than positive comments (22 against 13), mostly about repetitive arena fights and grinding for achievements: "However, Hellraid was not good and felt boring when horde after horde of skeletons are attacking You over and over all the time." The Bozak Horde gets mixed notes and several reports of a bugged co-op achievement. Some players also warn that DLC weapon blueprints are strong enough to trivialize the early game.
Be the Zombie and online playLow
4% of the longer reviews (59) mention the Be the Zombie mode, where one player invades as a Night Hunter. Some love it ("Be the zombie is the best gamemode in any game ever"), while others describe an aging scene full of veterans and modded gear: "if you are a competitive player their is just a lot of cheaters and people with dev menu." A few say they simply turn invasions off.
What frustrates players
Spongy enemies and stamina-limited meleeMedium
No complaint comes up more often in the longer reviews: 11% of them (171) criticize the melee balance, and so do 29% of the longer negative reviews (77 of 266). The grievances are specific: basic zombies that take many hits in the early game, a combat stamina bar that runs out after a few swings, weapons that break quickly, and human bandits who block, dodge and soak damage. Several players say enemies scale up as the story or their level progresses, so a better weapon stops feeling better: "I can't even one-shot basic zombies in the head anymore." Human fights draw a lot of the anger ("Fighting humans might be the worst part of the game"), and harder difficulties are described as adding health rather than challenge. Several players who pushed past the weak opening hours say the game improves once skills unlock; others say guns and DLC weapons later swing the balance too far the other way.
Errands, fetch quests and back-and-forth runningMedium
Players object to side quests that send them across the map to deliver an item, the lack of fast travel between safe zones, and endless lockpicking for low-value loot. 8% of the longer reviews (133) call the missions repetitive or describe them as fetch quests and errands, as do 14% of the longer negative reviews (36). One reviewer wrote that many side missions "just force you to donkey work like running from one end of city to other just to deliver a message like a courier." In The Following the same complaint attaches to long drives between quest steps. Others defend the lack of fast travel because moving through the city is the fun part.
Frame drops on laptops and some modern PCsMedium
5% of the longer reviews (85) report frame drops, stutter, lag or crashes, and 12% of the longer negative reviews (31) do. Two situations recur: gaming laptops with a second, integrated GPU, where players say the game uses only part of the dedicated card, and dense scenes with many zombies or the end of cutscenes. One player said "the game simply refused to fully utilize my GPU," and another pointed to "an Nvidia feature called Optimus." A few reviewers say a 2025 update or hotfix cut their frame rate. Other reviews (75 across the corpus) say it runs well on old or low-end PCs and on the Steam Deck.
A QTE finale you must play solo, and set pieces that strip your gearLow
3% of the longer reviews (47) complain about the ending, and these come from players who reached it. The final fight with Rais is a quick-time sequence, and the last mission cannot be played in co-op. "It's the first coop game I've ever encountered that abruptly kicks you out of coop mode just for the ending," one wrote; another said "Making the final boss fight nothing but a QTE was EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING." Related complaints mention the final tower climb with the grappling hook disabled, respawning without the supplies you used, and two boss fights (the arena and the Tahir fight) that take away your gear, with a few reports of the Tahir fight becoming unwinnable when no weapons drop.
Virals that spawn behind youLow
2% of the longer reviews (31) complain that the fast Viral zombies keep spawning out of nowhere, even without noise. "They can and will just magically spawn in behind you and whack you out of whatever you were doing," one reviewer wrote, and another noted that the tutorials still warn you about making noise even though Virals arrive anyway. Some players install mods to turn this off.
Launch-screen ads for the sequelsLow
Under 1% of reviews mention it (29). Reviewers describe a start screen that offers The Beast alongside the game they launched, a developer video promoting it, and banners in the menu. "FFS did I buy a game or a bunch of ads?" one asked. Some point to the -nologos launch option as a workaround.
Lost saves, Mac and Linux builds, and co-op connection failuresLow
Under 1% of reviews (40) report technical problems beyond frame rate: saves or story progress reset to an earlier mission, the native Linux build crashing (players say the Windows version through Proton works), crashes and graphical glitches on Apple Silicon Macs, and co-op sessions that fail to connect or disconnect repeatedly. The single autosave slot makes progress loss hurt more, and a few players call the save system the game's worst feature; one reported that "it erased my save(i was on the final mission)."
Achievements tied to co-op and paid DLCLow
Achievement hunters note that 100% completion needs paid DLC and several co-op achievements, one of which requires the same four players for multiple quests; under 1% of reviews (26) raise this. "Only missing the co-op achievements, because apparently I need friends to get 100%," one wrote. A few also report achievements that fail to unlock.
Motion sicknessLow
Under 1% of reviews (21) say the camera motion made them dizzy or nauseous, sometimes within the first hour. Some found relief by raising the field of view: "thank god for the FoV slider because all the animations were giving me motion sickness."
3. The player conversation
The tone is warm, nostalgic and heavy on memes. Most reviews are short praise ("peak", "best zombie game"), and in-jokes recur: dropkicking zombie children, "Crane on a crane", "Good night, good luck" and Crane's line about toxic snot. The longer reviews mix returning console players rebuying on PC with first-timers who picked it up on a cheap sale, some of them after playing The Beast. The recommendation rate in this slice stayed between roughly 89% and 97% week to week, with no sign of a shift.
Players who dislike the game seldom attack the parkour (7% of the longer negative reviews do); they object to melee balance, mission structure and the story. Technical complaints center on laptops and Macs, and a separate small group objects to the launch-screen ads. Complaints about the finale come from people who reached it, while a few motion-sickness reviews come from players who quit within minutes. Comparisons with Dying Light 2 and The Beast come up regularly, and they mostly favor the original.
4. What the developers could do
- Rebalance enemy health and scaling for melee. Spongy basic zombies, human bandits who block everything and enemy toughness that rises with progress are the complaint raised most often, and they appear in nearly a third of the longer negative reviews.
- Fix performance on dual-GPU laptops. Laptop players report the game underusing their dedicated GPU and dropping to low frame rates, and some say a 2025 update made it worse.
- Make the launch-screen sequel promotion optional. The ads and developer video at startup are a small theme, and the reviewers who raise them object to sitting through a sales pitch before they can play.
- Let co-op groups finish the final mission together and give Rais a real fight. Players who played the whole campaign with friends resent being split up for a quick-time-event finale.
- Cut Viral spawn rates or tie them to noise again. Players describe Virals appearing behind them even when they stay quiet, which contradicts the game's own tutorials.
- Add fast travel between safe zones and fewer pure fetch errands. Repetitive delivery quests and long back-and-forth runs, including drives in The Following, are a steady source of fatigue.
- Protect saves and fix the co-op achievement and connection bugs. Reports of progress resetting, failed co-op connections and achievements that never unlock are few, but each one can cost a player hours of progress.
