I've completed this game twice now. Once on PS4 and once here on PC. (Almost a 3rd time as I've been playing a bit in co-op with a friend). And I could maybe go for another playthrough someday. Rarely do I actually play a game twice. The last time I've ever done that was with Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, GTA V, MGS Solid Snake and Red Dead Redemption 1. That’s out of hundreds and hundreds of games that I can even remember playing.

Everything about Dying Light is great and it's almost hard to believe that it's by the same people who made Dead Island. A prime example of a developer who knows how to improve and if you've played Dead Island, you'll remember that the atmosphere was what stood out the most.

It is a horror game that's scary enough to make your butt cheeks clench but just the right kind of scary that you can play freely without too much fear. The survival mechanics are light and by no means are they an inconvenience. Weapons will break if you use them too much so you'll either have to find new 1s or repair your current 1s but you can only repair them a limited number of times. You'll need to loot & scavenge for medical supplies but you can also buy weapons and items are stores, so your options aren't limited. You don't have to worry about eating or drinking though.

What makes Dying Light stand out from a lot of horror & zombie games and even open world games in general, is its atmosphere. It's by far the best atmosphere in any zombie game I've played and possibly even horror games. The way it's capable of making you feel uneasy & disturbed by the environment you’re in is astonishing.

The narrative is good, the concept of playing a double agent in a quarantined zone and the villain who is somewhat cliché is still interesting. You gradually grow to like Kyle, the character you play as. While also growing to like the other characters. Fairly early on you'll feel like you've chosen to side with the runners.

The gameplay is fun, it's nice being able to chop the limbs and heads off zombies while also being creative with traps & lures. The variety of zombie types also helps keep you on your toes. It does really well to give you the illusion that you're overpowered too but does even better at reminding you that it isn't always true.

I liked how it had RPG mechanics in the form of a skill system too and how exp was earned by doing specific things related to those skill sets. Like Parkouring over obstacles, climbing etc... would give exp to your agility skill set. Attacking, fighting, killing enemies etc... would give exp to your power skill set. Getting supply drops would give exp to your survival skill set. So you earn exp as you play pretty much.

Then when it comes to nightfall, it's like a whole different game. There’re a few missions you're forced to do at night during the base game and quite a few missions you're forced to do during the night in The Following expansion. I personally just avoid playing during the night because the Volatiles are damn scary.

The graphics are superb. They convey the disturbing atmosphere really well, from the abandoned buildings, cars & almost lifeless streets to the air itself. Unfortunately, they've recycled a lot of NPC & enemy skins, so it can ruin the immersion a bit.

The audio is probably what compliments the atmosphere the most. The zombie sounds are great, nice and scary and one thing I've noticed is that if you're one of those people who watch The Walking Dead and ask "how do they not hear the zombies sneaking up on them?" well you learn very quickly why in Dying Light. The most notable sound that evokes the most fear though is the screams from either Virals or Volatiles. The latter being the worse. The moment you hear those screams you know it’s time to keep an eye out or run.

There's a lot more I could say about it, but Dying Light is the perfect balance of an open world zombie survival horror game hitting nearly every nail on the head. I've clocked about 66 hours in the game and that's doing pretty much mainly the story & side missions. There's still a lot more to do on top of that.