
- 80/100
- Players1,065 ratings
- 72/100
- Critics17 reviews
More scores
- Metacriticcritics
- 79/100
- Metacritic usersuser score
- 83/100
- GameFAQsJust Right-Tough
- 3.76/5
- Player reviews
- 95% positive375,748 reviews
- Steam Deck
- Verified
- Runs on
- Windows, Mac, Linux
- Price
- US$2.49
Where to get it

2015 · Action · Action-adventure
Dying Light
Dying Light is a first-person, action survival horror game set in a vast and dangerous open world. During the day, players traverse an expansive urban environment overrun by a vicious outbreak, scavenging the world for supplies and crafting weapons to defend against the growing infected population. At night, the hunter becomes the hunted, as the infected become aggressive and more dangerous. Most frightening are the predators which only appear after sundown. Players must use everything in their power to survive until the morning’s first light.
- Released
- 27 January 2015
- Platforms
- LinuxNintendo SwitchPlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/SmacOS
- Genres
- ActionAction-adventureAdventureFirst-person shooterHorrorRole-playingShooterSurvival horrorZombie
- Developers
- —
- Publishers
- Warner Bros. Games
- Series
- Dying Light
- Modes
- Co-opMultiplayerSingle-player
- Perspective
- First person
- Themes
- ActionHorrorSurvivalStealthOpen world
- Engine
- Chrome Engine
- Country
- Poland
- Age ratings
- ESRB MUSK 16CERO ZCLASS_IND 16PEGI 18ACB R 18+GRAC 15+
- Languages
- Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil) and 5 more
- Copies sold
- 20 million as of 2022-04-22
- Time to beat
- 18hmain story65hcompletionist
- Composers
- Paweł Błaszczak
About
Dying Light is a 2015 survival horror video game developed by Techland and originally published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game's story follows undercover agent Kyle Crane who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a fictional Middle Eastern city called Harran. It features an enemy-infested, open world city with a dynamic day–night cycle, in which zombies are slow and clumsy during daytime and extremely aggressive at night.
The gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and parkour, allowing players to choose fight or flight when presented with dangers. The game also features an asymmetrical multiplayer mode (originally set to be a pre-order bonus), and a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode.
›Story
In the city of Harran, a mysterious viral outbreak has turned most of the population into hyper-aggressive zombie-like creatures, forcing Harran's Defense Ministry to quarantine the entire city. The Global Relief Effort (GRE) assists survivors still trapped in the city by regularly airdropping supplies. The GRE hires Kyle Crane to infiltrate Harran in order to retrieve a sensitive file stolen from them by Kadir Suleiman, which he is using as leverage to blackmail them, with the threat of publicizing it if anything were to happen to him. Crane is airdropped into Harran, where he is ambushed by a gang of hostile bandits.
As the infected attack, Crane is bitten and infected, but rescued by Jade Aldemir and Amir Ghoreyshi. Amir sacrifices himself to buy Jade and Crane time, and Jade takes him to a survivor sanctuary called the Tower. Crane wakes up and is introduced to Rahim Aldemir, Jade's brother. Rahim then teaches Crane parkour and sends him to Spike, who gives him his first task as a resident of the tower.
Crane learns that the Tower, which seeks to help other survivors, is being harassed by a gang of bandits led by a warlord named Rais who steals and hoards the supplies from the GRE airdrops, including Antizin; a vaccine that suppresses symptoms of infection and keeps bitten people from turning into the infected. After Harris Brecken, leader of the tower is nearly killed by a rival runner in a mission to retrieve an Antizin drop, need for the drug becomes immense. Crane volunteers and manages to reach an airdrop containing Antizin, but despite the dire need of the vaccine by the survivors, Crane is instructed by the GRE to destroy the airdrop, instructing him to reach out to Rais in order to buy the vaccine in order to confirm his identity. Crane reluctantly complies and informs the Tower that the supplies have been looted.
Upset, Brecken tasks Crane with the job of making a deal with Rais. Upon meeting Rais, Crane is able to confirm that he is indeed Suleiman. He carries out a series of unethical tasks for Rais under the assumption that he will be rewarded with two crates of Antizin. Crane is unable to locate the file, and is later betrayed by Rais, who only gives him five vials of Antizin.
He later breaks off business with the GRE when they halt the supply drops and refuse to help the Tower. The situation in the tower worsens, and a whole floor is sealed off when an outbreak occurs. While doing an errand, Rahim tells Crane that he and Omar were planning to bomb an infected nest. Crane is opposed to this plan.
After an argument over the radio, he gives chase to a fleeing Rahim. Upon catching up to him, he finds that Omar is dead, while Rahim has been wounded. He then executes Rahim's plans, resulting in the killing of the infected in the compound. When he gets back to Rahim he discovers that he was actually bitten and had turned while Crane was gone, forcing Crane to respectfully snap Rahim's neck when he attacks him.
When Crane returns to the tower to inform Brecken of the news, Jade overhears them, and visibly upset, takes off.
Meanwhile, a scientist at the Tower named Dr. Imran Zere, who was attempting to develop a cure for the virus, is kidnapped by Rais, prompting Crane to attempt a rescue mission. Crane is also captured by Rais, who reveals that the file he stole contains proof that the GRE intends to weaponize the virus rather than develop a cure and releases the file to the public. Crane manages to escape before being executed, resulting in Rais losing one of his hands during the process.
Dr. Zere is killed in the rescue attempt, but manages to tell Crane that he had entrusted his research to Jade, who is tasked with delivering it to another scientist named Dr. Allen Camden. As Crane goes to look for Jade, he finds out that the Defense Ministry is planning to bomb Harran in an effort to completely eradicate the outbreak, claiming that there are no survivors left in the city.
He manages to reactivate a radio tower and broadcasts a message to the outside world, thwarting the Ministry's plan. Jade was captured by Rais, who also steals Dr. Zere's research. Crane manages to rescue Jade and recover a part of Dr.
Zere's research, but Jade admits that she has been bitten, and pleads with Crane to stop Rais. Jade then succumbs to the wound, forcing Crane to kill her. After killing Rais' assistant, Tair with his own machete, Crane delivers the tissue samples to Dr. Camden, who believes that he is very close to the cure, but needs the rest of Dr.
Zere's data. Crane then finds out that Rais has cut a deal with the GRE, in which he will hand over Dr. Zere's research data to them in return for extraction from Harran. Crane then assaults Rais' headquarters (filled with infected) and battles him atop a skyscraper, eventually stabbing Rais in the neck and throwing him off the building.
He recovers the research data and decides to turn it over to Dr. Camden instead of the GRE, intending to stay in Harran to help the survivors.
Players say
Media
The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
Dying Light is a survival horror video game played from a first-person perspective. The game is set in an open world environment called Harran; initially, an area named the Slums can be freely explored, later adding a second area, accessible via sewers, called Old Town. Players traverse this urban environment, which is overrun by zombies. There is an emphasis on parkour mechanics, which allow players to perform actions such as climbing ledges, leaping from edges, sliding, jumping between roofs and zip-lining.
A grappling hook allows players to climb up buildings and quickly travel between places. As players explore the game's world, they can scavenge supplies and loot, which can be used to craft new weapons or sold to vendors. The player character can utilise his "survivor sense" to identify all nearby loot and use lock picks to open locked chests and locked vehicles. Players can also complete various side missions by accepting tasks issued by the non-playable characters in the game's safe zones.
Story
In the fictional Middle Eastern city of Harran, a mysterious viral outbreak has turned most of the population into hyper-aggressive zombie-like creatures, forcing Harran's Ministry of Public Defence to quarantine parts of the city. The Global Relief Effort (GRE) assists survivors still trapped in the city by regularly airdropping supplies. Players assume the role of Kyle Crane (Roger Craig Smith), an undercover GRE operative sent to infiltrate the quarantine zone to find Kadir "Rais" Suleiman (Jim Pirri), a political figure gone rogue who has a file that contains vital data on the virus, which could potentially lead to a cure. When Crane arrives, he must decide between completing his mission or helping the survivors.
Undercover GRE agent Kyle Crane is airdropped into Harran to retrieve a sensitive file stolen by Kadir Suleiman, who is using it for blackmail. Crane is bitten by an infected, though he is rescued by Jade Aldemir and taken to a survivor sanctuary inside a skyscraper called the Tower. Crane is introduced to Rahim Aldemir, Jade's younger brother, who then teaches him the basics of parkour. Crane learns that the Tower is being harassed by a gang of bandits led by a warlord named Rais who steals and hoards supplies from the GRE airdrops.
Development
The core team of Techland, which had previously released Dead Island in 2011, commenced development on Dying Light in early 2012. While the team was evaluating the feedback from Dead Island and identifying areas to improve, they felt that their new project deviated considerably from the original Dead Island and warranted the need to make it a completely separate game. Techland director Adrian Ciszewski noted the difference in creative vision between the studio and Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, whose control over the title prevented the studio from realising their vision. For this reason, Techland decided to split from Deep Silver and develop a new property.
The development team considered Dying Light an opportunity to prove that the studio could make a AAA game. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment served as the game's publisher and gave Techland complete creative control over the project.
Reception
According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the PC version of the game received "generally positive reviews" upon release. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions received "mixed or average" reviews.
Dan Whitehead from Eurogamer felt that the story, despite being predictable, was serviceable, though he noted that the main campaign was "repetitive". Writing for USgamer, Mike Williams described the hero as "generic", though he praised Roger Craig Smith's performance as Kyle Crane. Jeff Grubb from VentureBeat also criticised the writing and felt that the story does not make sense. Destructoid's Chris Carter lamented that the story was uninspired, and that the characters featured in the game were "contrived and boring".
Speedruns
- Main Game Any%solist_53m 38s
- Main Game NMGsolist_1h 08m 43s
- The Followingsolist_2m 19s
- Missionssolist_3m 02s
- Tutorial%solist_12m 31s
- Extraction%solist_8m 47s
Releases by platformdates and regions as published
Editions and related releases
- Included in
- Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced EditionDying Light: Platinum EditionDying Light: Anniversary EditionDying Light: Definitive EditionDying Light: Enhanced Edition
- Downloadable content
- Dying Light: Cuisine & CargoDying Light: HellraidDying Light: Bozak Horde
- Expansions
- Dying Light: The Following
- Followed by
- Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- Standalone expansions
- Dying Light: Bad Blood
- Built on it
- Dying Light: Bozak HordeDying Light: The FollowingDying Light: Bad BloodDying Light: Hellraid
- Editions
- Dying Light: Enhanced EditionDying Light: Platinum EditionDying Light: Definitive Edition
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Collections10 collections
Platform libraries
Years
- Games released in 2015List › January–March
- Games released in 2021List › October–December
Genres
- First-person shootersList
- Horror gamesList
- Zombie gamesGames
Development status
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.



