When it comes down to the survival horror genre of gaming one of the most popular titles from the mid 10’s was Techland’s Dying Light title from 2015. Dying Light was released for various game systems including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows and has created utilizing the Chrome Engine 6 with the setting of the game taking place in 2012. Dying Light took place in a middle eastern city known as Harran where the player controls the main protagonist named Kyle Crane while trying to survive in a zombie infested open world environment. One of the most unique features about Dying Light that makes it stand out from other survival horror video games is the parkour gameplay when maneuvering across different buildings; as it related to getting around or simply escaping the infested. Players could also venture across the fictional middle eastern open world environment through zip-lining or buy using gadgets such as grappling hooking to get from point A to point B. Aside from the main story players had the option to partake in various side missions which would be received by interacting with NPC’s all while gaining access to new weapons throughout the game. Dying Light also had multiplayer co-op gameplay which allowed players to compete with one another as it related to killing off as many infected beings as possible. One of the better features of Dying Light that adds to the game’s realism is how dangerous the infected becomes during the night versus the daytime. The infected became more aggressive and powerful at night while being more sluggish and slow during the day which is reminiscent of the day/night cycle of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest when it came to vampires.
The main objective for Kyle Crane in the story for Dying Light was to obtain a cure for the virus that has plagued Harran by discovering data within the city mainly because he was a Global Relief Effort agent. Dying Light had provided players with at least seventeen hours of gameplay and was very difficult when played in Nightmare Mode. Before the start of 2020 Dying Light had at least 7.5 million players with the game reaching at least 20 million copies in worldwide sales. Since its release Dying Light has gained somewhat of a cult following within the gaming community with the game being looked back upon favorably by many people. Despite, not having as many endings as Dying Light 2 which was released in February 2022 the replay value of the first installment was high for a majority of people. Dying Light is arguably the best game Techland had made within the past decade and could easily rival the likes of Dead By Daylight or ZombiU in terms quality and overall presentation in relation to the survival horror genre of gaming.
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