Dying Light is a 2015 game that would admirably be called a “cult classic.” Which is to say it is a modern big-budget horror game that sold well but not the millions upon millions that GTA V did for those three years of its release. Without the established name of a Resident Evil or the heavily anticipated Silent Hills game from Kojima of that time, it was marketed as the underdog from the get-go. It had a few tricks up its sleeve, which made fans admire it more than some others, but ultimately it wasn’t sitting in too many popular top-10 lists of that year.

I tried out Dying Light a few years back, with the story being a rather depressing one. I did a mission, I had some weapons that would keep me alive, but once I was pushed into the wilds of Harran, I was too scared to do anything. I then found an ambulance to stand on top of while being surrounded by zombies, crying and kicking any that attempted to clamber up to eat my bum hole. Oh yeah, it is a zombie game, arguably that’s why it sold so well. Between zombies, crafting, the middle eastern-ish setting, and the color palette licking the word brown off the walls in chocolate pudding (I hope it is), it was hardly an underdog after the PS3 era.

The thing is, I’ve been replaying it over the last couple of months, on and off again. While I have my usual grievances, I do oddly enjoy bits of it as I cower behind the bins at night. What really makes Dying Light “unique” is the movement, the freerunning that works about as well as trying to teach your cat to clean herself by sticking her in the washing machine. I’ve been playing the PS4 version, and playing on the PS4 is like trying to view Harran through the world’s smallest postcard at arm’s length by someone who’s short-sighted.

As you can tell by my sneering tone, high-speed precision-platforming with a field of view of about 0.5 inches on either side of the character’s nose isn’t the best option in the world. In fact, I think I’d call it a stupid option. It is what made playing Far Cry 3 on a console and climbing those towers so annoying; Which makes it a marvel that someone thought that was a great idea to replicate too, half the time. You could be two millimeters from the ledge you want to grab, but it is up to the fate of the universe if you will wrap your fingertips around the bit of concrete or drop in uninvited on zombie Bob’s 27th birthday party. Of course, that comes with all his friends being angry at you for landing in the human they had already killed.

The story revolves around Kyle Crane, your typical American gun for higher with a face so bland you can literally change it out for Left 4 Dead characters if you want. Hired by some PMC or American agency to go in and collect a file, Crane lands a nice little room with all the lovely people trying to get by in the middle eastern example of ignoring a lockdown or safety guidelines. I digress. You soon meet up with the villain that is so cartoonish that he might as well be wearing a cape, dancing on the rooftops, and singing show tunes about how he’s just a little misunderstood.

The thing is, while I have no love for the story as a whole, I do actually like Crane. He’s a character and not just someone breathing heavily in my ear or quipping himself to death as I fling him off a rooftop for the umpteenth time. He has conflicts, he’s beaten down by the substance of the world, and he’s generally trying to do good. There was a mission early on where you track down medicine for the good people, but your CIA/PMC contact tells you to dump it. Part of me, the part that has been conditioned by countless RPG options, wants to say that should have been a moral choice, but I am wrong. It was a moment to show his reluctance, not for me to imprint something on him on a whim.

To pull this back to the gameplay for a moment let’s discuss the crafting system, my (take this with sarcasm) favorite addition to all games lately. Yeah, sure, I am not placing things in a specific shape to create an ax, again. It doesn’t mean I am all too happy with it either, as I want to craft several medkits at once, and you have to wait for the progress bar to fill on every single one. Everyone thought it was a great idea when selling several pots of coffee in stores, so why not bring up a comparable slider asking how many of X do you want to craft? It is a small complaint in terms of the game’s overall quality, but an issue I’ve had nonetheless.

Similarly, in the thread of being petty about the frivolous, I’ve never been a fan of weapon degradation. The only game that I didn’t mind it in was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt because I would often find a new sword before I had to repair my current one, until I was near the end of the game. I’ve seen digestive biscuits soaked in tea/coffee with more rigidity to them than half these weapons; which are all fixed with metal scrap. Does the game tell you how much metal scrap you have when it asks if you want to use it? Nope!

So, we’ve covered that there are zombies, the weapons that fold like I do to a woman with an Irish accent, the story is good in places if clichéd like an episode of the Power Rangers, and I like it. I’ve just not addressed the second part of the title, as the day-night cycle plays a big part in the whole Light thing. Vincent Price once said, “creatures crawl in search of blood,” and by Christ was he wrong. The second the sun dips below that horizon there ain’t love nor money that will stop me from running, crying, and yelling to a safe house. That is where the real horror kicks in, as zombies faster the Sha’Carri Richardson to the IOC after that failed drug test can smell what you are cooking in your underpants.

The coward in me aches to say that I don’t like them, however, that’s the point. They are actually terrifying because they are a threat. They can get you, you can’t see them, and ultimately they are something you fear. That, that right there is some good solid horror. It might not be the psychological example that I prefer, but it is a subconscious thing that I am chucking the president’s daughter out of the bin so I can climb inside there and hide.

Ultimately, Dying Light is several things I don’t like, a zombie-filled open-world with crafting and first-person precision platforming in the land of horror, yet I find myself enjoying it. Whether it is running across rooftops hooting like Daffy Duck as throngs of super-charged zombies run after me, Crane’s desire to help, or simply kicking a zombie off a roof, it is fun. I didn’t mention that there is a kick button, and if you run at people (mostly zombies), you can dropkick them. I want more games where I can dropkick people off a roof!

In the end, Dying Light isn’t all that original, but what it does have to offer is well-made and sequentially satisfying to play. Sure, you’ll do more leaps of faith towards slightly jutting out bits of concrete on the edge of buildings than a teenager trying to make nice with his date’s dad in that awkward pre-prom phase. However, soon after that, you can start kicking the zombies in the head instead of running away from them. With that last bit is where I think I lost the analogy, but I don’t care, I’ve got zombies to kick off buildings.

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Dying Light

$29.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Horror, with a thing to actually be scared of.
• Annoying, but ultimately fun freerunning.
• Kicking and dropkicking will never not be fun.
• A lead with actual character.

Cons

• A field-of-view stolen from a Porkies film.
• Weapons are as soluble as a Berocca.
• An annoying PS3-era color pallet.