Glad to see the misinformed reviews have been thrown out of from the top page. For those who have said that Dying Light's day/night mechanic is not what they thought and that time doesn't actually change in the game clearly haven't played past the intro missions. The first two missions are obviously there to get you started, so they're not going to thrust a timed day/night cycle before you get the hang of the environment and the mechanics, and thus in the intro missions, time does not change if you don't progress the quest. Past those two missions, day/night becomes very real, and incredibly terrifying. /endRant


Gameplay:
I'm sure it's been said before, but this is what Dead Island should have been. Everything from the parkour to the combat just feels incredibly fluid. Running around is great fun, and jumping into abandoned houses and exploring/finding loot is constantly fun. And this is where I got caught in my first night phase. I was running towards my objective when "oh look another shelter, let me go secure it," then "oh look there's an air drop nearby, let me go grab it," then again another shelter nearby, on top of random houses and zombies (sorry, "biters") to loot, and before I knew it, I got my last radio call telling me I should get to a shelter quick (mind you, the Tower warns runners a few times before nightfall to get home, but I just have to keep scrounging for loot). I checked my map and realized I was pretty damn far from the closest shelter, so I just booked it. This is where freerunning gets exciting. With how seemless and smooth it is to run around/through buildings and across rooftops, the run to my shelter didn't feel annoying or like a chore, but more like a challenge to find the smoothest route (very similar to Mirror's Edge). Long story short, night fell, I ♥♥♥♥ my pants and crouched my way from rooftop to rooftop, listening to the horrifying screams of the nighttime biters as I eased my way into my little shelter. I've since tried to go out at night and see if I can tackle a nighttime bonus objective of a quest, and I can tell you, as of right now, I am definitely not prepared... but I'm damn excited to finally face the challenge.

+ Fluid, seemless parkour
+ Combat is fun
+ Enemy AI is surprisingly smart
+ Terrifying and exciting night cycle
+ Scavanging every nook and cranny for loot

Characters:
Some characters are well-performed while others just aren't. Gazi's performance, in my opinion, is laughably bad, but I began to think that it may have been intentional? And Rahim... he must have played a lot of Jak and Daxter back in the day, all he needs to do is dye his hair yellow. Brecken, Jade and Lena are among my favorite so far, with Lena reminding me a lot of Cassandra from DA:Inquisition with her hair and accent. Overall, characters are decent, and that's all that really needs to be said, so far at least.

+ Some interesting characters
- Some poor performances

Technical:
Graphics are gorgeous, and surprisingly undemanding even on my single GTX 970 with everything cranked to max and at 1920x1080. Though many report a huge framerate difference by changing the View Distance option, I can barely see much of a difference in-game with that option set to half or max. The only issue I've noticed is that very very rarely, when you're fighting biters with melee weapons, the game randomly hitches, then continues normally. It only happens in combat, but not often enough to be annoying and that might just be my system. Overall, everything looks great, and the graphics and effects are wonderful. For an ugly game, the visuals are surprisingly beautiful.

Sound:
Music is great, but my only comment is that the music that plays when you're outside has one part where a random singer begins to chant, and I swear it scares the crap out of me every time. Bashing biters with blunt weapons sounds very satisfying, and you can tell when you've hit the right spot, while hitting the chest is usually a muffled thump. I've yet to get a gun though (I've spent a lot of time just wandering around so I'm not too far into the campaign) so I can't comment on that. Also, make a little bit more noise and you'll hear bone-chilling screams in the distance of the more agile biters coming to get you. Very satisfying sound work overall.

Story:
I haven't gotten far into the story so I'll hold off until I've completed it to fill this section.

I basically wanted to come out and say how much I'm enjoying this game and to tell people to ignore the false statements about this game and give it a try. If you liked Dead Island, you'll like this game. If you hated Dead Island, you'll like this game. If you're a fan of first person, open-world games, then I'd bet you'll like this game.

Imagine if Dead Island wasn't a wonky, glitch-filled mess. Imagine you could freerun, go anywhere, do anything, meet weird people, and occasionally judo throw a zombie off a roof. Imagine getting a running start and drop kicking a zombie so hard his body gets stuck in the geometry of the map. You don't have to imagine it, I've lived it. Follow me.

10/10

Lemme give it to y'all straight, who are on the fence;

- Yes, the game is very much worth it at full price.

- One of the first games in a long while, that has kept me up until 5 A.M. in the morning, because of how lost I get myself into it.

- Doesn't do dumb jump scares, save for a VERY FEW TIMES, and each one counted.

- The game is maybe one of the best zombie based games out there, so long as you do enjoy it with action.

- Parkour in the game is AMAZING. Sometimes I like just playing the game, so I can run
around, across roof tops, and attacking zombies while talking to friends.

- Co-op in story mode. Freaking amazing. No dumb lobby. Just click 'Join game' and bam,
you'll be thrown a few feet away from a friend without them sometimes even noticing you joined!

- Single play and Co-op have a huge impact; co-op feels fun, slightly safer, and adds a lot in the form of friendly rivals! Single player feels way more tense and everything you do counts, making you second guess some choices, for fear or death. Night time in either mode is fun as heck, though four co-op makes it pretty easy.

- Night and Day feel almost like two different modes. In the day, zombies shuffle around, falling off rooftops, being dumb, easy to avoid and kill. Night time? Get those UV Flares ready, and be ready to flee if they catch sight of you.

- Even after beating the story, I keep coming back for more, as it's super fun.

- Took me around 30 hours to do the story, which also included only HALF of the side missions. Still got a little over 50% left to go, and looking forward to it!

TL;DR - Get the game, find friends to play with, enjoy the hell out of one of the few games worth it at full price.

Note: Each field is weighted differently, and thus affects the overall score differently.

Field	Rating	Review
Graphics	9	A pretty game to look at for sure, though it suffers with some animations on the part of NPC humans, particularly when they are speaking. The environment is very well put together, and the general ambience of the game, especially at night, is fantastic.
Gameplay	10	I have never played a game that offered such satisfying zombie smashing. On top of that, you have a variety of ways to dispatch of the zombies. The sound design is incredibly well done (save for the voice-acting, it is average at best), every smack of a weapon against a zombie is satisfying and has some weight behind it. Also notable is the parkour system in place in the game; It is extremely well executed, and gives an incredible sense of freedom to go where you want, and do what you want. The weapon system is reminiscent of Dead Island's, though gathering parts feels much more intuitive now. Missions feel varied enough that they don't come across as just "fetching" quests. They even serve to push you out of your comfort zone and into the dreaded night.
Story	7	A zombie game that calls zombies exactly that, for once. The story in Dying Light isn't anything spectacular, but it has enough interesting moments to keep you moving forward, wanting to know how things will turn out. Again though, this is a zombie game, so don't be expecting Shakespeare.
Multiplayer	9	Easily join up with four friends for some co-op fun which allows you to play the entire game together, main quests and all. Though frustrating at times that you must have EVERY player in the vicinity to start a mission, or even have dialogue with an NPC, the frustration is quickly forgotten as you get back to bashing zombie's heads in. Occasional co-op competitive events show up as you travel around the map, challenging you to beat your friends at killing the most zombies, finding the most loot, saving survivors, or racing to an objective. An absolutely hilarious blast of a game to play with your buddies. Note: I have not yet played "Be the Zombie" mode (5-players allowed, instead of just 4), so I will update this review when I have the chance to try it out.
Replayability	8	I thought that perhaps I would get tired of bashing zombie's skulls in, and jumping around the world. I have found myself to be pleasantly wrong in both regards. Dying Light executes these two mechanics so fantastically that I find myself constantly drawn to it, especially when friends are able to hop in-game with me. Though I can see the missions becoming burdensome and tiring after having done them a few times.
Overall	9.1/10	Of all the zombie games out there, Dying Light is number one on my recommended list. A well polished, extremely fun game by yourself, throw some friends into the mix and you have a winner. If you enjoy zombie games in the slightest, or even if you don't, give this game a whirl. Thanks to Dying Light, I find myself bummed out when I play other games that I cannot jump and climb so freely. You know something has been executed well when you find yourself wishing it was in every other game you played.

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It's like Far Cry and Mirrors Edge got married and then later had a divorce and Mirrors Edge married Dead Island. They had a baby but the baby actually belonged to Far Cry and Mirrors Edge knew that but Dead Island was all, "What the ♥♥♥♥ is this, where are the zombies?" And then they had another baby and this one belonged to Dead Island and Dead Island found out that Mirrors Edge was lying to him so Dead Island shot his wife and then himself. So then afterwards Far Cry's kid and Dead Island's kid had incest, and out popped Dying Light... So yeah Dying Light is pretty good.