Dying Light
Dying Light screenshot 1Dying Light screenshot 2
ActionAdventureRPGZombiesSurvival HorrorHorrorOnline Co-OpOpen World

5,022 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 13,874

Peak in the last 7 days: 15,126

Dying Light Steam store

Game description

First-person action survival game set in a post-apocalyptic open world overrun by flesh-hungry zombies. Roam a city devastated by a mysterious virus epidemic. Scavenge for supplies, craft weapons, and face hordes of the infected.

Basic info

DeveloperTechland
PublisherTechland
PlatformsWindows · macOS · Linux
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateJan 26, 2015
Price

Minimum specs

OSWindows® 7 64-bit / Windows® 8 64-bit / Windows® 8.1 64-bit
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i5-2500 @3.3 GHz / AMD FX-8320 @3.5 GHz
Memory4 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 / AMD Radeon™ HD 6870 (1GB VRAM)
Storage40 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 433 reviews from the past 1 year

89.9/ 100
Top 20%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (95%)

Metacritic: 87 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 13, 2026)

Parkour that feels human and natural keeps Dying Light popular a decade on, and it scores 89.9, top 20% of the games we analyzed.

👍 Strengths

Gameplay ranks 69th of 1396 and appears in 63% of analyzed reviews. 98 reviews praise fun combat and parkour, and 73 single out the movement, with a few comparing it to Mirror's Edge. 49 describe an incredible atmosphere and memorable zombie encounters. Multiplayer ranks 89th of 642 and Content Volume 219th of 1351. Players also praise the story and the freedom to explore a city where parkour is fluid and encouraged.

👎 Where it falls short

The complaints are moderate. 22 reviews say early combat is painfully hard before you have good weapons or skills, and 22 find the content stale by the end of the campaign. 19 report optimization issues that force restarts every half hour. Others find the first hour clunky and confusing before progression opens up, and a few dislike hostile players interrupting peaceful exploration.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“fun combat and parkour gameplay” · 98 reviews
“parkour movement more human, natural, immersive, Mirror's Edge-esque” · 73 reviews
“incredible atmosphere and memorable zombie encounters after 10 years” · 49 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 63% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

Controls & feel +3.36 · Responsiveness, precision, and how the menus handle
Positive “parkour movement more human, natural, immersive, Mirror's Edge-esque” · 73 reviews
Negative “unintended character actions and poor descent mechanics cause frustration” · 6 reviews

Progression 19% · Difficulty 27% · Onboarding 7% · Freedom 25% · Strategy 11%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 64% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +4.11 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “incredible atmosphere and memorable zombie encounters after 10 years” · 49 reviews

Story 48% · Characters 17%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 34% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +3.82 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “campaign is long and gripping, took a month to finish” · 12 reviews
Negative “story too short, finished in 15 hours, even 10 hours if story-focused” · 4 reviews

Variety 17% · Replayability 6%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 31% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +3.68 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “graphics very good with solid art direction” · 31 reviews
Negative “Graphics still look like stone” · 3 reviews

Audio 15%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 26% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Playing together +3.35 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals
Positive “night co-op with friends is amazing” · 31 reviews
Negative “violent encounter with hostile NPCs ruins peaceful exploration” · 7 reviews

Community 2% · Servers & Connection 1%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 10% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Balance -0.12 · Whether classes, weapons, and builds are evenly matched
Negative “early game weak, late game overpowered, balance broken” · 7 reviews

Anti-cheat 1% · Pricing 6% · Matchmaking 1%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 18% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Developer support +0.13 · Updates, patches, and how devs respond to players
Positive “Follower DLC is a great improvement” · 2 reviews
Negative “devs removed from PvP, ads prioritized over fixes, unpatched cheating methods” · 2 reviews

Stability 5% · Performance 11%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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