Dying Light, released January 27, 2015, still holds up well. I originally purchased the Enhanced Edition on Xbox One and played it enough to see The Following DLC. I recently bought it for Steam, and man have I missed this game.

I went into buying this game, again, with high expectations. I played it for hours on the Xbox One, at least until Destiny came out and I abandoned all games for the next 2 years. That’s not point though. The beginning stages of the game are exactly how I remember. You start of weak, deathly afraid of the dark, and constantly watching the time as night begins to get near. And, should you lose track of time, that mad scramble to find a nearby safehouse. 

I lost many hours of progress because I tried to clear out a safehouse well after dark. You would think that I would know better, but the way the gameplay feels… You don’t want to stop and clear out a safehouse. You wanna kill zombies and progress through the game. This is like a post-apocalyptic Assassin’s Creed where you free-run through a city populated largely by zombies and hostile humans only trying to make a profit. Some zombies swing whatever weapon they were holding when they turned, others just attacked with hands and teeth. Humans wield guns, and if don’t kill the gun-wielders first, you’ll have more problems to deal with.

My first play-through on the Xbox One was amazing. I didn’t notice some of the plot-armor that kept me safe during certain missions. Like gunfire at one point that literally attracted no zombies, despite them walking around well within the range of the weapons. This happens more than anything. My second play-through on PC was a bit different. While I’ve been PC gaming for the last 2 years, the free-running aspect was something new to learn. It was simple on the Xbox One, years of ingrained habits and everything. However, I had to adjust to using a mouse and keyboard. It probably only took 15 minutes, but that time felt like a year trying to kill zombies in my weak, unleveled state.With no perks to draw on, my attacks were feeble. My health was constantly low, and medkits were pretty much gold. Staying alive was less about fighting and more about staying on the rooftops. 

I haven’t progressed much further than the first couple of hours of the game. I’m, maybe, 15% of the way through the campaign. I’ve caught myself ignoring certain side quests, in favor of blasting through the campaign. Don’t do this, the side quests offer you more opportunity to progress your skill levels.

Graphically, the lowest setting on PC are equivalent to the original Xbox One’s. I haven’t noticed any difference. I could play at a slightly higher resolution, but I favor performance over anything else. I’m also happy with the visuals as they are, but that may change once I get my desktop ordered and built. In fact, I thought the graphics would be horrible. The game is almost four years old at this point, and I somehow was envisioning a pixelated mess of colors and geometry. However, that wasn’t case. I’m actually enjoying running through the streets of Harran again, swatting at zombies and completing missions. 

Multiplayer was one thing I enjoyed on the Xbox One. While I haven’t attempted it on PC yet, night invasions were fun. If you don’t enjoy the multiplayer aspect, you turn off just night invasions. You don’t have to play the campaign with anyone either, if you opt for the single-player mode. It doesn’t effect anything, story or otherwise, it’s all the same game, but having friends playing through with you does add fun to the game.

All in all, if you haven’t purchased it yet, but have been intrigued, I say pick it up. On Steam, the game goes for $40 (regular edition) or $60 (Enhanced Edition with Season Pass and some other virtual goodies.) I’m sure some reseller sites have it a little cheaper, if you care to look. Despite paying for this game again, I’ve honestly enjoyed my time playing it again.