Dying Light Walkthrough and Guide

Developed by Polish games studio Techland (Call of Juarez, Dead Island) and published by Warner Brothers in 2015, Dying Light falls neatly into the new-wave survival-horror and action-adventure genres, with versions on PC for Microsoft Windows and Linux, and on console for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The game story is set in a fictional city called Harran, in ancient Turkey. Harran is situated inside a declared quarantine zone, where a mysterious viral outbreak has turned most of the inhabaants into hyper-active zombie-like beings,

Taking on the role of Kyle Crane (the protagonist), an undercover operative with the Global Relief Effort (GRE) who has been sent to infiltrate the quarantine zone and locate Kadir “Rais” Suleiman, a political terrorist who possesses a file that has the potential of destroying the GRE.

When Kyle reaches the scene he is confronted with a moral dilemma - complete his mission, or provide aid to the uninfected (and thus still human) survivors, who are being led by a man called Harris Brecken.

The quarantine zone was created by the national defense minister, with the city of Harran basically cut-off from the rest of the world. Its only support is air-dropped supplies from GRE.

Structured as an open-world game play environment, the metropolis that is Harran, the game features day and night modes as well as dynamically-generated weather that includes fog, rain, and wind.

While the zombified residents of the city are the primary enemy, also present in Harran are gangs of bandits who threaten the player, and the constant threat of being infected by the virus itself, which may happen when an infected zombie bites or scratches an uninfected person.

The game is mostly melee-based, with a limited crafting scheme.

While firearms do exist in the game, the scarcity of ammunition is such that the player will spend more effort obtaining - and custom crafting - melee weapons - and keeping them repaired (though typically each weapon can only be repaired a limited number of times).

There are over 100 different melee weapons in the game, but use of them causes them to degrade and wear out. Crafted weapons require the player to obtain resources and Blueprints - which can be scavenged or purchased from the Quartermaster.

Firearms enter into the game in its later stages but with ammunition being scarce they generally end up playing a strategic - rather than tactical - role in game play.

Game play includes classic single-player story, and companion multi-player modes. The focus for game play leans strongly towards a free-running parkour-like style.

The game play formula - and the game play world - is neatly divided between the day and night cycles with the player using the daylight hours (daytime lasts roughly 64 minutes) to scrounge resources and complete quests, while the night (nighttime lasts roughly 7-minutes) is a period of horror in which the infected transform into very fast and dangerous opponents.

The primary goal is to survive each night and make it to the next sunrise.

If Dying Light is starting to sound like any one of a dozen other zombie games - and in particular the Dead Island series which also happens to be one of Techland's games - you've missed some important points.

In addition to being created to present a more realistic take on the zombie-survival type of play, the bigger difference is the way that the protagonist (and his personality and values) have been carefully fused into the game and story. A choice that makes all the difference in the world!

Kyle Crane is a complex person. Mentally and emotionally stable, he has a sure sense of who and what he is, so how Kyle reacts to the dangerous environment and his situation - having ended up in a zombie--rich environment - ends up flavoring the game and story in both big ways and small.

Ultimately his interpretation of the events is part of what sets the game apart from the typical zombie survival-horror adventure, thrusting Dying Light head-and-shoulders above the rest in the genre and creating a game that, based upon its ready acceptance and rapidly growing popularity in the gamer community, has struck just the right chord.