Days Gone doesn’t have the best story, but the title shines thanks to its gameplay. Days Gone features plenty of missions with varied objectives, as well as enough survival mechanics to make players feel as though they’re actually, well, surviving a zombie apocalypse. However, Days Gone’s best feature is its zombies. Alone, they’re easy. In a group, they’re a challenge. But when you catch sight of one of the game’s signature hordes, which are figurative and literal tidal waves of hungry zombies, that’s when your blood gets pumping.
Quite frankly, Days Gone was done dirty by reviews. The game is by no means a masterpiece, but it is still a worthy member of the zombie and open-world families.
10. Dying Light
While Techland developed the original Dead Island games, Deep Silver retained the IP rights and gave Dambuster Studios (the company behind Homefront: The Revolution and Chorvs) permission to work on Dead Island 2. Undeterred, Techland decided to develop and publish its own spiritual successor (with parkour and grappling hooks)
At its core, Dying Light is a more polished version of Dead Island. Instead of exploring an island resort populated by zombies, players parkour through the fictional Middle-eastern city of Harran. The combat, mission, weapon, and movement systems are updated renditions of those found in Dead Island, and one can be forgiven for assuming the two games mostly play the same, at least until nightfall.
The dead of night is Dying Light’s ace in the hole. Whenever the sun sets, enemies become more aggressive and provide more XP, which seems like an excellent time to grind. However, the game’s most dangerous enemies, including the vicious Volatile, only appear at night, and they feverishly chase after players. What might have started as a simple resource run can quickly turn into a desperate (and fun) race for survival.
While Dying Light’s sequel, Dying Light 2, is currently available and a worthwhile experience, the original Dying Light just barely edges it out as the superior zombie game.
