Dying Light is one of the best games that's I've played on the Switch and that's saying a lot because at the start of this year, I had no intention of ever playing. I just don't really like horror and zombie games at all and honestly the closest game that I've ever played to this beforehand was Skyrim. I had no interest in it and I haven't even heard it being talked about a lot, but one day one of my favorite YouTubers was playing the game for a sponsored video and I fell in love so fast. I ended up picking up a copy of the Platinum Edition from GameStop the next day and I was really glad that I did.

When I first started playing, I remember being so impressed. The amount of content, the visuals, and the overall feeling were incredible and I was shocked that it ran so well on the Switch. I ended up playing a few hours every day for a while and I never ran out of things to do.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

Everything about the graphics is so impressive. The models, the animation, the world, the detail, and most importantly, the scary stuff all look so good. The two biggest aspects of graphics for me was the combat and the night cycle. When it becomes dark, the game is truly terrifying. Both the lighting and lack of lighting make the darkness feel so intense and the creatures that are out only at night are horrifying. On top of that, their movement animations really make it feel like every second could be your last.

Then you have the combat system, which is the best that I've ever personally experienced on the Switch. It's so fluid and fast paced, and the only game that I can really compare it to is Horizon Zero Dawn. The movement of both you and your enemies combined with fast reflex times make combat so fast and fun, and it looks great. There were times where I'd just walk up to an area that had like 20 zombies just to fight because the combat just looks and feels so good.

Then there's all the other aspects of graphics that make the game feel even better overall. The city that the game takes place in looks really good and is full of detail and then when night hits, it looks like a completely different place. On top of that, all the zombies look well made and super creepy. The game looks fantastic on the Switch.

SOUND: 9/10

The developers did a very good job at making sure that Dying Light sounds great. There's a decent soundtrack with a few good tracks but the real winner when it comes to the sound is the generic sounds and voice acting. Whenever you hear a zombie, you know that things are about to go down and you tense up. When you're playing during the night cycle, the zombies are much louder and there's so many eerie, scary sounds at night that really make you feel the terror.

This was one of the few games that I've played where the generic sounds are the big deciding factor when it comes to the audio aspect and it's so good because it makes the immersion so much better.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

I already talked about how I'd specifically look for groups of zombies just to fight and I'm sure you'll end up doing the same thing if you end up liking the combat. I was having so much fun that I ended up exploring the city and battling hundreds of zombies for multiple hours in between missions. I wasn't doing it to grind or because getting from one place to another was a challenge, I was doing it because I was having so much fun.

There's one game mode called Hellraid that's one of the DLC's and it's basically an entire game with it's own loot system and story. I ended up giving up on the actual game and playing this game mode for hours. There's amazing combat mechanics, there's a ton of cool parkour to do, there's lots of places to explore and lots of stuff to find and craft. It's very difficult to get bored of the game.

DEPTH: 10/10

I already basically said so much about the depth but that only covers a fraction of what the game has to offer. The base game alone offers so much to do. There's a huge open world to explore, lots of weapons and enemies to fight, and a ton when it comes to the story. If you were to play just the base game by itself, it would be easy to waste at 100 hours. But then you have the Definitive Edition which has so much more stuff.

The Definitive Edition simply has so much extra stuff. There's a lot more story stuff, more creatures to fight, more weapons, and even more game modes such as Hellraid. This version adds more than two dozen DLC packs which adds a ton of content and value. You can breeze through the story and some of the content in like 50 hours but if you focus on having fun, multiplayer, and all the bonuses, you're going to waste 100 to 300 hours.

STORY: 8/10

The story is simple and pretty good, but I honestly didn't really care too much about the story to begin with and you don't have to either if your main reason for playing the game is the combat and horror experience. The game is about a city that gets a zombie outbreak and gets quarantined. You play as an undercover operative tasked with going into the city and finding someone who supposedly has data that could lead to a cure, while getting yourself involved in a sort of civil war inside the city. The story has lots going on and is good, but the gameplay, content, and horror aspect are the main reason to play.

DIFFICULTY: 8

The game can become very difficult if you don't know what you're doing or if you try to rush things. There are two things that you need to look out for, which are weapon durability and the night cycle. Weapon durability can be as chaotic as Breath of the Wild because each weapon can only be used a certain number of times before they get damaged. Once they're damaged, you can repair them using resources but you're only allowed to repair a weapon a few times before it breaks for good.

The resources used to repair or craft a new weapon are kind of rare because you can occasionally find them in cars and boxes but they're mostly found from killing zombies. So if your weapon breaks or needs to be repaired and your main way of doing so is killing zombies, that will be difficult without said weapon. So you always need to be aware of what weapons you have on you, how many resources you have on you, how many uses each weapon has left, how far you are from your base, how strong zombies in your area are, and what time it is. That will be a challenge for a long time but once you start overstocking resources and weapons and leveling up your skills a lot, it will become a little bit easier.

The only thing you have to worry about ALL THE TIME is the night cycle. No matter how strong you are, the night cycle will be horrifying. There will always be super strong zombies hunting you down and even if you're stronger than them, there will be plenty of times when they'll be too fast or there will be too many of them. For your first couple in game weeks, you won't even want to be out at all during the night cycle. Other than those two topics, the game is pretty simple.

OVERALL: 9.6/10

The overall experience of Dying Light is much better than what just these sections say. The game looks amazing and sounds great, the combat is so much fun and the game as a whole is incredibly immersive. Plus the fact that the developers kept pumping out extra DLC which only multiplied the amount of content makes the game even better.

If you're buying a copy of the game, the best way to go is to find a physical copy of the Platinum Edition at GameStop because that's the best value. There are special copies of Platinum at GameStop that come with a bunch of goodies and they're either the same price or cheaper than the base game by itself. But the best part is that the Platinum Edition no longer exists, all copies both digitally and physically have been converted to Definitive Edition. So if you buy a physical copy of Platinum, which is cheaper, it will launch as the Definitive Edition with all the Platinum and Definitive content.

The amount of content that you get for the game is also insane. The game itself has so much stuff to do but the Platinum Edition added more game modes and a bunch of DLC and Definitive added even more stuff. You can easily get 100 hours out of just the base game alone and then all the extra content can push you to 200 hours if not much more. Right now as I'm writing this, you can get a digital copy of Definitive Edition for $50 or a physical copy of Platinum with the free Definitive upgrade for $35 or less and some Gamestops might have the ones that come with the physical goodies.

Even if you pay full price for the digital copy, you're getting your money's worth because it's such a great game with a ton of content and value.