Recent reviews by CarltoN.

cool game. oozes resident evil 1-3 and silent hill 1 vibes. lots of potential here.
wishlisted it :)

has potential but currently unplayable in my opinion due to all-around clunkiness and poor performance.

worth it to pick up on a sale. it's just phasmophobia with better graphics.
fantastic atmosphere, great looking maps, variety of ghosts, creative jump scares etc.
character and safehouse customization
lots of different equipment and gear to buy
after you've played the same map a few times you get used to most of the possibilities but its still fun to go back and play especially with friends.
4/5
recommended

one of the greatest games ever made. they just don't make games like this very often.
runs absolutely flawlessly and looks just beautiful even on mid range hardware.
the graphics are stunning, the sound design, the gameplay are all top tier. the level of detail is absolutely mindblowing when you look close enough at things. you have to upkeep your guns, your horse, your camp. animals in the wild can be hunted, skinned etc.. other citizens go about their business. random encounters happen all the time. the world really feels 'lived in' and this is such a key thing that many open world games of today fail to capture.
i cant recommend this game enough. im 50 hours in and im apparently 28% through the story. insane
graphics 9/10
sound 9/10
story 10/10
gameplay 9.5/10
overall 9.5/10
replayability 9/10

great way to play boardgames if you dont own a particular one or they're too pricey. lots of free community made as well as official addons. the way you interact with each game is clever and unique. potentially hundreds of ours of boardgame fun to be had if ur into this kind of thing :)

Extremely underrated co-op zombie shooter.
It's essentially a slower Left 4 Dead, like No More Room In Hell but doesn't feel as clunky, and dropping zombies feels better than in that game or in L4D. Especially headshots. Very impressive dismemberment for a game this old. Headshots send chunks of brain flying, legs can be shot off and they keep crawling at you etc.

-The campaign is significant, probably twice as long as the Left 4 Dead campaigns were and much less linear. --When you play the levels will have some RNG to them so a route might be open one time and blocked the next time you play.
-Lots of weapon options with various attachments.
-You can become infected if that option is enabled and eventually turn into a zombie.
-Music and ambience is good, effective and intensifies the standoffs
-Runs great and still looks acceptable on the max settings in 2025. Obviously this game is like 15 years old
-Co-op is very enjoyable, challenging and intense

For negatives I'd say it takes a little getting used to, sometimes it isn't clear what you need to do or where to go, zombies can sometimes appear out of nowhere making no sound and just kill you and theres some general clunkiness here and there but its nothing that ruins the experience.

8/10 definitely buy it especially on sale and give it a go with some friends.

some of the most fun ive had on a game in ages.

+great gunplay
+great music
+great effects
+good graphics
+lots of replayability with different missions and loadouts
+fun, especially with friends

-some annoying mechanics and glitches like forced manual reload and the reload sometimes not completing if you try to shoot again too quickly.

grabbed on sale. very fun game for £5.

10/10 would devour screaming humans again

buy this game now.

this has taken over mine & my partner's lives.

do you like a challenge?
do you like zombie themed stuff?
do you like survival games?
do you like deep crafting and detail in your games?

buy this and never leave your home again.

best $10 i ever spent.

still the best zombie apocalypse game in 2022 and its only going to get better when build42 adds animals, bunkers&basements, updates to the map and effects, and much much more.

first of all..

the combat- one of the central things in this game is also one of the most frustrating. almost every fight against humans involves them dodging or blocking your attacks. and you have to block or dodge theirs in order to get hits in most of the time. the 'boss' encounters vs some humans they will dodge every single swing you make unless you 'perfect dodge' their attack which makes them vulnerable. this is extremely tedious and annoying. fights vs zombies aren't quite as frustrating; but here, as well as vs human enemies, sometimes you'll swing at them and completely miss despite it feeling like you were within range. or an opponent will be entirely unphased by your attack and hit you/bite you anyway. the charged attacks from special infected are also sometimes completely unavoidable, resulting in you taking unnecassary damage or getting backed into a corner, which happens very frequently in the later stages.

the story- essentially pretty uninteresting and generic overall. you're some dude who's sister is missing and i don't even remember the details of the rest of it its so forgettable and bland. all of the characters besides lawan (played by Rosario Dawson) and hakon are completely forgettable and cliché.

the movement- maybe i just suck at the game, but i've lost count of the times when aiden has not done what i've wanted him to do. whether it's jump to a ledge, or dodge an enemy. i always find myself stuck on a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ledge i didn't want to grab, or miss a ledge grab i did want to grab. the glider feel's pretty ♥♥♥♥ to use after the first few times as well and often you don't have enough stamina to keep airborne as long as you need to be. and flying over the air generator things is another tedious feature. why do i need stamina just to glide? i've recently acquired the grapple hook as well which feels almost entirely useless outside of the situation that specifically require you to use it. you can shoot it at something that lets you swing from point A to point B, and you can upgrade it to give you a pull toward the location you hook. but half the time it doesn't work as intended. just gimme the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grapple tool from DL1 back already. movement in that game was much more fun than here.

night time is TOO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DARK- you literally can't see a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing at night time more-so than DL1. either make visibility a little better or make the torch better. the torch feels like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ $1 store piece of crap that lights up a few inches infront of you. i don't wanna have to turn the brightness way up just so i can see a few feet infront of my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character to know where im going. this makes being chased at night extremely frustrating to try and get away when you literally can't see where you're running to make a jump or something and is a weak attempt at making things more intense.

the graphics- they're nice for the most part, especially if you have a machine good enough to enable ray tracing. the color palet is nice, faces are convincingly animated when characters speak. reflections are nice, particle effects like fire, dust and smoke help to add to the bleak atmosphere of the world.

the atmosphere & day/night time- just like in DL1, the atmosphere is great and you'll have some serious butt-clench moments if you do missions during the night. if you get caught out in a mission as it turns to night you genuinely get a little nervous and may want to head back to safety and wait it out, or risk it for increased XP and rewards. the day/night thing continues to work well.

the combat when it works- when things 'click' it does feel fun. crushing a zombies skull, drop-kicking a bandit off a rooftop, sniping a guy in the head with a bow&arrow, chaining a load of zombie kills together with a lightning-infused axe. there's lots of mayhem to be caused and it's fun when it WORKS and your attacks aren't constantly missing or being blocked. when you turn into a volatile and can 1 hit zombies with your hands its really fun too. but you don't get enough time in this form.

looting- if you enjoy exploring and looting there's tonnes to loot here. i'm not sure if it's any better than DL1 which is still really impressive in terms of how much time you can spend just wandering around looting stuff but it's at least on par with that.

replayability- there's a good 100hrs in this game if you do side missions as well and spend time exploring, reading things, watching all the scenes and interactions. personally i wasn't as invested in it as i was DL1 so i wanted to just get through the main story and call it a day. maybe if they add a solid expansion like DL1 had with the buggy vehicle and a more open area rather than just a city scape i'll come back for more.

- it's a decent game but wait til its on sale and play DL1 instead if you haven't already


:: UPDATED VERDICT AFTER COMPLETING THE GAME ::

for the most part my opinion remains unchanged. this game does not feel as fun or unique as dying light 1. combat remained extremely frustrating a majority of the time which is the area the game should be most fun. the fast zombies that lunge at you with no realistic way of avoiding it in time before you're pinned to the ground, or when a regular zombie RNG grabs you and you have to spam F. or when a human constantly blocks your attacks and then hits you with a swing you couldnt block in time because you don't have superhuman reflexes.

the puzzle/platforming sections often have extremely obscure solutions that take way too long to figure out and really break the immersion of the game. one minute you'll be fighting some goons who are really anoying to defeat, and then you'll spend half an hour trying to figure out how to drag a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ power cable from point A to point B. this isn't fun.

at one point i spent over half an hour on the mission 'now or never' trying to figure out why the elevator wasn't working when i pushed the button with the on-screen prompt. turned out there was another prompt if you looked a few inches further down to take the elevator to the basement. why even give me an option to take the elevator somewhere it doesn't go? this is poor design.

also, one of the most rage-inducing final boss fights ever in a game. almost un-dodgeable ground pound attack, small combat area, etc. just have to get hit and hope you have enough medkits to get through the fight before you turn into hulkmode and spam left click until he jumps to another platform. rince repeat.

in conclusion i still can't recommend this game at full price. if you enjoyed DL1 and this is on sale and you want more in the DL universe then sure. pick it up when its like under £20.