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Dying Light

I've tried to play Dying Light several times and have finally given up. I eventually "finished it", but couldn't deal with actually playing it. The first few attempts I loved the atmosphere and the city, but disliked the combat, weapon durability, difficulty level and XP loss. Then I discovered WeMod and tried to play it again. Got about another 10 hours or so with infinite health and stamina, but realised I still wasn't really enjoying it. Eventually I gave up on actually playing it and watched all of the game's cutscenes - because I really like the story. I wanted to know what happened, I just don't enjoy playing it.

Pros

  • Still looks fantastic in 2021
  • You can climb on anything in the city, and the routes are really well designed
  • Skill trees, which you gain experience in by doing skill-specific activities rather than getting general "XP" (although you level way too slowly)
  • Excellent voice acting for all NPC interactions
  • 5 years later they're still adding new events and DLCs - I think this and the co-op are why it's sold so well
  • Tobii Eye tracking support. Use your eyes to look around in-game, loot containers, use the flashlight etc. Also the UI is hidden unless you're looking at it which really helps immersion
  • Nowhere is safe. If you're not in a safe house, there are zombies EVERYWHERE and you always have to be prepared

Cons

  • The game is clearly designed for consoles. Menu items don't react when you hover, only on click. Key bindings are weird, like using F6 and F7 in menus. I tried using a controller instead but found the control scheme wildly unusable.
  • You lose XP when you die
  • I hate games with weapon durability. Firstly, it means that any decent bit of kit you find is only useful for about 10 minutes, second is the arbitrary number where you can only repair a weapon 3 times. Why 3? People will attribute this to realism, but that's just an excuse. It's there to feed the gameplay loop of looting places for components. Bashing zombies with a length of metal is not going to break after a few skulls get smashed in.
  • I don't understand the point of having outfits in a first-person single player game
  • The autosave is unreliable. I had to redo one mission four times
  • It takes forever to level up. Most people will finish the game without unlocking half of the skills
  • The beginning of the game is extremely unforgiving and difficult
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