“The movie industry: I am the king of entertainment.”
“The gaming industry: hold my beer!”
Without a shadow of a doubt, the gaming industry is one of the most significant, cutting-edge, and creative sectors in today’s technology.
Gaming is no longer just a simple activity to pass the time. It became a culture and a massive network for people to communicate all over the globe.
The gaming industry today is a $200 billion mammoth that keeps pushing technology over its limits.
That is why we have state-of-the-art PCs and gaming consoles like PlayStation and Xbox.
Such technology puts us right in the game and gives us the ultimate experience in entertainment history.
Fun fact: did you know that there were 100 million gamers worldwide in 1995?
Awesome fact: today, there are over two billion gamers around the world.
The gaming world has never been more diverse. There is a game for every player.
There are sports games, fighting games, adventure games, racing games, even action and horror games.
Most of which features an open world map. In other words, you can roam freely around the game map and do whatever you want whenever you want it.
One of the best open-world games that you can play on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox is Dying Light. It is a horror, survival, action game.
If Left 4 Dead and Mirror’s Edge had a baby it would be Dying Light. In other words, it is not for the faint at heart.
Dying Light is an interactive game set in an urban environment purged by an unknown and strange pandemic using the first-person point of view.
The main character is called Kyle Crane sent on a mission to an infected city to retrieve important files. He soon arrives at a crossroads where he must decide whether to continue his quest or help the survivors.
During the day, you explore the streets of a devastated zombie-infested city looking for resources, supplies, and craft weapons.
However, things change by nightfall as the hunter becomes the hunted. The enemies gain more strength and become more aggressive.
The game has a fast pace, and it features parkour combat. Unlike other action games that reward you for stealth, Dying Light encourages you to go head to head with the enemies.
It was a surprise when it first launched and grabbed my attention early on. However, my interest started fading away despite the improvements over the years.
What if you are an action and adrenaline junkie like me?
What if Dying Light no longer satisfies your hunger for the thrill?
What if you are bored while waiting for the next franchise to enter?
Then you came to the right place. In this article, I will list for you the top 8 video games like Dying Light to try next.
State of decay
With every meaning of the word, State of Decay truly lives up to its name. in this game death is imminent and permanent. It is an open-world zombie survival game.
It was developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Game Studios.
The game was released on June 5th, 2013. You can play it on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox.
In this game, you get to build communities, recruit survivors, and make important decisions to stay on top of the food chain.
Did I mention that you would do that while trying to escape and survive hordes of angry zombies?
State of Decay features a massive map with multiple towns. Health is very important, scares and the Zombies are as fast and strong as you are, so you need to protect yourself.
You roam the streets and gather as many supplies and weapons as possible to survive. Vehicles can be handy, but they can take damage and requires repairs.
This game requires tuned management skills as every decision you make will have an impact.
These minor details make this game very thrilling, eye-opening, and can most definitely make your heart beat faster.
State of Decay is a great game, but it still has its downside. Sometimes, the frame rate falls significantly.
Furthermore, zombies would glitch through doors, walls, and even the floors. You may also encounter other issues like texture pop-in and the player’s character holding an invisible gun.
Last of Us
If you haven’t played Last of Us you are missing out. It is one of the finest horror and survival games on the PlayStation platform.
It was developed by Naughty Dog and released on June 13th, 2013.
The story is very immersive, and it is about a post-pandemic world where people went insane killing each other to survive.
There are two main characters in the game: a survivor called Joel hired to help a 14 years old girl named Ellie out of a military quarantine.
What started as a simple mission ended up as a harsh adventure across the country.
Last of Us features gameplay based on making choices and decisions alongside a phenomenal narrative.
It is a fat-budget Hollywood movie, but it’s a game.
One of the highlights of the game is the interplay between the characters. The voice acting will never disappoint you, and the graphics are almost too realistic.
The attention to detail is amazing and makes the game worth exploring.
But, it may not be easy as taking a walk in the park because the game features intense and dangerous combat.
It features a balanced mix of stealth killing and head-to-head action with the enemies.
Last of Us is a great game, but it has its cons. At some point, it feels too linear and scripted.
Last but not least, it is a video game, which means it can get glitches every once in a while. Nothing major that can break the game, but it certainly can be annoying.
Days Gone
What do you get if you put Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Far Cry, and Last of Us all in one game? You guessed it! You get Days Gone.
That is one way to look at it. It is a satisfying yet scrappy adventure of a devastated world after a major virus outbreak.
Bend Studios developed the game for the PlayStation 4 gaming platform. It was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and released on April 26th, 2019.
It is an open-world game that features zombie-like humans named “Freakers”. The hero in the story is Deacon St. John living his life as a drifter gathering scraps to survive.
The game has a progression system based on completing jobs, missions, and collecting bounties for other surviving camps and earning their trust.
The more trust you get, the more upgrades and options you unlock.
One of the game’s strongest suits is the attention to detail, the stunning graphics, and the immersive scenery.
The gameplay is action-based and involves shooting, close combat, and you even get a bike that you can customize.
Unfortunately, it can take damage and requires constant maintenance plus refueling.
The map is huge and demands exploring during which you face random enemies, wolves, bears, and hordes of Freakers.
Yes, you heard me right. Hundreds of flesh-hungry Freakers will be running after you like a Tsunami. It might be difficult to defeat a horde but it is doable.
If that doesn’t get your heart beating fast, I don’t know what will.
The game is not perfect though. The loading screens are longer than they should be, the missions are somewhat formulaic, the story is cliché and messy, and most annoyingly, it has a lot of minor bugs.
Far Cry 5
Originally developed by Ubisoft, Far Cry 5 was released on March 26th, 2018, for Xbox, PC, and PlayStation.
The game is built on a “good lord I am on fire” and “why is everyone shooting at me?” vibe. There is always something waiting to happen and it probably involves a lot of screaming.
But, unlike the previous games in the series, Far Cry 5 gives a different feeling. It is unpredictable and the progress is more organic.
The creators ditched the minimap and the icons to make the game immersive. You still get a compass to guide you.
Climbing-towers? Gone.
The game is less clustered now, and crafting has been reduced to explosives and potions.
While you try to explore the map and collect resources, you will come across missions and activities to do or meet a character that will lead you to one.
Far Cry 5 gives you the choice to focus on one dramatic event or switch between multiple ongoing dramas.
Plus, you get to fight four bosses in different regions and different styles.
The game sometimes feels like it sticks too much to the previous games in the series. When the seeds are not around the game loses its pace.
State of Decay 2
State of Decay 2 is a survival simulation game that has almost every possible scenario about a zombie apocalypse.
In this game, staying alive is the least of your concerns, as the game will push you to think twice about your next move.
Either that or facing hordes of zombies. Whatever the situation is, it’s more likely to end up badly for you.
The first choice you will make is selecting two random characters to start the game with.
There are three open-world maps which you will roam free scavenging food, and recruiting more survivors.
You can switch between any character you want, however, death is permanent in the game because once a character dies there is no coming back.
So don’t get too attached.
Your community will have its storyline in the game, completing objectives, and gathering resources to survive.
There are other communities in the game. You make them your friends, or rub them up the wrong way and make them your enemies.
The combination of great scenery, eye-opening graphics, and fluid gameplay makes State of Decay 2 an immersive and addictive game.
In addition, there is a co-op mode for you to invite your squad and play together in case you get bored of playing the game alone.
The game was developed by Undead Labs and released on May 18th, 2018, for Xbox and PC. It is a huge step up from the first game but it still has a few shortcomings.
For example, the tutorials don’t do any good in explaining the nuances of the game.
Zombies are stronger than ever, which is a good thing. But the combat is still basic and could use an upgrade.
I have to admit, the kill animations are more than just satisfying.
Dead Island
Dead Island is a horror-survival zombie game. It is an immersive and addictive game thanks to its first-person melee focus.
To put it in perspective, it is a combination of Left 4 Dead and Far Cry with a Dead Rising flavour.
The setting is in a sunny beach resort on the island of Banoi except everyone’s vacation is ruined by a virus outbreak.
The map is massive even though it is an island. While you roam this zombie-infested world you earn XP, accept quests from NPCs, build and upgrade a skill set.
The gameplay is unique, smooth, and very tense. Plus, you get to play with four different characters with different perks and styles.
The zombies in the game are not everywhere but they like to hide in blind spots. They can take a lot of damage as well as cause it.
The greatest highlight in the game is the surprise factor, it is patient and will hit you where it hurts.
It gives the feeling of familiarity as if you know what the game is planning for you and then it changes dramatically.
This zombie hell was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver for Xbox, PC, and PlayStation on September 6th, 2011.
The game is huge and very fun to play until it starts glitching out. For example, one of the combat features in the game is throwing weapons.
The weapons would glitch and get stuck to the ground with no chance of recovering them.
The biggest problem with the game is that it auto-saves over game when you die. Meaning you lose your weapons and spawn again with nothing to defend yourself with.
Killing floor 2
Zombies in video games are cliché at this point, but that doesn’t mean it is less fun to fight them.
When Tripwire developed Killing floor 2 they understood the thrill in rushing to secure locations, encountering enemies, and being chased down by hordes of “specimen clones” or Zeds.
The sequel is not far off from the original as it has a familiar survival mode. A squad of six players starts-off by slaughtering wave after wave of zombies.
Between each wave, you have a certain amount of time to stock up on ammo and guns.
But it is not an all-guns-blazing type of game, you can be strategic as well and go through doorways and direct the Zeds to their own doom.
But you better watch your back.
while some zombies seem very slow, there are others zombies faster than you to worry about.
A challenging feature Killing floor 2 has is the powerful boss that you get to fight after finishing the final wave.
It can get frustrating because the boss can catch up to other players and absorb their health to refill his health.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is one of those horror games based on decision-making. You must move from point A to point B and sweep through an army of flesh-hungry zombies.
It involves four campaigns designed for multiplayer, but there is a single-player option if you want to give it a shot.
The gameplay is swift and terrifying. Zombies have a similar style to the movie 28-Days Later where they come running at you from every direction.
At the start of each campaign, you get to choose between a couple of weapons like an Uzi, a pump-up shotgun, a pipe bomb, and a Molotov.
Don’t worry you still get to upgrade or replace those guns with better ones like an assault rifle or a semi-automatic shotgun.
The game turns the intensity up to eleven with five different bosses. The latter uses the hordes attacks as a diversion and then moves in for the kill.
As amazing as the game may sound, there are a couple of things I don’t like about the game.
You cannot customize your character in the game. Plus, you don’t always get to choose which survivor you play with.
And there you have it, the top 8 games like Dying Light to try out next.
FAQs
Question: Can I run Days Gone on 4GB RAM?
Answer: The game developers recommend at least 8GB RAM, and for optimal gaming experience it is recommended to have 16GB RAM, Intel Core i7-4770K / Ryzen 5 1500X, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB).
Question: Is Dead Island a cross-platform game?
Answer: Yes, both the console and PC versions of Dead Island support LAN play.
Question: What open-world survival games are coming soon?
Answer: Some of the most anticipated games coming soon are Icarus, the Day Before, and V Rising.
Conclusion
The gaming industry just started its meteoric rise and it is not fading away any time soon.
Despite the humble beginning, the current gaming sector earned the title of the most creative and innovative industry. There is a game and a way to play for every gamer.
It’s expansive, entertaining, inclusive, and immersive. That is what makes gaming very special and beloved in today’s world.
