On 27 January, back in 2015, a company named Techland, a Polish video game developer and publisher founded in 1991 by Paweł Marchewka, released a survival horror video game called Dying Light. Lots of updates, a huge DLC, and a sequel later, it has become a part of the everyday lives of millions of people around the world for over 10 years.
The more I grow up, the less excited I am about new game releases. Unlike the good old days, modern games nowadays are filled with bad decisions made by the companies behind them, from having bad storytelling and uninterested side quests to being buggy and with lots of performance issues, it’s 2025 and games are becoming worse and worse.
You could easily blame all those game companies by saying that they’re using Zero Day patches as an excuse, but whatever the reason, they arguably aren’t doing a great job. But that’s not the actual problem, because even if a game is filled with bugs, the developers can still take the time, fix all the issues, and release constant updates that improve the overall gameplay – and most importantly, make their players happy.
Unfortunately, that’s not happening most of the time, with many companies usually focusing on the newest titles rather than updating their old or current ones – which makes you have second thoughts when they release a new game – but not Techland.
Oh no, Techland has shown the whole world how a game-developing company should actually work around its game, and what it needs to be done to keep your player base more than happy.
And in an area where we buy games for $59.99 or more, Techland has officially announced that anyone who purchased the Ultimate Edition of Dying Light 2 Stay Human will receive Dying Light: The Beast at no additional charge. We still don’t have any official confirmation about the price it will have when it comes out.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Techland is not perfect, and both of their titles had many bugs and issues when they were first released. Unlike many other companies though, they opened their eyes, looked at the feedback they were getting, and started working at giving their players what they wanted.
They’ve made it easy too. Players have the option to sign in to their Pilgrim Outpost accounts, head over to the Community Ideas page, and submit their own ideas about Dying Light. Once they do that, other players have the ability to vote, and after a while, Techland reviews all those ideas and moves them to their Review section, then to Approved, and finally to In Development.
There’s also a section called “Backlog“, which is where some great ideas live in, and the company may or may not look at them again in the future. Players can also report any problems or issues they face with the game, and the company usually replies fast.
Some of the ideas that the community has submitted and found their way to the “In Development” section may come into the game with a few differences – because, well, even if an idea is great, it’s not always possible to implement it exactly as players want it to be.
But that’s okay, as long as something very similar gets developed, it’s all fine, and players are still happy with it. Techland has implemented many of those ideas through the years, and you can take a look at them from the Pilgrim Outpost.
Apart from the community’s feedback, the company has also created its own tool that anyone can download and install completely for free from Steam, and then create their own maps. Yes, there are many maps made by the community and anyone can easily download and play them, keeping the game fresh and unique in every single way.
Players can also vote for each map and see when it last got updated by their creators, while statistics are also available showcasing the total downloads and favorites a map has gotten.
But it’s not everything about the company and the feedback that they’re getting, it’s what games they develop, their ideas, and how people are seeing them. Both Dying Light and Dying Light 2 were two amazing games that people still play, especially when it comes to the first installment, which is now 10 years old and has identical stats with the second title when it comes to the player base – or that’s what we see on Steam.
What makes the Dying Light games so amazingly good is that, even after years of playing them, you’re not getting bored. There are tons of things that you can do, play with your friends or random players from the Co-Op mode, enable the Game+ mode to replay the whole story and upgrade all of your skills and stats in an even harder environment, or even go as far as to enable the “Nightmare” mode in Dying Light 2 and constantly run for your life.
When nightfall comes, things are getting even harder, scarier, and so intense and extreme that you feel like you’ve just changed games. It’s one thing to kill zombies in daylight, and a whole other story when the extremely hard-to-kill zombies make their appearance when the sun falls.
The Dying Light game series has many positive things to talk about, but the story and the actual gameplay are what makes them even greater. In the first game, you play as Kyle Crane, an undercover agent who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a fictional Middle Eastern city called Harran.
After living the whole story, getting to know all the characters, and connecting with their stories, you get Dying Light 2, which is set 20 years after the events of the first installment. You play as Aiden Caldwell, a Pilgrim who traverses the dangerous world in search of his lost sister, Mia. The second game featured improved graphics, physics, moves, and tons of quests and side quests to keep you engaged for a very long time.
Both Dying Light games are absolutely worth playing, even if you’re not into zombies, the stories, parkour, constantly trying to survive, and with great dialogs and cinematic scenes, the game goes to another level – far beyond being just a “zombie game”. If you haven’t played it yet, you may be missing something very, very enjoyable.
It’s worth maintaining that Techland is currently working on the upcoming Dying Light: The Beast, which will be the third installment of the series once it’s released. From what we know so far, The Beast is bringing the lovely Kyle Crane back, after years of experiments, and now more evolved than ever, players and hardcore fans should get ready for some serious nostalgia.
I only wish that Techland takes as much time as needed to release a game that’s stable and has too many bugs, glitches, crashes, or errors. It’s important, I believe, to make the same mistake they did with Dying Light 2, which when it first came out, it was nothing like what the fans were hoping for. Techland did improve the game a lot over the years, but I hope instead of fixing way too many bugs, they’ll be able to focus on bringing even more content after its release.
Have you ever played any of the Dying Light games? And if so, what was your experience and what did you like and hate the most? Did you like the first or second title more, and why? Let me know in the comments down below!
