Parent's Guide: Dying Light - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Dying Light is a first person survival horror game that lets you play as secret agent Kyle Crane, attempting to retrieve a missing file from the zombie infested city of Harran. You'll need to complete missions for the survivors you come across, usually by completing a task while fighting against hordes of zombies or evading them. You won't be defenceless however, as the game features a melee focused combat system. You can upgrade and make weapons by scavenging for items or upgrade your abilities by fighting. Or, if you're the passive type, you can use parkour skills to traverse rooftops to stay out of trouble and explore the city. This will also net you collectibles, and the ability to access safe houses where you can survive the night.

A key part of the Dying Light experience is its day/night cycle. In the day, zombies are mostly docile, but at night they become much more dangerous, and are able to chase you down. You can either take this as an opportunity to net bonus experience (used to level up your characters abilities) by surviving through building traps and sneaking around, or you can retreat back to a safe house without being seen and stick out the night in safety.

The most difficult aspects of the game will found early on when your character has no skills. It's easy to become overwhelmed and die. However playing smart (such as using traps and distractions) can greatly help. Through trial, error and perseverance alone, you'll eventually become incredibly powerful - the ability to free-run without getting tired and take down any enemy that comes your way can be extremely satisfying.

Certain players may find difficulty with the games crafting system. Having to scavenge for scrap to make items can be frustrating. On top of this weapons also break with enough use, something which some players may find frustrating. The game is also very scary, with the approach of nightfall and subsequent night time sequences being extremely tense. As a first person shooter, you'll also need to be proficient at mouse and keyboard/dual analogue stick controls, depending on whether you're playing on PC or consoles respectively.

As a zombie based survival horror game, there's a lot of mature content in Dying Light from the start. While there's nothing in the way of sex or nudity, bad language is frequent and strong. Gore is similarly frequent from the outset, with enemies often not just dying, but instead having their heads explode in a shower of blood and viscera.

The game also tries its best to get under your skin and unnerve you. Some of the faster zombies will sometimes beg for you to stop and scream as you kill them. It can be pretty unnerving and had us stop dead in our tracks the first time it happened.

This isn't even the strongest example of moral unease however, as the one thing that elicited these feelings more so than anything else in the game was an infected type known as the Screamer. Why? Because Screamers are infected children. To make things even more ambiguous, these zombie kids don't actually attack you first - they just scream in defence, attracting larger zombies until you kill the child. Couple this with the previously mentioned amount of gore, and it's clear this is a mature title.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: PC