Our picks, beyond the numbers
5 games like Dying Light we would recommend for different reasons
Dying Light earns its keep by making the simple act of getting somewhere feel dangerous: every rooftop is a shortcut, every alley a gamble, and the night turns a familiar route into a real threat. Finding games like it means deciding which half of that formula matters more to you — the parkour, or the dread of the infected themselves.
A couple of these are the obvious next stops for Techland's own style; others keep the zombie survival but take the movement, the tone or the scale somewhere different. Here's where we'd send a Dying Light player next.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human
The direct next stop
Dying Light 2 is the straightforward continuation: the same Techland parkour-and-combat loop returns, now carrying Aiden Caldwell across Villedor two decades after the original outbreak, with four-player online co-op intact.
We'd call this the obvious first pick for anyone who simply wants more of what Dying Light already does well — rooftop running, ziplines, and melee combat that rewards using the environment as much as a weapon.
Expect an expanded version of the same idea rather than a change of direction: a bigger parkour toolkit and a city whose factions actually react to the choices you make along the way.
Dead Island 2
For leaning harder into the gore
Dead Island 2 leans all the way into first-person gore, carving through a stylish, sun-bleached Los Angeles with crafting behind nearly every weapon and online co-op on offer if you'd rather not go it alone.
We like it for players who enjoyed Dying Light's combat more than its climbing — the parkour takes a back seat here, and what's left is a more visceral, weapon-crafting-focused fight through the infected.
It comes from Dambuster Studios rather than Techland, its neighborhoods are more contained than Dying Light's open city, and there's no comparable traversal system. Choose it for the combat and crafting, not for Dying Light's sense of vertical freedom.
Dead Rising 3
For pure improvisation over parkour
Dead Rising 3 trades parkour for pure improvisation — almost anything in zombie-infested Los Perdidos can become a weapon, and racing to escape before a military strike lands keeps the pressure on in a different way than Dying Light's day-night cycle.
We'd point scavenging-minded Dying Light players here specifically: the appeal isn't climbing, it's looking at a shopping mall full of junk and figuring out the most ridiculous way to turn it into a weapon.
There's no parkour or climbable city here; getting around leans on vehicles, and Dying Light's night-time threat has no real equivalent. Pick this for the improvised combat, not for anything resembling Dying Light's traversal.
State of Decay
For managing a community instead of yourself
State of Decay asks you to keep an entire community fed and defended rather than just yourself, an interesting shift if scavenging supplies in Dying Light's city is the part you enjoy most.
We think it's worth a look for players who want the scavenging loop to actually matter beyond their own survival — every run for supplies feeds people back at base, giving foraging a weight Dying Light's solo-focused loop doesn't quite have.
It's single-player only with no official co-op, runs from a third-person view rather than first-person, and has no parkour system at all — this is survival management first, not acrobatics.
Back 4 Blood
For structured horde panic with friends
Back 4 Blood comes from Turtle Rock, the studio behind Left 4 Dead, and channels that same four-player horde tension into mission runs shaped by a roguelite deck of cards you build before each attempt.
We'd recommend it to a Dying Light player who loves the panic of a closing horde more than the exploration around it — the open city and parkour disappear in favor of tightly structured missions built entirely around surviving the Ridden together.
There's no open city or parkour here, and the Ridden are fought through structured missions rather than free exploration. Choose this for the shared horde panic, not for Dying Light's open-world scavenging.
