Dying Light: The Following

Dying Light: The Following manages to include a new fun-filled environment to explore along with a vehicle to do so that mesh together well with a story that's slow to start but ends with a powerful punch.

Dying Light's latest DLC supplements the full game's first-person parkour with customizable dirt buggies, drastically different environments, and a conspiracy-driven mystery.

Dying Light's outdoorsy expansion flees the city but delivers the same mix of dogged charm and compulsion.

A big 'ol chunk of game with a lot of things to do, and just as importantly, new ways to do them.​

The buggy, like the rooftops, is a temporary form of safety. All of the enhancements in the latest edition – new loot, new levels, new end-game excess – are icing on the cake. Dying Light is about creating moments of safety, empowerment and comedic triumph in a world that wants nothing more than to tear you down, and The Following is a perfect expansion of that central tenet.

The Following was larger than I expected, and it maintains a high level of quality throughout. Being pared down from the bloat of Dying Light earns it more moment-to-moment excitement, and I greedily consumed it over the weekend. The last few minutes have me pondering the future of what's clearly going to become a franchise, and I'm ready for whatever Techland brings next.

A sprawling, satisfying expansion to an already good game.

Dying Light: The Following is DLC done right, offering new content for the Dying Light faithful while changing things up more than enough so that it doesn't just feel like the reanimated corpse of the base game. Ultimately, it's the inclusion of the off-road buggy that turns out to be its smartest addition, which coupled with its challenging new setting more than overcomes any of the all too familiar shortcomings.

Dying Light: The Following's nightmare difficulty setting and additional legend level system along with improved visuals and advanced AI make for a new experience for players of the original Dying Light. The Following content itself - whether bought separately or as part of the new Enhanced Edition - offers a very different but yet worthy test, with the open fields and buggy opening up a completely different set of rules to exploit and best the legions of undead.

As with most (if not all) expansions, Dying Light: The Following probably won't win over those who didn't enjoy the original game. At the same time, it offers a lot of fun and a few shiny new toys (such as the buggy) to everyone else who greatly appreciated Dying Light, and it does so with great value thanks to a strong longevity for its price. Unless you really dislike zombies, The Following is a worthy purchase.