Dying Light is now out for Nintendo Switch. Somehow, Techland has pulled off what I think was basically impossible getting this massive 100-hour epic onto a handheld Nintendo console, and it runs pretty well. Sure, the game doesn’t look as good as it does on PS4 and PS5, but it’s still very playable. It’s got everything you need, all the DLC, the zombies, and a massive open world for you to explore at your leisure. This is one of those feats of wizardry that only seems possible every now and then, when a developer truly understands the mechanics of its game so well that it finds that sweet spot where everything just comes together.
Dying Light is a game that I admire so much. It’s the perfect example of what can happen when an underdog launches in a weird release window and gets support for the rest of its existence. While there’s a lot of paid DLC, the game is getting a lot of free updates too, and that includes events. These are what has served to keep players engaged with it over the years, and why there’s such an audience ready to receive the sequel in early 2022. It’s a real masterpiece.
I have no idea how Techland managed to get such a massive game onto the Switch, but it managed it. The game looks good and runs well, which is much more than you could say of The Outer Worlds when its Switch port first launched. There’s a level of care that’s been taken here to ensure that Switch players get the best version of the game possible, with compromises only happening when there’s absolutely no way to avoid them. From what I’ve seen so far, everything looks really good, and I can’t wait to dive in deeper into this release.
The Switch is clearly a platform that can handle quite a lot. I don’t understand why more developers aren’t creating Switch ports of their games, such as Dishonored or other games like that. The fan base is certainly ready for them, all it takes is the effort to push the games to work on the device, and then a whole new world of fans will flood the gates.