Dying Light. The story is bog standard (although the much better production values make it a lot easier to suit through than predecessor Dead Island's abortion of a yarn), but I found the game incredibly fun to play. Once you master the controls you parkours around town like the energizer bunny, which never lost its appeal, even some 30 hours into the game. The combat has its quirks, but feels meaty and challenging. There are plenty of abilities, weapons etc. to unlock to maintain a satisfying feeling of progression. When you start out, even a solitary zombie takes some time to put down. By the end, you're mowing them down by the dozen, but if you get swamped and aren't careful, you'll still die. Luckily the checkpoint system is quite forgiving.
What I like best about this game is the emergent gameplay. Dying Light's sandbox is a compelling one. You feel like a total badass when you decapitate a bunch of zombies with a series of well-trained slashes of your katana and then dropkick another one, causing it to go flying and impale itself and one of its mates on a set of wall-mounted spikes. Mmm, graphic violence.
8.5/10