The game's story follows undercover agent Kyle Crane who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a fictional Middle Eastern city called Harran.

It features an enemy-infested, open world city with a dynamic day–night cycle, in which zombies are slow and clumsy during daytime and extremely aggressive at night.

The game was a commercial success, breaking the record for first-month sales of a new survival horror intellectual property and selling 20 million units by April 2022.

There is an emphasis on parkour mechanics, which allow players to perform actions such as climbing ledges, leaping from edges, sliding, jumping between roofs and zip-lining.

[4] The game features a variety of enemies, including the slow, low-level Biters, Bombers which explode when the player character gets too close, Virals which can run quickly, and dangerous Volatiles which only appear at night.

Players assume the role of Kyle Crane (Roger Craig Smith), an undercover GRE operative sent to infiltrate the quarantine zone to find Kadir "Rais" Suleiman (Jim Pirri), a political figure gone rogue who has a file that contains vital data on the virus, which could potentially lead to a cure.

[19] Undercover GRE agent Kyle Crane is airdropped into Harran to retrieve a sensitive file stolen by Kadir Suleiman, who is using it for blackmail.

Crane learns that the Tower is being harassed by a gang of bandits led by a warlord named Rais who steals and hoards supplies from the GRE airdrops.

Desperate to obtain Antizin, Crane and Jade raid Rais's storage facility but they instead find a cache of plastic explosives.

As Crane searches for Jade, he learns that the Defence Ministry is planning to firebomb Harran to eradicate the outbreak, claiming that there are no survivors.

After killing Rais's second-in-command, Crane delivers the tissue samples to Dr. Camden, who believes that he is close to developing a cure, but needs the rest of Dr. Zere's data.

In a desperate effort to evade scandals, the GRE contacts Crane to retrieve Dr Zere's research for them so they can convince the public they are working on the cure, in exchange they will extract him safely from Harran.

Crane throws Rais off the building and narrowly recovers the research data; he decides to give it to Dr. Camden and stays in Harran to help the remaining survivors.

For instance, since players can now approach an objective from various directions and reach previously unreachable areas, the artificial intelligence (AI) controlling the enemies cannot spawn out of nowhere.

[26] The day–night cycle concept was envisioned by Ciszewski prior to the production of Dead Island, but was not implemented in that title due to the team's limited size and resources.

Inspired by the Rocinha favela of Brazil, Harran was designed to be a city with many windows and interiors which serve as possible parkour routes for the players.

He took inspiration from 1970s and 1980s movie soundtracks, seeking a sadder tone which he felt was more appropriate than typical horror music for the game's post-apocalyptic setting.

However, according to senior game producer Adrian Ciszewski, Dying Light's frame rate was locked at 30 FPS on consoles to be able to deliver native 1080p graphics, reduce input lag to a minimum, and provide a smoother and more gameplay-tailored performance.

[44] On 17 January 2015, Techland announced that physical copies of Dying Light had been delayed due to a "longer lead time than digital".

Pre-orders of the physical copies of the game also received the "Cuisine & Cargo" and the Ultimate Survivor Bundle downloadable content (DLC) packs for free.

At the same time, a mod that removed film grain from the game was taken down by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

[59] Techland further released the source development tool for modders in April 2015, allowing players to create custom maps and stories.

In addition to a special edition of the game, it included a physical zombie shelter, parkour lessons, night vision goggles and a trip to Techland in Poland.

[62] On 25 June 2015, in parody of a promotional campaign between Destiny and Red Bull, Techland announced that it would give away codes for premium weapons to players who tweeted a picture of themselves drinking a glass of water.

[83] Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot stated that the story "lumbers through one cliche after another", though he remarked that it is "perfectly palatable", praising the voice acting and the expressive facial animation in the cutscenes.

[87] In contrast, Brian Shea, writing for Game Informer, praised the story for being immersive, and remarked that the players will slowly grow attached to the characters.

[85] Grubb praised the responsive controls and liked the upgrade options and the progression system, which rewards players for taking risks during the night.

VanOrd also applauded the free running system, saying that it "energizes moments of great tension", and that climbing tall structures can be "an anxious exercise in precision".

[83] Arthur Gies from Polygon wrote that many of the systems in Dying Light were "clunky" and poorly implemented, and he lamented that the game was extended by "stringing objectives as far away from one another as possible".

[84] Reparaz agreed that the game is better when it is played with several friends, though he remarked that the gameplay can be unbalanced in the asymmetrical multiplayer mode if the lobby is not full.