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Dying Light may have been more of a surprise than most of the next-gen titles shown off at E3 2013, but from what was shown of Techland's new zombie survival title at the show, our hopes are high.

Luckily, the lengthy gameplay demo we saw behind closed doors at E3 has now been released online for the public. The video doesn't include any developer commentary, but there's more than enough footage to get zombie fans excited for the visuals of next-gen, if nothing else.

The first screenshots of Dying Light revealed that Techland - makers of the Dead Island series - are keeping their love of rich colors and tropical settings intact. But as the gameplay footage shows, these zombies are a far deadlier strand. Players will be tasked with surviving in a quarantined city, and as the name implies, the sun's descent in the sky is a clear sign to get out of the streets. We're still having nightmares about what the darkness holds, and now everyone can join us!

The open world of Dying Light seen in the video (supplied by IGN) gives a clear idea of how many opportunities there will be to populate the game space with additional side quests, objectives, and supply drops. Of course, the developers have yet to establish exactly what kind of story will be driving the gameplay (the voices heard over the protagonist's radio, for instance, were never explained). We find it hard to believe that players will be doing nothing but surviving until the next supply drop, but for now, the plot is a tightly held secret.

The best thing that can be said about Dying Light so far is that the pulse-pounding cinematic trailer wasn't actually that different from the core gameplay. As the footage shows - and we learned playing the game for ourselves - the chase sequences after dark are as terrifying as they seem. The video also shows the combination of shoulder-turn/slow-motion added to let players see if they're being pursued, which, if a sign of the design nuance being brought to the larger game, makes Dying Light one of our most anticipated titles.

Where does Dying Light rank among your own anticipated games? Has this video preview gotten you more interested, or less? Sound off in the comments.

Dying Light will be released in 2014 for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC.

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Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: IGN