Gaming’s seventh generation gave way to an explosion of zombie-based video games during the horror sub-genre’s reinvigorated popularity. “Left 4 Dead”, the “Undead Nightmare” expansion pack for “Red Dead Redemption”, Telltale Games’ “The Walking Dead” adaption – three games of many like them that gave wannabe survivalists during an apocalyptic event the chance to experience the horrors & highs of overcoming the undead. Techland – the developers then-mostly known for “The Call of Juarez” series – threw their name in the hat when it came to zombie-based multiplayer experiences with “Dead Island” in 2011.
“Dead Island” found success amongst gamers thanks to its “jump in/jump out” multiplayer structure, a large open world, and weapons crafting system. A sequel was released almost two years later, but didn’t garner the same praise as its predecessor mostly thanks to a lack of innovation compared to the original and glitches that would make Bethesda Studios blush. With Deep Silver purchasing the rights to the franchise, Techland ventured out to create something different while retaining their idea of how the genre could evolve.
Thanks to the power of eighth generation game consoles and a focus on parkour, “Dying Light” entered the world with more buzz than either “Dead Island” game; delivering a memorable experience when gamers were tired of slaughtering infected goons & monsters alike. My time with “Dying Light” had me excited about what was to come with an inevitable sequel as the gameplay foundation created for “Dying Light” was fantastic. Arguably the first big release of 2022, “Dying Light 2” promised to be bigger and better compared to its predecessor both from a gameplay perspective and the narrative; and I was ready for everything it had to offer.
Did I Complete “Dying Light 2”?
Techland, when announcing “Dying Light 2”, promised to not play it safe in regards to bloating this latest open world experience with a European setting during a time fifteen years after the events of “Dying Light”. Taking control of Aiden Caldwell, players will go through abandoned buildings, search through trashcans, soar through the sky, and, of course, modify weapons to slash & thrash through hundreds of thousands of infected contained in the city of Villedor.
Beyond, of course, playing through the main story missions, are side missions that seemingly reach into the triple digits. Sadly, by the time the player enters the game’s second half, the side quests feel less rewarding as the weapons & experience points become miniscule compared to completing said missions during the first half. Complementing the prototypical story & side missions are the equivalent of dungeons including tiered science buildings that can only be conquered at night housing dozens of infected and skill upgrade “inhibitor” items.
Underground “Metro Stations”, when completed, create fast travel points; while puzzle-centric water towers or electric stations tie into the game’s faction system where the player determines how two of the three main factions (Survivors and Peacekeepers) will control certain districts.
New additions including “GRE Anomaly” battles allow players to fight “Revenant” mini-bosses at night that, when defeated, provide two “inhibitors” needed to quickly increase Aiden’s health and stamina while opening up more options in the two skill trees – “Combat” and “Parkour”. Time trials called “Nightrunner Trials” will have Aiden zipping around the city, while the four “Bandit Camps” embraces the “Far Cry” formula with the player potentially sneaking around to slaughter a group of “Renegades” before overcoming the “Gang Leader” and his lieutenants.
As noted with the faction system implemented, the story features a plethora of choices with some being very detrimental to how certain elements of the story play out and even what ending is achieved. Sadly, with no manual save system or even a new game-plus option, players looking to see the effects of their choices if done differently will either have to make back-up saves or replay the game from scratch while grinding away to get strong again.
I spent a little over sixty hours playing while attaining a majority of the trophies including those for finishing all the tiered science labs (GRE Facilities), Anomalies, Windmills (the “Dying Light” equivalent of “Far Cry’s” bell towers), the incredibly vertical radio towers, “Bandit Camps”, “Nightrunner Trials”, “Airdrop” collectibles, and “Metro Stations” before seeing one of the relatively quick and mostly depressing endings. A platinum trophy, as of this time, seems impossible considering co-op multiplayer is barely functional several weeks after its release and, of course, there are multiplayer trophies. Also certain collectibles are tied to certain story sections that can’t be replayed – meaning a person not scouring everything or not playing with a guide will probably miss something that will lock them out of the three necessary collectible-associated trophies if someone is looking to achieve 100 percent completion.
Did “Dying Light 2” Live Up to the Hype?
What made the original “Dying Light” so different from the games that inadvertently helped craft it including “Dead Island” were two specific core gameplay mechanics: parkour, and a day & night cycle. Rather than be stuck with characters who are only able to run and jump maybe a good two feet into the air like so many other post-apocalyptic protagonists, Aiden is a skilled runner and jumper – able to sail across rooftops and clutch the sides of buildings with relative ease.
Just like its predecessor, “2” presents the ability to gain experience points by simply doing things like jumping from one end of an area to another while pulling off leaps off ventilation shafts, grabbing onto a zipline, dropping down while rolling upon landing, and using said roll to begin another sprint. The parkour system is incredibly breathtaking with moments of the player most likely wowing themselves as Aiden vocalizes his joy over executing a series of impressive maneuvers. Thanks to the returning grappling hook (though not as efficient initially as the one in “Dying Light”; needing upgrades to yank Aiden forward) and the debuting paraglider, moving around Villedor is amazing and, easily, the best part of “Dying Light 2”.
Fighting in “Dying Light 2” has been expanded with players being able to dodge, block, and parry incoming strikes with the latter being mostly associated with combating human enemies. Utilizing a perfect block will parry a regular attack from a human, allowing the player to either strike back or vault over the stunned enemy to potentially dropkick an adversary behind that enemy; though there will be many times when Aiden will sail over the target and completely miss the dropkick while leaving him wide open for an attack. The human enemy AI isn’t half bad, learning from the player’s patterns and responding by dodging when Aiden does something, like, continuously throwing dropkicks. The biggest issues with combat are the hit boxes when a large foe is swinging their hammer that still hits Aiden even if the player is far enough away apparently, and the lacking onscreen indicators of an incoming attack from off screen or behind – the latter being a big problem later in the game when archers appear.
A lot of the cool parkour and combat maneuvers are initially locked unfortunately; tied to three restrictions: skill points, overall stats, and a world ranking system. Skill points are gained by earning enough experience points that come with moving around the world and fighting off enemies respectively. When the player completes missions and things like the aforementioned GRE lab dungeon buildings, they gain points going into the world rank system that dictates how well Aiden can survive in certain zones.
As seen in multiple open world games nowadays, entering a level five district when Aiden is only at level two will result in Caldwell being unable to, say, kill a sleeping zombie from behind that results in a potential fight and other stronger infected being alerted. Gaining world rank increases Aiden’s overall health and stamina with certain skills only becoming available for unlocking when Caldwell reaches a particular threshold like being able to temporarily sprint when having 140 stamina or blocking projectiles after reaching 180 health.
“Inhibitor” items – grand collectibles usually located in hard-to-reach or enemy-laden areas – provide overall stat upgrades when the player collects three and distributes them between the health or stamina options. Using “inhibitors” to upgrade Aiden’s health and stamina also increases his immunity to the disease running through his body that is introduced during the story’s first hour. In the dark, a meter appears at the HUD’s top that ticks down in real time. The player will have to use certain booster items to restore Aiden’s immunity if they can’t reach daylight or UV lights. This immunity meter is greatly depleted when Aiden finds himself surrounded by THV chemicals with certain portions of the map being cut off by said chemicals that will kill Aiden quickly.
With stamina and immunity limitations early on, players will both be happy to see Aiden’s growth firsthand and still wonder why the developers tried to handicap players so early in regards to experiencing moments such as climbing a windmill that, without 200 stamina, is impossible to ascend even though it does nothing but open another “Nightrunner” haven where Aiden can rest or reorganize his inventory.
The game’s day & night cycle plays a huge role in all of these aforementioned systems coming together. At night, the infected lurk in greater numbers than during the day; making certain enclosed areas more accessible in regards to not getting slaughtered by a horde. Moving around and fighting at night provides double experience points and certain missions can only be completed after the sun sets.
Night is also when things get more impressive in regards to enemy variation. The shuffling undead that are easily disposed of during the day pick up speed at night and can quickly surround Aiden. “Howlers” will scream to alert other zombies and initiate a chase sequence that will only end if Aiden can outrun them (which is very rare) or reach a UV light spot. If the player can’t stop a chase quickly, the level will rise; reaching a max of level four with the heavy-hitting “Volatile” enemies arriving that will annihilate Aiden in a couple of hits no matter what level Caldwell is at or what gear he’s wearing. Returning from the original game is the fact dying during the night means losing every experience point gained before dawn – adding a greater layer of tension when moving through the darkness.
Crafting and modifying are back and more significant than ever with various areas littered with items needed to craft anything from the previously mentioned immunity boosters, Molotov cocktails, and medicine packs. All items that can be crafted also have the ability to be upgraded to do more damage or be more significant in keeping Aiden from dying. Weapon mods play a bigger role than just turning a sword into an electrified decapitation tool. Unlike “Dying Light” or “Dead Island”, weapon durability can only be restored when adding a mod like “Toxic” or “Inferno”.
A weapon’s durability meter goes down with usage and, even with adding a mod, continued usage of said weapon will result in it breaking. Other than a few very cool weapons mostly found late in the game, nothing really feels lost when a weapon breaks as, more than likely, there’s another item already in Aiden’s inventory that’s better than what the player was using for the last few hours. The only weapons that have no durability meter are long ranged items like bows, crossbows, and even a boomstick. As expected, long range weapons prove pretty overpowered especially if the player invests in crafting “Shock” and/or “Infected arrows/bolts.
Equippable gear doesn’t add much to helping Aiden survive even with its color-coded rarity levels and numbered stats that emphasizes how said gear is supposed to be better than what Aiden currently has on. However, most gear does very little in keeping the damage down or increasing the amount of experience points attained. Some early, low-level gear obtained can outmatch what Aiden gets later and really nullifies the overall effectiveness of gear leveling.
Techland went out of its way to talk about how grandiose the dialogue is in “Dying Light 2”, as well as a choice system that would dictate the overall ending a player attains. While that latter definitely is there, a majority of significant choices don’t feel as monumental as they should in terms of Aiden’s place in this society. Choosing the Peacekeepers over the Survivors about a third into the story doesn’t stop said Survivors from selling Aiden items or even becoming hostile against him for being in an area.
In a lot of ways, the best thing about the choice system is distributing districts to a group. For example – giving the Peacekeepers four districts will unlock an incredibly powerful crossbow; not to mention the other unlocked options including a car alarm that triggers a bomb and even a gigantic pendulum. Giving areas to Survivors assist Aiden’s traversal options including two-way ziplines and better crash pads to avoid those untimely deaths. Obviously better combat options are a must, but Aiden falling to his death when it seems he shouldn’t may lead the player to pick the down-on-their-luck weirdos over the more militant faction.
But when it comes to the actual narrative, nothing about the story really stands out or is unique to the genre. While that isn’t a problem as every story has been told at this point in terms of zombie, post-apocalyptic experiences, strong characterization would salvage a mediocre story. “Dying Light 2” struggles in both presenting memorable characters or giving potential likeable NPCs a chance to shine.
With the story only featuring a little over twenty main missions, characters come & go without much time for Aiden or the player to really become emotionally invested in them. Lawan (voice by Rosario Dawson) gets the most screen time of any NPC, yet her character is so one-note and makes some terrible decisions late in the story, it’s hard to actually cheer her on in her quest. Not to be outdone is Dr. Waltz – the looming figure that arrives almost midway through the game and showcases unexpected, “Matrix”-like skills in battle– resulting in some hilariously bad combat sequences.
And then there’s Aiden himself. A pilgrim who moves from town to town for mostly unexplained reasons (usually just being a courier for unseen people), Aiden’s journey actually has a larger goal: finding his sister Mia after getting on Waltz’s trail. Aiden is essentially a blank canvas of emotion whose current decisions dictate how he feels about society and who he should help. A majority of the time, Aiden is a tool to gather exposition and rarely feels human as much as his journey attempts to emphasize his fight for his own safety & humanity, and the general protection of those who can’t protect themselves.
The side mission NPCs have to be some of the worst examples of world building and generally being relatable even in an unrelatable experience. The stiff dialogue execution is outdone by wooden character models. Even during moments when the voice actor delivers wonderfully, that person is hampered by the character model visually presenting the words, such as an actor who does a great job vocalizing the emotion one would have about discovering something remarkable about his long lost mother being offset by a character model making smirking faces as if he’s questioning why Aiden is standing in front of him. These side quest NPCs get worse and worse as the missions pile up and due to the lack of impressive rewards by the late-game makes ignoring the optional missions that much easier.
Technically, “Dying Light 2” is very similar to its predecessors in being incredibly hindered by unpredictable glitches and bugs. Throughout the game, Aiden witnessed jittering zombies, disappearing floors where Caldwell would fall through the world or a building, time trials not registering the protagonist going through the glowing rings, and a kid obviously needing an exorcism. One of the most distressing glitches happened during the final boss battle when the enemy jumped into a part of the environment and couldn’t be defeated without Aiden dying and restarting the fight (losing out on experience points and the ammo used in hopes of stopping the stuck threat). Thankfully, playing on the PS5, the frame rate rarely dipped and the game never crashed. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the online multiplayer.
“Dying Light 2” presents a co-op option where up to three players can join a host in playing in the host’s world up to that point in the story. Joining co-op players can get collectibles they may have missed during their personal playthrough and even complete missions they’ve yet to reach in the narrative, though said missions won’t register as completed if the player is joining instead of hosting. But actually getting into a co-op game or inviting someone is truly a gamble. A majority of the time a session won’t allow the player to join and disconnects can happen at anytime without warning. Gamers who were planning on playing this with friends may have to wait until a few more patches fix a big gameplay draw. Sadly, the “Be the Zombie” multiplayer mode featuring a player entering someone’s game as a “Night Hunter” doesn’t return here from “Dying Light”.
Just like what came before it, “Dying Light 2” is an incredibly fun experience when moving throughout the environment, bashing heads, or deciding what mod should be added to a recently acquired ax. But a lot of the positives that the developers promised would make “Dying Light 2” that much more memorable than the first – grand choices, a better stony, immersive conversations & dialogue, and an intuitive co-op experience – failed to live up to the marketing hype.
Should You Play “Dying Light 2”?
There is a lot to like about “Dying Light 2” – the parkour system, combat that isn’t overly complicated, and item crafting & modifications that turns junk into treasure. But just like “Dying Light”, its successor lacks an impressive or even memorable narrative; let alone strong characterization including the main protagonist. “Dying Light” set a foundation for true greatness in regards to its gameplay mechanics with its sequel definitely following up in fine fashion.
The other weak aspects of “Dying Light” continue on in “Dying Light 2” with gamers who only enjoyed the gameplay in the first game, most likely, feeling the same about “Dying Light 2”. With that being stated – no matter if you’re interested in this game or not as of this time, waiting until it’s on sale with quite a few known patches released to fix a plethora of issues is a must – just like making sure you have enough stamina to paraglide, enough durability to destroy a GRE anomaly, and enough guts to find Lawan’s missing shoe by yourself.
