Dying Light 2 — a game that has literally risen from development hell
The first Dying Light was an astonishing game. In this one, Techland developed the Dead Island ideas but exaggerated and added parkour mechanics. As a result, it is one of the best (if still not the best) parkour games in history. The formula for success was pretty simple— take a classical zombie genre, place it in the eastern city, add an uncomplicated story, and append the parkour mechanics.
Most of the components are rather cliched and not extraordinary, but this did not prevent Dying Light 2 from getting all-out community love. So, what’s hit the players? The answer is simple—passion. The entire game was made with passion; the infatuation was seen in all aspects of Dying Light 1. So, did the sequel to the once-successful game replicate the success? Well, this is a complicated question. Let’s find out.
20 years later…
So, 20 years have passed since the Harran virus broke out. After a while, leading scientists from all over the world managed to eradicate the virus by developing a vaccine. However, the GRE organization responsible for the virus spread decided to pursue its research to finally invent a new biological weapon. The institution was able to acquire the Harran virus sample and continue to conduct further strain modifications.
As you might guess, everything went wrong. Again. The new virus strain has begun to spread throughout the cities throughout the world where GRE has conducted its research. So, the GRE didn’t come up with a better way to bomb these cities. As a result, the new strain has swept over all corners of the Earth, and most cities have died out.
Without the Netphone connection, in order to maintain liaison between the remaining cities and settlements, the survivors have established a network of peculiar post-apocalypse couriers, biblically called pilgrims. And one of such pilgrims, named Aiden, the players are offered to play for, or more precisely, to survive.
And here, from this backstory and the general preface, I suggest moving smoothly to the gameplay and storyline component of Dying Light 2 to discuss each element of the game specifically. Prepare to plunge into the old, new, and interestingly made post-apocalypse world. We’re off.
And what about the story?…
So, as I stated before, the main character of Dying Light 2 is a pilgrim named Aiden. He arrives at The City to find his sister — Mia, from whom he was separated many years ago. Villedor is one of the few cities left after the last outbreak. Although no one cares about Aiden’s problems — The City has its troubles.
The whole narrative revolves around three pillars: Aiden’s personal conflict, the city conflict denominated by the struggle of the Survivors, Peacekeepers (PKs), and Renegades, and the fellows’ conflicts.
As regards the interfactional strife, as previously mentioned, The City is divided, or rather, torn apart by three fractions — Survivors, PKs, and Renegades. The first is the peace-loving inhabitants of Villedor, who are trying to build the highest possible democratic model; the second fraction, PKs, are willing to realize the utopian militarism and the Renegades, made up of bandits and outlaws, led by the Colonel, endeavor to bring to life a social chaos theory.
The player is offered to support one of these fractions (or try to “float” between them) — PKs and survivors. Progressively, almost the entire conflict will come down to this confrontation between PKs or Survivors against Renegades, where Aiden will have to choose one of the sides.
To strengthen Aiden’s relationships with the factions, the player is offered the option of overrunning the key urban infrastructure, mainly water towers and electrical substations. Yes, you heard that right. But it is worth noting that the devs realized these mechanics creatively—to activate these interest points, the player will have to solve a small conundrum or two.
Also, Aiden’s relationship with any particular faction is influenced by the “key” player’s choices. The only problem with these choices is that only a small number of them have a tangible impact on the story.
Frequently, Dying Light 2 uses a method I call “pseudo-nonlinear narrative” — when, under the suspense escalation, you have to make any choice, persuading that the human’s choice will change the story somehow. Still, whatever the player chooses, the outcome of this pick will be the same as the second-choice departure, or with slight differences.
Also, the scriptwriters, without concealing their preferences and wishes, almost directly say who is “good” in Dying Light 2 and who’s “bad.” In total, we get one caucus that is “objectively good,” the second one that is “inscrutable bad,” and the third that is just “bad.”
Ultimately, any significant difference in the story is readable only at the end of Dying Light 2, where, as a result of pretty dubious “arithmetic” operations, the “variables” chosen by the player during the entire game are summed up. The result of this “expression” is a definite ending. By the end of the game, I had reached the secret ending. But if you think that the ending will answer your question, I advise you to “burn” this hope.
As a result, many players didn’t understand the Dying Light 2 epilogue, so it would be nice to read the interviews with devs from Techland to comprehend this. From my review, you might think that the game consists only of bad things. But that isn’t right. Dying Light 2 has several well-made story aspects, and the first of them is some of the side quests.
Yes, not all side quests are coming down to “grind.” There are also not a few well-made quests. Promptly, I could remember the Damien line, the storyline related to the faith healer poisoning, etc.
In summary, the whole storytelling resembles a train built of different car types running on sagging rails. The story “storms” from side to side, and the plot bears the brunt of severe contrasts, which creates serious dissonance in the head. The result—a messy ending.
The overall verdict: This is a nice story, containing a few truly interesting points, but it is afflicted by a badly adjusted narrative system that creates incomprehension and jarring.
Climbin’ walls, outrun zombies.
If I didn’t cherish high expectations for the story, then I wagered on gameplay. Techland didn’t need to change anything —they just had to leave parkour mechanics as in Dying Light 1 and merely technically modify already existing mechanics. Nevertheless, there are some changes, though some of them weren’t done for the better.
The basis and the gist of the Dying Light 2 gameplay part haven’t changed. The heats over a crowded-by-zombie city, chopping up the infected into small pieces, an entire arsenal made of different junk — everything we’ve seen in Dying Light 1. The spectrum of feelings is exactly like in the first game.
When you’re in the clutches of the infected, you have a feeling like you’re becoming the main character of “Zombieland,” and when you get up on the skyscraper room, you turn into the lead character of Banlieue 13, whose, by the way, was played by David Belle — the founder of parkour culture, and also one of the main supporting roles in Dying Light 2.
As for the parkour mechanics in Dying Light 2, we can see the enormous work done and the great corrections made. For that, the developers had to depart from the realism of the game in favor of mechanics. Now, the parkour feels much better, although it has become less realistic. The developers handled it to create a “flow” feeling. The perception of “flow” is one of the key parkour aspects. “Flow” is the state when the runner “merges” with the run, becoming whole.
The developers from Techland have improved another important mechanic — a dynamic fight when the player should use both melee and parkour skills to handle the foes. For example, one of the most useful skills is a power kick, aka thrust forward, which allows you to hit the enemy’s head in a jump shot by the forward legs.
Also, due to the improvements in the physics system (game physics has become more realistic), the struggles have become juicier, bloodier, and more brutal. The common Aiden interactions have become more realistic and cuddlier. Dying Light 2 doesn’t hesitate to show the bloodbath that Aiden has made, although it isn’t taken seriously because of “cartoon graphics.” The graphics have become one of the most disappointing game aspects for me.
Separately, I would like to talk about the AI system of Dying Light 2. The programmers have done a good job. The enemies aren’t the smartest ones, but unlike in most games, the assailants obtain a dynamic behavior pattern. They respond well to a triggering event and co-attack Aiden. But like any system, it also periodically gives some disruptions.
However, as it was written in the old King James Bible, there is always a fly in the ointment. This fly isn’t new. The players who’ve played DL1 could probably meet it — this is stamina. The developers decided to mock the players again, just at the beginning of Dying Light 2. The Polish devs thought that a very weak, almost feeble character, in the beginning, delivers fun, but it doesn’t. At all.
In the first hour, Aiden’s so weak that he can barely use a ladder, and by the end of Dying Light 2, like it was in Dying Light, Aiden becomes a super machine in every sense of the word. In the end game, Aiden’s just a machine that can kill everyone and slice up everyone, including the awful-made final boss.
As concerns mocked, the designers decided to knock themselves out. The creators troll the players during the entire adventure, for example, punishing a lot of extra activity. Pretty often, exploring the world, I’ve met the points, the level design of which frankly told me: do you see a parkour challenge? Climb me up, and you’ll gain your reward.
But as soon as you got to the top, I was waiting for another disappointment. I’ve got nothing. But there were some bright moments. Once, while climbing to the top of one of these points, I stumbled upon an amusing Easter egg left by one of the game directors. On top of it lay… Pyzy recipe. (A recipe for national Polish cuisine).
Dying Light 2 is a beautiful game in moments where it is true to the original. The developers have peeped some ideas at Ubisoft—unfortunately, not the best ones. The ideas of the original game were very good, and the creators shouldn’t adopt other people’s obsolete patterns. It is better not to change something at all than do “improvements for improvements.” But not all the innovations were moot.
Sadly, Dying Light 2 has lost its authenticity. Authenticity was a key component of the first game. The game had its “soul,” the “soul” that was sprouted by the developers. In the sequel, Techland decided to take the path of least resistance and just follow the trends. At some points, these trends have taken the game around the wrong corner.
Dying Light 2 has some positive moments: parkour mechanics, horror elements, and the main one—the game is really good at showing you what it’s like to be a monster and how it’s hard to stay human. This is especially hard to do nowadays.
Dying Light 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series. If you are an EGS user, don’t forget to get a copy of the free-of-charge game!
