Dying Light 2 Stay Human Review

Verdict

I've had a lot of fun with Dying Lite 2, mainly dues to its fantastic parkour platforming and engaging story that tin be shaped by your in-game decisions. Those hoping for a terrifying zombie slasher will likely exist disappointed, merely the thrill of escaping a zombie horde by hopping from rooftop to rooftop ensures this is nonetheless an exhilarating action game.

Pros

Parkour platforming is incredibly fun
The open-globe city is a slap-up playground
Your decisions shape the story
Great cast of characters

Cons

Combat is hitting and miss
Amnesty timer volition exist divisive
Not scary enough for horror fans

Availability

Britain RRP: £54.99

Key Features

Genre: Activity role-playing game Don't look Dying Lite 2 to be a horror game, as it leans more towards the activity RPG genre due to its heavy focus on platforming.
Release date: February 4, 2022 Dying Light 2 launches on the majority of platforms in February 2022, and will arrive on Nintendo Switch later in the year.
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox I and Xbox Series Ten/South

Introduction

Dying Light 2 may look like your average zombie slayer on the surface, simply it stands out from the likes of Resident Evil Village and Back iv Claret past featuring a fleshed-out parkour system.

With the undead roaming the streets, the all-time option for survival is to stick to the rooftops, allowing yous to leap from building to building, and climb the tallest skyscrapers in sight. You wouldn't expect a zombie game to feature one of the absolute best get-go-person perspective platforming yet, but hither we are.

At that place's even a day-nighttime bicycle in play hither, with zombies becoming more hostile and dangerous at nighttime, and hiding within buildings during the day to prevent you from scavenging loot.

This may sound very familiar to those who take played the original Dying Light, just with a make new story and protagonist, as well as a greater focus on action over horror, Dying Lite 2 feels like a very dissimilar beast. After hitting the credits with 33-hours of gameplay under my chugalug, here are my thoughts.

Story

Simple yet engaging story
Swell cast of characters
Your decisions accept an impact

Dying Light 2 focuses on a new protagonist called Aiden, who is roaming the mail service-apocalyptic world in search of his sis Mia. A series of corny flashbacks show us that a barbarian scientist called Flit conducted scientific experiments on both Aiden and Mia when they were young. The two siblings are eventually separated, with Aiden spending the rest of his life attempting to runway down his sis, while also obsessively seeking revenge on Flit.

This key story thread is pretty simple, progressing at a snail's step throughout the 30-hour campaign. In the concurrently, Aiden finds himself embroiled with the conflicts of various factions in a fictional European metropolis, completing quests in return for information on Waltz's whereabouts.

With the zombie outbreak occurring several years ago, survivors have begun to rebuild the urban center with towering windmills acting as the main source of power and a cathedral converted into a community hotspot that's crammed full of families, traders and sketchy thugs. With a medieval vibe to the city, it feels like you've stepped into a fantasy game, akin to The Elder Scrolls or Fallout, and is therefore more memorable and less dour than the majority of fictional postal service-apocalyptic wastelands.

The city is in the middle of a tug of war between the two factions: the Free People and the Peacekeepers. The sometime takes a communist-esque approach, with residents allowed a bully deal of freedom and everyone sharing a like status in the community. The Peacekeepers, meanwhile, are more than militant, using tattoos to assign each member a rank in their clan and dressing in intimidating armour.

Throughout the story, you'll be required to carry out missions for both of the warring factions, but you'll eventually be confronted with consequential decisions that tin be hugely influential on the success of each faction, every bit well every bit the fate of the characters involved.

This is where Dying Light 2 really shines, every bit it features a number of engaging characters, with contrasting personalities and beliefs. Developer Techland smartly staggered the introduction of each character, allowing you to develop bonds with each person before meeting the next. Some characters will bring together missions with you, while others will speak to you lot through a walkie-talkie at a safe distance from the zombies.

I genuinely cared nearly the fate of every character, making each story-based conclusion even more than impactful. Of form, certain characters are willing to stab you in the back too, and then sitting on the fence and being kind to everyone won't necessarily prove successful.

Parkour platforming

Fantabulous get-go-person platforming
Stamina meter makes climbing a challenge
Can unlock further abilities as you progress

Techland has washed a great task of making this immersive post-apocalyptic world a memorable and visually stunning location, but it's not only practiced to look at. The urban center is also a fantastic playground for your platforming parkour skills, equally you scamper up drain pipes, vault off poles and jump from rooftop to rooftop as you traverse beyond the map.

Dissimilar the Uncharted or old Assassin's Creed games where you could only climb up specific structures, Dying Light 2 seemingly allows you lot to take hold of any kind of ledge poking out of a wall or construction. But to ensure climbing doesn't become too easy, Techland has introduced a stamina meter that depletes over time – spend too long hanging on the side of a building, and yous'll fall to the hordes of zombies below.

With limited fast travel options, you're forced to spend a great clamper of the game moving between quests, but I enjoyed the free-running so much here that I never minded. Yous'll also be able to unlock additional free-running abilities later on in the game too, such as wall-running and sliding under depression-hanging pipes, which helped to proceed the platforming fresh from beginning to terminate. The game as well smartly uses the colour yellow to gently nudge the player in the right management.

Dying Light ii is split into two separate open-world maps. The starting time is effectively a suburb, with medium-sized buildings proving fairly easy to climb. Wooden planks will also bridge the gap betwixt buildings, reducing the need for expiry-defying jumps. It'due south essentially the ideal surround to hone your platforming skills, while still challenging plenty to be enjoyable.

But progress the story far enough, and you'll attain the centre of the city, which is full of deject-piercing skyscrapers to increase the platforming difficulty tenfold. Fortunately, you're given a glider at this point, which allows you to glide between buildings until your stamina bar hits null. I really loved the decision to switch upward the environments, preventing the open-world map from growing stale before the credits.

Techland clearly recognises that the parkour platforming is the biggest strength of Dying Low-cal ii, every bit it's included in a number of story missions, with a countdown timer occasionally testing your speed. These were my personal favourite missions in the game, even if they have little to practise with zombies.

Of grade, the parkour skills do blend well with the zombie encounters occasionally. If you're spotted by a Howler zombie at night, a large pack of infected volition start to hunt you, with more than powerful flesh eaters joining the pursuit as time goes on.

With so many zombies flocking your fashion, the best option is unremarkably to run away and find the closest location with UV low-cal protection. Mistime a leap and in that location'southward a loftier run a risk y'all'll be torn to pieces. Still, I was able to escape nearly chases with ease, and there weren't many consequences if I did fail since the auto saves are and then frequent.

Techland's decision to limit the use of the ultra-powerful Volatile zombies has also fabricated Dying Light ii less scary than its predecessor. There are still plenty of other powerful zombies lurking the streets, but they're usually like shooting fish in a barrel to avoid, especially if you forgo the experience points bonus and complete your objectives during the twenty-four hours.

Instead of the fear of a zombie snacking on your brain, the biggest reason to avoid the dark is the on-screen ticking clock that signals your immunity since Aiden was previously bitten by a zombie. Spend as well long in the dark and yous'll end upward turning into a zombie and encountering a 'game over' screen. While this feature does necktie up with the story nicely and has seemingly been introduced to hype upwards the tension, it proved incredibly frustrating when trying to explore areas at nighttime. Fortunately, you're able to lengthen your amnesty timer later on in the campaign, simply I tin even so encounter information technology existence a hugely divisive characteristic.

Dying Calorie-free ii tries to make night-time ventures more tempting by making lootable areas more attainable, but I rarely establish the boodle worthwhile, aside from the odd chest that increases your health and stamina bars. Since you can easily avoid the leap-scares by sticking to daylight hours, Dying Light 2 feels more like an activity-take a chance RPG than a horror game – I didn't mind that, simply can understand the frustration for those who loved the horror aspect its predecessor.

Combat

Hack-and-slash combat is simple
Boss encounters are a depression point
Can craft both weapon and items with loot

When y'all're non showing off your parkour skills, yous'll most likely be hacking and slashing bandits and zombies. I accept to say that I found the combat to be hitting and miss for the about part. Anyone who's played The Elder Scrolls or Fallout should have a good thought of how the get-go-person combat works hither, as a press on a controller's trigger volition run into your character slash at the foe in front.

Techland has made information technology a little more complex, by calculation in dodge and block functionalities, just the latter requires such perfect timing in social club to execute a deflection that it was rarely worth the take a chance. You lot can also unlock more moves as you level upwardly, such as throwing enemies aside and leaping in the air to execute a nose-crushing high-bound kick, although I found Molotov cocktails and standard melee attacks to be far more than effective.

That said, combat withal felt repetitive during my playthrough, with a pocket-sized variety of zombie types, and human being enemies generally acting the same aside from archers and axe-wielding brutes. At that place are a couple of boss encounters, but I personally found these to exist the low points of Dying Lite 2, as the enemies were either too slow to testify challenging or kept spamming the same attacks like an annoying Street Fighter noob.

That said, the combat's animations are and so satisfying that I still enjoyed most encounters. A slash with a sharp knife volition chop off a zombie's limb or even send their head flying – it's only every bit gory and gruesome equally you can hope for from a zombie slasher. Being able to alter your weapons also allows you lot to set foes on burn down, which can blacken their rotten flesh like an overcooked pizza.

I enjoyed the ability to craft additional weapons such as Molotov cocktails and grenades, which also proved an incentive to raid cupboards for boosted supplies. Y'all're also able to upgrade your crafting recipes to create more efficient weapons, wellness packs and lockpicks, giving the player a real sense of progression throughout the campaign.

I was slightly disappointed that you simply get skill trees for parkour and gainsay though. Techland could accept delved fifty-fifty deeper into the RPG genre by introducing more upgrades for the likes of stealth, crafting and charisma, but I too capeesh that Dying Light 2 has benefited from the intense focus on the free-running platforming.

Graphics and presentation

1 of the best looking games yet
Supports ray tracing through Nvidia RTX
Very few technical issues

I was really impressed by the visuals in Dying Light 2, with Techland opting for a bright colour palette to make it expect far more middle-communicable than the majority of zombie games.

Stick to the streets and you'll see a grey wasteland with crowds of infected, just take to the rooftops and your eyes will be treated to bright greenery, with plants and copse growing on superlative of buildings. You'll fifty-fifty find survivors growing crops and tending to bee hives on the rooftops, creating a distinctive metropolis that volition no doubt linger long in the memory.

The attending to particular is hitting in Dying Lite 2, with the flicker of an eye quickly showing the emotional state of a graphic symbol and subtle props placed in a character's room to provide an insight into their personality.

It's one of the best looking games I've played yet, and that was only at a 1440p resolution with my PC. Dying Light is available to play in 4K on both consoles and PC, and fifty-fifty supports ray tracing if yous own an Nvidia RTX graphics card.

I was also impressed by how few technical issues I encountered during my 33-hour playthrough. I did have to restart the game on two occasions later my character got stuck in the environment, simply the machine saves are so frequent here that I never lost any progress.

Dying Low-cal two features a co-op system that lets yous play alongside a friend for the majority of the campaign. I was unfortunately unable to endeavor out this feature during the review process. Information technology's also worth pointing out that there isn't a PvP mode here, unlike the original game, although Techland has promised that unspecified post-launch content is in the works.

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Should you buy it?

You lot want a great story and some exhilarating platforming:
Dying Light 2'due south greatest strengths are its story and platforming. The former sees a diverse and likeable cast of characters, while Techland has somehow made free-running fifty-fifty more than fun than decapitating zombies.

Yous want a really scary horror game:
Techland has toned downwards the horror aspect of Dying Low-cal two to such an extent that I rarely felt scared when entering a zombie-filled building. There are still plenty of zombies here, but since the majority are pretty piece of cake to hack to shreds, they rarely had me on the edge of my seat.

Concluding Thoughts

Dying Lite 2 may exist a zombie slasher, but it actually feels more like an action RPG than a horror game. Zombies are rarely difficult to take downward (specially during the twenty-four hour period) and your parkour skills brand it adequately easy to escape a horde. Just the excellent platforming makes up for the lack of bound scares, as leaping between rooftops and scaling skyscrapers are both challenging and exhilarating.

Gainsay isn't the best I've seen, with floaty physics and small range of enemy types, simply the multifariousness of weapons and upgrades – as well equally the gory-tastic animations – go along information technology fun correct upwards to the cease credits.

Information technology's the expertly crafted post-apocalyptic city and bandage of characters that will linger the longest in my retentivity though, particularly since y'all tin can shape the story via your decisions. I tin can't wait to play Dying Calorie-free two once more and see how events unfold with different dialogue options.

How we test

We play every game we review through to the cease, outside of certain exceptions where getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is close to impossible to do. When we don't fully finish a game before reviewing it we will ever warning the reader.

Played for 33 hours to reach end credits

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FAQs

Is Dying Light 2 a sequel?

Aye, Dying Light 2 is technically a sequel, although it has a completely new story and characters, so yous won't need to play the first to catch upwardly on previous events.

Will Dying Lite 2 accept guns?

No, Dying Light 2 uses melee weapons, bows and even makeshift grenades, but you won't find any guns here.

Will Dying Lite 2 accept cars?

Y'all tin can't drive whatsoever cars in Dying Light 2, with the game encouraging parkour for traversal.

Jargon buster

Ray Tracing

Advanced light-rendering technology that allows for more realistic lighting and shadow furnishings inside in-game worlds.

Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/dying-light-2-stay-human

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