Dying Light 2 preview: Breathtaking combat in a bigger, better city

The first Dying light largely executed on its novel approach to the zombie genre — survive the horde with parkour and melee, ambitiously presented as a first-person experience — while coming up short in some of the supporting elements. In this way, it was a bit like the sports video games I routinely review, something that had a solid gameplay base, but maybe a drooping career mode that didn’t sustain much interest.

That was my conclusion after I had played. Dying Light 2 Be Human in a preview event and then compared it to the first game’s Platinum Edition (which just launched on Nintendo Switch). Techland didn’t fix what wasn’t broken; Dying light’s fluid traversal and balletic combat is still here, still easy to learn and apply, still hard to master, like all worthwhile athletic endeavors. This is In Dying Light 2, it’s supported by a much more interesting cityscape, stronger role-playing game systems and narrative hooks, and a new kind of open-world progression that should culminate in more meaningful choices, as opposed to clearing an area or a jumping puzzle for their own sake.

This is, however, a gentle way of saying that, once again, those thrilling gameplay trailers you’ve seen, full of perfectly chained counters, strikes, and jumps, are as idealized for Dying Light 2They were the same for its predecessor. I got three hours with the game, roughly two of that in the same stretch of the game’s new city, Villedor, and was familiar enough with its surrounding rooftops only to make two, maybe three jumps without stopping to deliberate my next move.

However, it was still a fun game that I enjoyed immensely. Dying Light 2 ramps up the urgency by giving the protagonist — a “pilgrim” named Aiden Caldwell — shorter bursts of time among the infected before he has to scramble back to the safety of ultraviolet lights, most often set up on the rooftops by survivors. The first Dying lightInfected cells could be stopped or repelled by UV. The Infected Dying Light 2Stepping into ultraviolet light will reset (or stop) the countdown and kill you at the end. It was too early for me to play. Dying Light 2, Aiden’s immunity gave him about seven minutes of activity before he had to find safety. Later, I increased it to nine minutes. Dying Light 2’s more expansive perk tree.

Some time-consuming levels — such as a power plant where the puzzle involved connecting cables — will be safe zones entirely, free of any infected or pathogens. A multi-part rescue mission, set within a maze-like interior with plenty of UV safety lights, was also conducted. The countdown only became an issue if there were prolonged battles or if my path got lost. I discovered that the countdown restriction helped to strengthen my knowledge of my environment. This required me to keep track of my escape route and acquire a muscle memory to perform the grabs, jumps and slides. It also led to the wrong choice of helping a settlement to reactivate their windmill generators and power the UV lights. It looks like I’ll have to scale every deactivated windmill I encounter (and every one is a jumping puzzle) to use its portion of the map, much like the towers of Assassin’s Creed or previous Far Cry games. Dying Light 2’s map is supposed to be four times bigger than the first game, so you’ll need a commensurate number of safe zones and staging areas.

Grid View

Also available in Dying lightCaldwell has infiltrated a group mistrustful survivors again. This time, there are three factions. Dying Light 2’s European city of Villedor. Caldwell is working for the Peacekeepers, who take on the role played by the first game’s Global Relief Effort in the Middle Eastern city of Harran. He’s working undercover with the Survivors, whose leadership feels forsaken by the Peacekeepers. Another group is the Renegades. They are straight-up criminals that, as I watched the game begin, could have caused the death a Peacekeeper officer. This leads to a lockdown which the player will need to resolve.

Completing major chapters and certain side missions often ends with the liberation of a type of asset — a power substation in one case, a water tower in another. This is where the player decides which faction, Survivors/PKs, will control the asset. Because I was not able to view the entire narrative, we were just a little further than the initial events. It made it difficult for me understand the consequences of my decisions. I was disappointed that, after I gave the power plant over to the PKs and was requested by the Survivors to get it back online, my handler just shrugged it all off.

Techland states that these changes will be made Dying Light 2’s branching story progression in a way more befitting a large RPG rather than an action-adventure narrative. I’ll take their word for it, but my preview simply wasn’t long enough to give me much motivation for or ownership of that choice, much less see how it affected the story. The choice rewards players with specific perks or assets. For example, the water tower will place ballistae where Peacekeepers control, and the Survivors will place their airbag cushions. After thinking about how many times I needed to look down in order to improve my parkour skills, I decided to go with the bags.

While the crafting and perk trees that were used to support the original game return are not the same, they offer more options and greater progression. However, certain perks can be so important, such as the ability to press a button to keep your parkour momentum going after landings, that it makes early stages of the game seem much more linear than optimizing one character. Some improvised weapons come with more advanced versions, such as the street-sign handaxe that can deliver a vicious chained lighting strike to several bad guys.

Yes, there is a paraglider, whose longer glides I couldn’t quite get the hang of, and many types of zombies, from garden-variety biters to swifter virals, and lumbering tanks. But Dying Light 2’s breakout star, I felt, was the city itself. Villedor was created as a backdrop 15 years after events in the first game. The plague is now changing the city into an urban setting that is more Middle Age. Something about that characterization instantly clicked with me, and it wasn’t just the medieval architecture, or the improvised tunics and breeches everyone wore.

The hub world, set inside a church, bustled with the kind of town-square activity and variety I’d expect from a high-fantasy RPG setting. Outside, there were a lot of people working and living in safe places. This supported the belief that the epidemic had regressed society several centuries. It is much brighter and more lush than Harran’s grey, bombed-out surroundings. Villedor, with its social underpinning, is far more fascinating and has done a better job in drawing me into the story. Dying Light 2 Is trying to tell.

Keep Humanity Alive by Dying Light It has been delayed twice (most recently in September) to allow the launch date to be moved to February 4, 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. This is all after an E3 2018 reveal, and several years of soul-searching and iteration. We removed flabby and under-supported ideas and balanced others.

Although it was not compact or taut, what I observed in the last three hours felt more cohesive and purposeful than my first. Dying light. That 2015 work was primarily intended to prove that melee and parkour could be successful with a first person camera. Then, it added zombie survival elements to the mix.

This does not necessarily mean Dying Light 2 The new generation seems to have abandoned its past or dismissed the less successful parts of its predecessor. The city environment, side-mission support, and role-playing are all supported by Techland. And it feels like, having nailed that core gameplay loop so early in this new IP’s history, Techland has been able to direct all of its attention to the supporting features that will make people want to master their newfound, exciting skills.