After the success of Dying Light, the developers at Techland teased a brilliant sequel, one that was in development for so long the game felt like a surprise when it actually launched.

Being a fan of the original I was beyond excited the closer the release date came and the more trailers and gameplay videos Techland brought out on YouTube.

Dying Light 2 focuses on an all-new Protagonist called Aiden, A Pilgrim. The Pilgrims are a group of outcast survivors who travel across the world, acting as couriers and being the only real form of long-distance communication left between human settlements. While most Pilgrims don’t last more than a year or two
out in the harsh zombie-infested wilds. Aiden was one of the few that had been doing it for 4 years already by the year 2036 (20 years after the events of the first game)

Dying light 2 mostly takes place in the fictional city of Villedor, a new city in the story. Aiden ventures into Villedor searching for his lost sister, Mia whom he last saw when they were both kids.

Aiden is surrounded by a wide new cast of characters who are diverse and some of them interesting. While I never really felt invested or bonded to any of these characters, I can say that they were well written and did ultimately help with the game’s storytelling. In my experience, a lot of the characters you meet start off good but feel disjointed the further you progress in their stories.

The game itself had a lot of decisions that work towards your own personal path and ultimately the story ending. Having two completely different factions, being the peacekeepers and the survivors made choosing who to side with later in the story quite a difficult choice, then of course you have your enemy faction, the Renegades. They are your human enemies throughout the game.

The factions are broken down below.

The Peacekeepers are a stringent, military faction within Villedor and pride themselves on being able to install law and order in the areas they have control over. Their force and power mean they are often feared by the people of the city and have sometimes harsh methods of ruling.

The Survivors are made up of regular citizens who utilize the environment around them to stay alive. They are the most peaceful and friendly of the three groups, but they have less power and weaponry than the other factions in Dying Light 2.

The Renegades are scroungers and former prisoners who have broken free after the apocalypse. They follow their leader and often wear metal plates, fencing, and armor, and wield blades while looting and wreaking havoc on the city streets.

The parkour in Dying light 2 has been improved greatly from the first game, after getting skill points and investing them into upgrades the game really starts to shine. Aiden feels more athletic and faster than Kyle Crane and has more equipment to assist with this. Such as the Grappling Hook and Glider.

This makes activities like climbing skyscrapers and doing the time trials a breeze.

The game also takes the scare factor to 10 with some missions like sneaking into an abandoned building filled with sleeping zombies all around you, knowing one misstep could wake them all up and cause a huge mob to attack you. I felt this was something that Techland did great in the game.

The combat itself wasn’t as great as the newly improved parkour, although you do get abilities from upgrading your skill tree, I felt that the combat wasn’t as refined as it could be.

Combat in the later game felt like performing the same move set over and over until the enemies were dead, this being attack, dodge, attempt to counter-attack, dodge again, and attack until dead.

There were good moves in the skill tree like vaulting over enemies to attack other enemies, but I rarely found myself using these just due to the sheer size of the mobs that come at you.

Final Thoughts:

Dying light 2 does feel a lot better than the first game, however is still let down by minor issues, The character stories feeling bland later on and the combat not being as refined as they should are definitely major key points that needed to be worked on. The Parkour itself and the main storyline were both very well done. Fans of the first game will love the new gameplay. Newcomers will feel right at home without even needing to have played the first game to understand the storyline.