Dying Light 2 – Spotlight

The majority of Dying Light 2 takes place in Villedor, a fictional metropolis that serves as the epicentre of a zombie apocalypse. As a child, you were forcibly separated from your sister, Aiden, and you are now searching for her. Although it starts out as a simple idea, it quickly develops into a compelling narrative that keeps you motivated to keep playing.

Pros:
Looks great
Great sense of verticality
Fluid movement and combat
Tense atmosphere
Fun side missions

Cons:
Story falters a bit
Minor performance issues

Score – 8/10

Compared to The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2, Dying Light 2 is an excellent game. You never know what a side quest can lead to. There are intriguing locations, emerging stories, and potential adventures to be found in every direction. Goat pen electric fencing is a purely optional early mission that requires you to gather parts. All wrapped up in a tight sense of place, it’s snappy and to the point while also giving you a new weapon blueprint.

Another random side quest begins with a simple request for a part-time job opportunity. As time passes, you’re faced with a myriad of conflicts, backstabs, and difficult decisions. Betrayed and lured into a trap where you will be murdered and robbed, you do everything you can to save the betrayer and prevent him from throwing himself off a roof, all in the space of a split second. In the aftermath of the apocalypse, life moves quickly.

You’re thrown into the middle of a conflict that has the potential to lead to all-out war. The only way to achieve your ultimate goal of finding your sister is to choose a side. The arguments for and against each faction are sound. Despite the fact that there is no “correct” answer, you will have to make a decision.

When it comes to zombie stories, Dying Light 2 has a keen eye. There are no Infected in this storey, unlike in The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later. Climate and geography are just two more examples of environmental characteristics. In this world, they’re an unavoidable fact. Everyone wants to live their lives in the same way that humanity has always done: with an equal measure of optimism, altruism, selfishness, and despair.

This is made clear in every exchange and in the game’s level layout. In the hills, an abandoned house is the site of one of the first encounters. With patience, you can piece together a bittersweet tale of people who have decided to leave the shattered world on their own terms. Dying Light 2 has a lot of environmental storytelling to contend with.

A new Infected Dark Age mindset is reinforced by simply walking through the streets. You can roam the city at your own pace, but you’ll always be aware of the passing of time. The tides of the Infected rise and fall as the sun rises and sets. Most people seek refuge from the heat of the day in the shadows of deserted haciendas. They take to the streets in droves at night.

There are times when the darkness can be frightening in Dying Light 2. At night, the Infected are a horde of vicious, aggressive beings. A flashlight is all you have to guide you through the dark. There are monsters out there that can see you, but you can’t see them, and they can sound an alarm, so you have to run for your life as you try to avoid them.

Your health is also at risk because of the lack of light. Everyone in Villedor is infected, including Aiden. The only thing that keeps the zombie virus from spreading is UV light. A countdown timer begins to tick whenever you are not exposed to the sun or UV lamps. You lose the game if the counter falls to zero. However, the constant sense of impending doom is both oppressive and extremely effective, even with the addition of consumables and a long enough duration to avoid hitting zero.

It’s easy to avoid the night, but if you want to reap the rewards, you have to be willing to take some risks. Bonus XP can be earned for any nighttime activities. To keep the points you’ve earned, you must make it to the end of the night. GRE Anomalies are a special type of boss Infected. Inhibitors, which can raise your maximum health and stamina, can be collected after defeating these.

There are many great sources of crafting materials in building interiors, Dark Hollows, and other nighttime areas that are largely deserted when the Infected take to the streets, making it easier for you to sneak in and steal them.

Dying Light 2 thrives on the kind of tense, immersive decision-making that involves constant timer monitoring and risk vs reward gameplay. Stopping and drawing imaginary parkour routes in my head became an everyday occurrence for me. Will I succeed? Is there anything I can do in the meantime? Is the risk worth it? As with any other post-apocalyptic survivor, you’ll feel the fear of the dark thanks to this film’s masterful translation.

The parkour-based movement in Dying Light 2 is executed flawlessly. You jump from rooftop to rooftop on a regular basis, which is unusual for you. To a significant extent, you can free-run, but there is just enough magnetism to ensure that you rarely miss targeted platforms.

Dying Light 2’s large maps make even the most fluid movement stale after a while. Techland manages to stay one step ahead of the curve by releasing new environments and traversal tools on a regular basis. Hang gliding is a completely different experience from flying a plane or a helicopter, and it’s a skill that can be mastered in just a few minutes of practise in the lower one- to five-story buildings in one region.

A lot of fighting takes place in this post-apocalyptic world. Fighting in Dying Light 2 begins with clumsy swings from crude melee weapons. At the beginning of the game, your only defences are blocks and dodges, but as you progress, your toolkit grows. Parkour, throws, and dropkicks are all incorporated into the fight choreography. As you progress through the game’s levels, you gain an increasing sense of authority and control over the zombies you’re slaying.

Dying Light 2 is crammed full of content, too. There are numerous ways to tell the storey. Fast travel zones can be unlocked for different factions via Metros and resource centres. There is crafting, weapon modification, and parkour challenges. That’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The 500 total play hours Techland claims it would take to see and do everything can be overwhelming. However, the majority of it is entirely up to you. There are no Windmills to unlock, Bandit Bases to clear, or side content to engage in. You don’t need to modify your weapons or max out the stats on the clothes that drop in order to progress.

Those who do engage with these, however, will reap the benefits. In order to level up, players are given a large number of experience points. In a pinch, new ziplines from one faction can speed up your movement, while Infected traps from another faction can save your life.

A lot of people will enjoy Dying Light 2. String accompaniment that fades in during long uninterrupted parkour sequences is particularly impressive on the soundtrack. In addition to the fantastic sound design, the voice acting is excellent. The vistas and vistas are truly awe-inspiring. The visual and aural quality of the entire presentation is excellent, and this enhances the overall effect.

When it works, Dying Light 2 is breathtaking. Unfortunately, the entire experience is tainted by this disclaimer. Dying Light 2’s concepts and design are excellent, but the game suffers from a lack of optimization and polish that shows up far too frequently.

Parkour is exhilarating, but it’s all too common to clip into geometry when attempting to jump towards a climbable handle. The visuals are very good, but multiple times I had to relaunch the game because broken textures cast bizarre shapes around characters or into the sky.

Some of the dialogue in quests is out of sync or not present at all. I was unable to begin a mission once because the character who was supposed to start it was stuck in an animation loop. When I completed a mission, it appeared as unfinished on the map, even though I had already completed it.

It’s unfortunate. Dying Light 2 has a lot of moments where it feels like a game made by a talented team at the top of its game. However, the lack of polish results in a game that feels rushed and is released a year before it should have.