With Dying Light 2, the popular survival hit finally gets a sequel. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus got to play for 4 hours before the release. And despite the many possibilities, it was the story that captivated him the most.
What is Dying Light 2? A virus has destroyed the world and turned the infected into zombies. In the post-apocalypse, only a few humans remain and fight for their survival. You are not one of them – at least not directly.
In the survival game Dying Light 2, you play as an infected person trying to stop the infection. However, this grants you the unique opportunity to utilize superhuman abilities like improbably long jumps and high speed.
You will need these because you must run through the city at breakneck speed while escaping the dangerous zombies, especially at night. You pursue a story where you help various factions.
Who is speaking? Benedict Grothaus is an editor and survival expert at MeinMMO. One of his first games was the survival game Stranded from 2003. Since then, he has amassed many thousands of hours in the genre, including in Rust, ARK, and Don’t Starve. He also played the first part of Dying Light. His favorite titles include Conan Exiles, Fallout 76, and Valheim.
Interestingly, Dying Light became famous for its parkour elements. Constantly and everywhere, you climb, jump, or simply leap over entire streets filled with zombies. However, something else captivated me: the story.
In a playtest event, we got to play for 4 hours and view the world. We could explore, complete side quests, fight zombies, or follow the story. I didn’t do much besides focusing on the story.
A good story makes even boring zombie slashers exciting
In the main mission I played, I was tasked with helping a group of survivors. This is one of two factions currently in a large dispute. The others are the “Peacekeepers,” the remnants of former military units.
As I was thrown right into the story, I lacked the background. I simply walked to the corresponding quest marker and talked to the people who were supposed to give me more information.
Apparently, an officer was killed, and I need to solve the murder. Good, detective stories are interesting. However, a much larger issue quickly unfolds here. There is outright war between survivors and Peacekeepers, spies are abroad, and there is conflict over resources and territories…
Normally, I hate zombie games because they usually involve mindless bashing of huge hordes of the undead. Dying Light 2 is different. The story, the entanglements, and intrigues have already hooked me in this short time.
Who is lying to me, who is using me… and whom do I use? I constantly uncover new details that shed a different light on the characters I have met. And I must constantly decide whom I trust more. And what’s more important: my decisions have consequences. The story itself is said to take between 15 and 20 hours.
Who gets the water, who gets to live?
The main quest I followed ultimately required the rescue of a water tower. It was claimed by two renegades, and I need to get rid of them. What my client tells me beforehand: The water is vital.
Yes, water is certainly vital. But the Peacekeepers have apparently cut off the survivors’ water supply, and if I do nothing, the entire community will die, explains the now quite worried lady.
It’s problematic because the Peacekeepers apparently hired me and promised to help me with my own problem. Once the water tower is cleared, I face a difficult decision.
Do I give the survivors the water and thus save countless innocents? Or do I redirect the supply to the Peacekeepers? Because the latter would bring me one step closer to my sister who I am searching for.
Like in a real RPG of the caliber of Mass Effect, Fallout, or Dragon Age, I am faced with a consequential decision. Something I absolutely did not expect in a zombie game. Especially tricky: Not only is my own karma important in this decision…
Tough decisions are more than just story
Depending on which faction I support in the missions, I receive various bonuses in the game. If I help the survivors, they make the parkour easier by setting up useful gadgets in their areas.
The Peacekeepers, on the other hand, help me in the fight against zombies by setting traps or even mining cars. Depending on how often I support which faction, they offer more and more useful features.
In the end, I chose to side with the survivors. Partly because I had more sympathy for them with my knowledge, and partly because I really wanted to experience more parkour.
By the way: Dying Light 2 can be played in co-op with up to 4 players in a group. However, only the host decides what happens. You play in their world. This also means that none of their decisions affect your own campaign.
An engaging story and excellent parkour
The second significant advantage of Dying Light 2 is the parkour. The first part was already known for not focusing on combat but on escape. A unique concept.
Dying Light 2 brings this aspect back, and it’s impossible not to use it. Literally, because I didn’t discover any fast travels. If I want to get to my missions, I have to run as fast as I can.
In Dying Light 2, it’s not as easy as in Assassin’s Creed, where you can simply climb nearly smooth walls. I use ramps that are “randomly” placed and leverage cars as trampolines to get onto rooftops and escape from zombies in the streets.
Above, it continues. Wobbly wooden bridges connect the rooftops, seldom are there ziplines for faster movement, and often only a hearty jump helps. There is no “failsafe.” If I miss the first jump, I go down, and that usually ends quickly and fatally.
A good sense of the surroundings is critically important. Almost like in a shooter, I have to constantly scan my surroundings and recognize which places I can reach safely. If there is only a way down, I must find safe landing zones like mattresses… or garbage bags.
A flight over the city
Dying Light 2 introduces another way to traverse the city quickly that has nothing to do with running.
A woman I had not met before, played by Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Daredevil), gives me a parachute. This can be deployed and retracted at will in the fall, allowing me to glide over the city.
It’s a unique feeling, reminiscent of the old Batman games. Thanks to updrafts, I can even extend my flight nearly indefinitely and reach far-off areas without parkour.
However, this feature comes relatively late in the game. We were able to try it in a separate mission. I had not much time left for this because I wasted too many hours on the captivating story…
Fortunately, parkour can also be made easier in other ways: through leveling up and skilling.
Skills make me better
Like in an RPG, Dying Light 2 offers skill points to acquire new abilities. These are divided into three areas:
- Parkour
- Combat
- Health and Stamina
Health and stamina can only be raised through certain canisters found in rare chests. Parkour and combat improve as I use them. The more and better I run or fight, the more I unlock.
There are very useful skills available, such as easier landings or longer jumps. There are even item sets that adapt to your playstyle – like heavy weapons, ranged combat, or support.
I just didn’t engage with combat more than I had to, as that’s one of my two major criticisms.
Muddy controls and boring fights
In principle, action-packed fights are one of Dying Light 2’s unique selling points. The game advertises that even the environment can be used as a weapon. This works through so-called “parkour attacks.”
This brings contextual functions into play meant to make combat more exciting. However, I didn’t really see much of that. An enemy out of stamina can be used to roll over… that’s it.
It’s possible that I just missed something. After all, I started relatively midway without a tutorial and without getting to know my character beforehand. Most fights were thus… mindless zombie bashing with steel pipes or scrap axes and machetes. It works but is boring.
While the weapon selection is quite interesting, the combat itself is, in my opinion, not a strength, at least not after four hours of gameplay. Escaping is much more exciting, but it has its downside.
The game is apparently designed for gamepads
As a PC gamer, I usually play with a mouse and keyboard. This was a problem for me in Dying Light 2. Because many elements are apparently designed to be played with a controller.
Some important functions, such as healing, default to keys like U or 0, while item switching runs through 1 and 2. This is utterly counterintuitive to the controls that a PC player is normally used to, and some are simply uncomfortable to reach.
Moreover, some commands overlap and differ only in whether you press a button or hold it. A feature that comes from consoles due to the lack of multiple buttons.
This isn’t a huge problem since Dying Light 2 can also be played with a controller, and I will surely do so at release. However, it is slightly annoying to crash with the parachute because pressing “W” steers it downward…
Conclusion after 4 hours: I want more
Dying Light 2 has definitely got me hooked. I have to say that it could technically be much worse, and I would still play it, because I want to see more of the story and the city.
Fortunately, both parkour and combat work very well, even if fighting is certainly not going to be my favorite activity.
I am particularly looking forward to the co-op mode and am excited about how it will be to jump across rooftops or loot secret rooms together with three other players. Because looting with the different sets will also be an important aspect. Let’s see if something like “classes” emerges.
If the developer team polishes the parkour combat and contextual actions a bit more, I currently have nothing else to complain about. Either way, I’m excited for the release. No wonder I have it in our list of highly anticipated survival games:
Dying Light 2 will be released after a delay on February 4, 2022, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. The game was originally supposed to release much earlier, but numerous issues caused its release to be postponed.
Until the final release, you can find an overview here on MeinMMO with the currently best alternatives:
