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Chances are if you’re into zombies and video games, you’ll have played one of the two entries in the Dying Light franchise from developers Techland. The second released in February of last year, where players take on the role of Aiden, a pilgrim who has roamed thousands of miles to get to Villedor in the hopes of finding his long lost sister Mia.
Now between the start of Aiden’s story and the end, there’s a lot that happens and a lot that the player can do, but how much of it is worthwhile? After recently finishing up, it seems like a good time to discuss what the sequel does better than the original.
5The Story
The firstDying Lighthad a lot going for it, but its story wasn’t one of its brighter points. Whereas in the first you’re playing as Kyle Crane at the start of the outbreak, parachuting into Harran in an attempt to find a stolen file for the GRE,Dying Light 2: Stay Humanfast forwards fifteen years and into the shoes of Aiden, a wandering pilgrim in search of his sister. Whilst the story has plenty of predictable moments, it features a cast of characters that have a range of motivations, a stark contrast to the originals cookie cutter villains who were evil for evils sake.
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Quite simply, the parkour ofDying Light 2: Stay Humanwill have you feeling like a superhero pretty quickly. Intuitive and fluid, you’ll be hounding over rooftops and jumping gaps with ease, and with a few skills unlocked the city really will be your oyster. With the new skill levelling system focusing on just combat and parkour, the more you use the parkour skills, the more you unlock and so on. Plus it’ll never get boring combining a myriad of different moves to end it by stomping on the head of a zombie.
Related:Top 7 Zombie Films In The Last Twenty Years
Dying Light 2takes everything from the original and supersizes it. Whilst you’d be freerunning around the favelas of Harran in the first game, the sequel sends you round the city of Villedor, some fifteen years after it has been walled off from the outside world, and well into its makeshift, anything-will-do-to-build-with identity that sees the buildings big and small adorned with everything from plywood to corrugated iron.Dying Light 2also sends the players climbing a lot higher than before, with some of the best parts of the story involving climbing skyscrapers which gives an entirely new perspective on the map and how genuinely pretty it is to look at.
2The Weapons
Dying Light 2took a huge chance with its weapons, or rather, lack there of, but thankfully it paid off. The first game had a range of melee weapons and a select few guns. Whilst rare, the guns are all overpowered, clumsy and just plain awkward to use.Dying Light 2features zero guns, and the game works better for it. There’s no blasting your way out of a horde, and the danger of being overrun and outnumbered regularly presents itself. With the game being fifteen years into the zombie apocalypse it also works in-universe, as arguably all the guns would have been used early on, and now the survivors have to go back to basics, with bows and arrows and hastily made improvised weapons.
1Variety of Enemies
Zombie video games have had a long problem of trying to find new and exciting variants to their standard set of enemies, and unfortunately ever sinceLeft 4 Dead,every game has come up wanting.Dying Light 2does the same as a lot of zombie games before it, with their own version of the Boomer making an appearance, but this is more or less where the comparisons end. The volatiles return from the first game, this time joined by some transformed infected that can prove irritating if not death with quickly and correctly. Howlers, Goons, Banshees, Bolters and more are part of the hordes of zombies coming for you on your travels, and the human enemies are a little more varied with considerably better motivations beyond being evil for evil’s sake, as is the case in the firstDying Light.
Whilst DyingLight 2has had numerous problems since release, none smaller than the game-breaking bugs Techland have fixed in several patches, but as a whole the game delivers on what a sequel should; it’s bigger, it’s better, and it’s more fun.
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Luke Addison
Former Head of Gaming
Articles Published :462
Luke Addison is a Former Video Game Critic and Gaming Editor. As likely to be caught listening to noughties rock as he is watching the latest blockbuster cinema release, Luke is the quintessential millennial wistfully wishing after a forgotten era of entertainment. Also a diehard Chelsea fan, for his sins.
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