Dying Light 2 Review

Seven years after the wildly successful Dying Light, Techland Games’ Dying Light 2 is finally here. Can the sequel keep the fire of the first game, or will it crash and burn? Check out our review here.

Dying Light 2 Review

Dying Light 2 starts with you searching for a man with info on your missing sister. You end up getting a special key that can open up old-world chests and tech. A man named Hakon helps you out and you end up getting bit by an infected. UV light can keep it in check, but you need a Biomarker. The key and that bite drag you off your quest to find your sister and drag you into the problems of these people. After an hour or so, you are finally cut loose and allowed to freely explore the city.

Here’s the thing about the story: I wasn’t that into it. Aiden’s main goal is to find his sister. However, you end up siding with some of The City’s citizens and doing their missions for more clues. Whenever you think you might get something real, it turns out to be a maybe, or I think it is still there. My biggest issue was the choices. Later in the game, some choices make significant differences, but it takes a long time to get there. Yes, there are some minor dialogue changes or character tweaks, but most of the choices fall flat during the story. To be fair, it’s a zombie game, so I wasn’t here for the story. It’s just in your face a lot.

In contrast to this, some side stories have real repercussions for their choices. For example, one of the very early side missions has you helping out a young man who is helping his brother. You do the objectives, and things end up going bad. Eventually, you reach the quest giver and have to prevent him from dying. Then after you prevent him from dying, you need to make sure he doesn’t turn himself in or he will be hung. The mission runs maybe 20 minutes, but it left more impact than most of the story did. It’s almost like they made the main story first and then added the choices, and the side quests were designed around them.

At the start of the game, Aiden is weak and has a limited attack arsenal. You’ll most be spamming quick attacks for the first few hours as you level up and gain new combat skills. There is parkour combat, but it’s pretty tricky to get right from my experience. You parry an enemy attack, jump over the enemy, and then kick another enemy. The aiming while doing the jump is wonky and not as reliable as it should be though. I rarely did in the end, but the option is there. Thankfully you don’t need to care about the parkour combat to enjoy the fighting. If you liked smacking zombies with melee weapons in Dying Light, you’ll like it here as well.

The hits are impactful, and when you get a crit, you get that sweet slow-down effect. Once you upgrade, you can get power attacks and spin attacks as well. Mods return, making weapons do elemental damage such as fire or poison. This time you can make it so you get a charge-up attack which you can freely use or mods that apply effects on a crit such as burning. I used one-handed weapons mostly, so I like the crit builds better. Once you start killing zombies in two shots, it feels so good.

Another option for combat is the bow. I don’t like how long it takes for you to get the bow. You should get it after an hour or so, but it feels like three to four. Much like your melee skills, it starts off super weak but gets insane as you upgrade. You can’t mod your bow, but you can get different arrow types. I was partial to the explosive arrows even if they did call enemy infected to the area. You can also use it for stealth if that is more your thing. Just be sure to watch out for the guys with helmets and face masks.

Let’s talk about another pinnacle of the game, the parkour *insert The Office “Parkour!” here*. If you do not like jumping and climbing, do not buy this game. You are constantly climbing buildings, jumping over barriers, getting to the top of windmills, and climbing the biggest buildings in the city for some antenna. Seriously, it is almost nonstop with climbing. It sucks at first because of how weak you are. Again, like the combat, you get some skills and stamina after a few hours, and you are off to the races. It also helps that the auto grab is extremely generous, which I am thankful for. You’re going to fall. You’re going to lose progress. You are going to fall from the top and have to start again. Accept it and move on.

Nighttime in Dying Light 2 is less brutal than the first game. You still have the special infected and can be overrun, but the Volatiles don’t hunt you mercilessly. You get bonus experience at night, so I liked sitting up high and picking off enemies below for the bonus. Of course, some missions have to be done at night also. The main advantage of the night is that most buildings are empty of infected. You can take that opportunity to go in and find loot such as weapons, armor, and valuables.

An in-depth crafting system allows you many toys to play with – Molotovs, mines, sound makers, UV lights, and even a makeshift gun. All of these can be upgraded to do more damage or just be generally improved. Most crafting materials are marked on the map, so finding them is easy. Finding almost everything is easy because the map has a ton of question marks on it to explore. It makes the game feel more like a Ubisoft title, but I do like easy crafting materials.

I do believe this game is much better in co-op. I played about 25 hours solo, and there are times it can drag. I didn’t have to clear nearly as much on my own with a buddy at my side. Just know that the host is the guy making the choices in co-op.

Even the credits crashed on us in that video.

As much as I enjoyed Dying Light 2, it is hampered by some severe bugs. First, of course, you get the typical open-world ones like floating objects and glitched characters animations. Then there are weird interaction bugs. For example, you need to hold square to interact with a button, but the button prompt only pops at a weird angle. And then there is the killer, the crashes. I never lost a ton of progress, but climbing the same tower three times is very annoying. Also, there are no multiple save slots, which is silly in a game like this.

Dying Light 2 is so close to being great, but it is held back by a myriad of technical issues. It’s fine with friends, but wait for some patches if you intend to fly solo.

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