Dying Light 2 Review (PC)

Techland’s Dying Light 2 has been a much more ambitious project than the original game, which is also the reason it’s been delayed a few times. With the intent to improve on all aspects of the first game, the Polish studio went on to perfect the formula that made Dying Light a rather unique action-adventure game with RPG elements.

Dying Light 2 is set 15 years after the first game and introduces a new cast of characters. The sequel deploys Aidan, the main protagonist, on the outskirts of the fictional European city of Villedor, one of humanity’s last bastion. Aidan is a Pilgrim, one of the few humans who dares to venture into the world to deliver messages or goods between the few remaining settlements across Europe.

Pilgrims are an accepted evil in a world that’s been overrun by a ruthless plague that infected all the population and turned most of it into zombies. However, Aidan’s motives for becoming a Pilgrim are different as we’re going to find out in the game’s prologue. This sets up the stage for an epic story of betrayal, survival, hopes and dreams.

As I make my way to Villedor, which hopefully, will be the end of my journey, the world around me feels empty, save for the occasional zombies roaming the wilderness. Nighttime though, it’s a completely different story. While the prologue that ends once you made it to the city is meant to teach you the basics, it’s hardly enough to prepare you for what’s coming.

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Dying Light 2 narrative kicks off pretty strong at the beginning of the game and although the game tries to lead you off the beaten path by throwing a bunch of side-quests and activities at you, these aren’t interesting enough to make it worth your time.

By far the star of the game is the parkour intertwined with combat moves. Nothing gets even close to it, which is both good and bad at the same time. The original game is by no mean notorious for having a great story, but I would have expected some kind of improvement to this aspect as well.

Although you’re a complete stranger to the people in Villedor, you’re suddenly embroiled in the politics and intrigues involving the two major factions controlling the city: Survivors and Peacekeepers. While looking for you sister, you are invited to take sides in this fight for domination over the few resources still left in the city. Unfortunately, the only aspect where your choices matter is the layout of part of the city you offer to one of the factions.

Personally, I went Survivors for the most part because they provided me with more traversal options in those regions, whereas Peacekeepers offer more combat-oriented improvements to the zones, something that I absolutely didn’t need. It’s like that with many of the decisions that you have to make in the game, which is kind of disappointing.

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On the bright side, everything related to movement and combat is on a completely different level. Also, the character progression, gaining new levels, combat and parkour moves feels meaningful and thoughtful. Being able to move faster or jump higher makes a huge difference not just while journeying between locations, but you can also go to locations that are otherwise inaccessible.

The first few hours Aidan is so weak that every encounter with zombies or bandits must be treated very careful. Gain a few levels and new moves, and that feeling of dread and uneasiness while you’re trying to loot a zombie nest during nighttime at the beginning of the game suddenly disappears.

Dying Light 2 is a huge game, but it doesn’t open up after 5 hours, 10 hours or even 20 hours. Progression is directly tied to story, so as long as you don’t do main quests, you won’t gain access to important tools in the game like the paraglider or grappling hook, as well as useful mechanics like fast travel. On the other hand, a player like me who loves to grind stuff and “complete” zones before moving to another place, will be stuck with the same tools and mechanics for a very long time.

Thankfully, Dying Light 2 tells you immediately whether your character is ready or not for a certain activity or challenge in the game. Story missions and side-quests are not tied to your level or abilities, and while having more HP, stamina or knowing more parkour/combat moves make a huge difference, you can finish the game skipping almost all the side content that would normally give you enough experience and opportunities to gain new levels.

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I’ve been trying to go through a lot of the side content, but the side-quests are simply not enticing at all, so I just focused on clearing zombie nests during nighttime or completing various challenges. If a side-quest would pop up near me, I would certainly get it, but I wouldn’t go ahead and finish it right away. I learned that after 15-20 hours of gameplay trying to find some of the more interesting side content stuff, but I gave up convinced that there’s no such thing in Dying Light 2.

Now let’s talk a little bit about the loot. The most obvious thing is that there’s a lot of stuff to loot in Dying Light 2, and I mean A LOT. There are weapons, armor pieces, consumables, valuables and crafting items. Valuables are useless and can be sold to merchants for a lot of money, while weapons are quite useful since they can’t be repaired so you’d be switching between weapons very often.

The rarer a weapon is, the longer you’ll be able to use it. Also, adding mods to a weapon will repair a big chunk of its damage, so it’s better to keep the rarer weapons pristine until they’re almost worn out, and then apply a mod to repair it.

The equipment (weapons, armors) is also part of the RPG aspect, along with the parkour and combat skill trees. There are two types of melee weapons – one-handed and two-handed, but they come in different shapes and sizes. The armor pieces in the game come with various stats that will benefit either one-handed or two-handed weapons.

The gear in Dying Light 2 is basically meant for four classes: tank, brawler, ranger, and medic. All four are viable fully viable playstyles, but I’ve only looked at these stats at the beginning of the game, and then just went with whatever weapon had the highest damage and whatever piece of gear had the highest armor.

The game doesn’t have firearms, but some of the bows in the game make every encounter trivial, if you have enough arrows. You don’t even have to wear gear that gives you bonuses to range combat or stealth, and it’s still incredibly overpowered. Well, that, and the fact that your bow doesn’t wear out. Although you do have to carry a lot of arrows with you, which must be crafted using items that, while not hard to find, requires a little bit of grinding.

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Consumables in the game can be crafted using recipes that can be bought from Crafters. The recipes can be upgraded to make the consumables like healing kits, arrows, and boosters, more efficient. For that, you’ll need items that only drop from zombies mostly during the night, so you want it or not, you’ll still have to adventure outside at night.

Moving on to the visuals and audio, Dying Light 2 looks gorgeous on PC and after the latest patches, it consistently runs at 60 fps with NVIDIA DLSS, ray-tracing and all graphics options at max. The sound effects, especially at night, are terrifying (in a good way!).

There are couple of voice actors who are doing a great job such as Jonah Scott (Aidan) and Rosario Dawson, but I also loved Hakon’s voice (Jonathan Forbes), and Waltz’s (Demetri Goritsas). The rest of the voice-acting is a bit dry, but I have to give the artists props for trying even when they didn’t have anything interesting to say.

Dying Light 2 is definitely not a technological wonder. While I haven’t encountered any major or game-breaking bugs, I did get my fair share of minor issues. This is a massive open-world game, so it was bound to have some bugs, especially considering the first game was in a similar state at launch. But if that’s any indication to those on the fence about buying Dying Light 2 or not, the original game was patched pretty fast, so I have no doubt that the same will happen with the sequel too.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion