Dying Light 2 was born in pain. The turbulences that have taken place in Techland in recent years, which were related to, inter alia, Due to the departure of key employees from the company, the premiere of the game was postponed several times. The creators also had to face the growing impatience on the part of the players and their aroused expectations. It can be said that Dying Light 2 was a victim of the success of the first installments of the game before its premiere.
Finally, after more than seven years of waiting, we can come back to a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombie hordes, in which good is mixed with evil, and humans are a greater threat to each other than the ubiquitous undead.
Share Dying Light 2 takes place 20 years after the events of the first edition. At that time, civilization plunged into even greater chaos and hopelessness. In the game, we play the character Aiden. He is a pilgrim, i.e. a person who is responsible for communication between settlements cut off from the world.
We don’t know much about Aiden, although short cutscenes reveal his dark past as the game progresses. Our hero comes to town Villedorto find your missing sister. Do not expect, however, that one of the largest metropolises of this post-apocalyptic the world it will quickly draw him into a swamp of social and political intrigue and internal conflicts.
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Villedor is breathtaking!
From the very first moment, the title city impresses us with its panache and encourages exploration. To discover all the secrets of this metropolis, we will have to spend well over 100 hours. Villedor has been divided into spheres of influence where factions rule – Law enforcement officers, Survivors and Renegades. It is up to us which group we become friends with and which one will become our deadly enemy.
One of Dying Light 2’s new mechanics is the possibility of taking over control over individual city districts and handing them over to a selected faction. We are rewarded with bonuses for this. For example, alliance with the Survivors will help us develop the parkour skill. From the Law Enforcers, we can receive a crossbow that is extremely useful in combat.
The key aspect of Dying Light 2, as in the case of the first installment, is the day and night cycle. During the day, city streets are empty, and zombies hide in buildings and subway tunnels. In turn, at night hordes of the undead come out to feed. While exploring the world at night is more dangerous, such escapades are a worthwhile game. Firstly, after dark, we gain more experience points, and secondly, we can then look at the abandoned buildings full of treasures.
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Parkour!
Parkour, i.e. smooth and effective movement around the city, is one of the hallmarks of the Dying Light series. In the sequel, this mechanic was further developed. The creators have tried to introduce new animations and tricks, thanks to which jumping around buildings and silently avoiding large communities of zombies gives us even more fun and satisfaction.
Aiden also got access to two new gadgets, which will be useful to him while exploring Villedor. The first is climbing rope. The second – paragliderwhich we will use mainly in the city center overwhelmed by skyscrapers.
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The hand-to-hand combat system was also expanded. Aiden now has a large arsenal of blows, and uses parkour elements in clashes with opponents. The combat is therefore as fluid as getting around the city itself. In Dying Light 2 we will not find firearms, but we can find here an assortment of melee weapons – from sticks, through machetes, and ending with swords and bows.
We also enjoy the large number of types of enemies – both among humans and the undead. The factions differ in weapons and combat style, which forces us to change our strategy. When it comes to zombies, the creators definitely did not run out of imagination. It is not as rich as in the case of The Witcher 3 monsters, but in Villedor we will meet, among others, mighty Mutants, Shadowhunters, Gazers, Howlers, Sleepwalkers, or Mutants who track us down.
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Stay human
Dying Light 2 is not true classic RPG–oh (it is more like a combination of the Far Cry series and the latest Assassin’s Creed games), but the game puts a strong emphasis on the aspect of character development and decision-making that real impact on people and the world around us. Importantly, the creators are not taking us by the hand here. They don’t tell us what is right and what is wrong. We never quite know the direction in which the decision we have just made or the selected dialogue option will lead us.
The plot is without a doubt one of Techland’s strongest points. It is not only about the well-run main plot, but also about various side missions. Getting to know the history of the people of Villedor is extremely interesting and rewarding.
Yes, as it happens in sandbox, there are also patterns and repetitive tasks. However, it seems that the creators managed to find the right balance in all of this. Dying Light 2 is a guarantee of 50-80 hours of fun without being tired with the material.
In order to strengthen in us the feeling of irreversibility of the decisions made, Techland decided to take quite a controversial step. In Dying Light 2 we will not find any slots for manually saving the game state. The game overwrites itself automatically, which means we can’t go back to an earlier part of the game to see what would have happened if Aiden had acted differently.
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A beautiful game with average graphics
In this barrel of honey, however, there is a tablespoon of tar. Well, the graphics in Dying Light 2 are not impressive. I will say more it would not even impress in the era of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Both the textures, character models and facial animations leave a lot to be desired.
Perhaps this is the result of the production process that has been dragging on for seven years, or perhaps the effect of the need to optimize the game for older generation consoles. It does not change the fact that Dying Light 2 looks good at best in terms of graphics.
Yes, the game has its moments. There is no shortage of beautiful landscapes here, and the Villedor seen from a bird’s eye view can delight, as well as the hidden interiors of some locations hidden in the darkness. However, these are only moments. If you were counting on a truly next-gen audiovisual setting here, you will be very disappointed.
When it comes to purely technical issues, there are three graphic modes to choose from on consoles:
- resolution
- quality
- performance
It’s definitely the best thing performance mode. Although the image is rendered here only in 1080p resolution, but in return we get liquid 60 frames per second. In a game full of spectacular parkour acrobatics, smooth gameplay is an absolute priority.
It’s time to answer the title question. Was it worth waiting seven years for the new installment of Dying Light? Definitely yes. Techland did not create a breakthrough game, but gave us an excellent survival horror game in which the first violin an excellent plot game, and right behind her is full of surprises explorationshowy parkour and expanded combat system.
The only scratch here is a bit old binding graphic and a series of more or less annoying bugs. While there is not much that can be done with the first issue, Techland is already dealing with the problem of bugs by publishing the first patches and fixes.
Rating: 8/10
The game distributor: Techland provided a copy for review
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Source: Gazeta
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
