Dying Light 2: Stay Human

 

It's been a really long time since I've played Dying Light 1. 2015, to be exact. That's absurd for a game that clearly deserved a sequel to improve upon the premise, but here we are, SEVEN years later with the follow-up, Dying Light 2: Stay Human. 

By this point, I don't remember all that much about Dying Light other than I had good fun with it, the parkour was awesome, the day and night cycles added difficulty, and it was a surprise hit that year. For all intents and purposes, Dying Light 2 is a completely new series to me, much less a new game. 

These days it takes me much longer to review videogames for a combination of reasons. A significant one is crowded release dates that have me playing different games at different times. Life - work, puppy, writing - also take up a lot of time to where I can make progress, but often want to switch between 1-3 games at a time. It should be stated that I'm not done with Dying Light 2 yet. Likely not even close, but I've played enough of it to know what I like, what I don't, and what my score narrows in to be. 

Dying Light 2, despite what you may have heard, is a blast. There were rare times where I felt bored with it or frustrated by it, often taking it in at chunks of 1-2 hours at a time. I purchased it close to release, despite early reviews complaining about bugs, and found the game mostly bug-free. I had probably 1-2 play sessions where a bug frustratingly derailed me, but otherwise I was surprised at all the examples people were citing when I was skirting by just fine apparently (and I'm sure a handful of early patches helped). 

Lots of open vista shots in this review. I'm only realizing my lack of variety after the fact!

Even more confusing is people's disappointment with the game. For starters, the first one is so old by this point, I'm wondering if the nostalgia of discovery is playing a role. Even still I found this sequel to be a leg up on its predecessor in a lot of ways. It's definitely not an Assassins Creed II level jump, but this game just feels bigger than the original while keeping all the main components (parkour, melee attacks, day/night cycle) and doubling down on some to make them even better. Specifically, I found the parkour to be a highlight, creating some of my likely favorite gaming moments of 2022. It's an awesome advancement of much that can be found in games like Mirrors Edge and Assassin's Creed, but with a distinct feel and control scheme that feels fresh and (mostly) intuitive. Where it may not feel like much to begin with, on lower streets and during the tutorial, parkour - mixed with a gliding parachute and grappling hook - eventually becomes this intoxicating mix of traversal, often times at dizzying heights. Given it's all in first-person, there were definitely a handful of times that vertigo kicked in (in the most exciting of ways). Every once in a while there's a ledge Aiden doesn't grab right or a jump you feel like he should have made, but they usually felt more like my error than the game's. 

Combat is the other prominent element and it's less successful than the parkour, less because it's bad but more because it's just above average. The game is strictly melee weapons (outside of an ineffective bow and arrow) which does tend to get old when you're essentially just swinging and blocking. Mixing in some of the upgrades that combine parkour with combat are essential, not just for effectiveness but to make the combat more enticing. Drop kicking became a particular favorite (I'm sure I'm not alone) and it was always satisfying finding a human or zombie enemy high atop a skyscraper and launching them off. Between those two enemy variants, neither one is particularly difficult, especially once you level up several times, but as is the case with games like this, it's less about individual enemies being hard and more about groups/swarms of them which can definitely get overwhelming. 

Lots of parkour fun to be had on those rooftops and distant towers

These core gameplay elements are encased in an interesting and surprisingly vast open world that never feels fully explained to you in several ways. The map itself is enjoyable, but blends together by ~20 hours in. Despite that, there's enough verticality to keep it interesting and it has a good, sometimes great "flow" from a parkour perspective, which is honestly a bit make-or-break in a game where traversal is important. But there's just a lot that feels poorly explained around the world that I had to figure out on my own. In retrospect, I don't feel like any of it held me back from doing things "right" but leveling up, assigning fortresses, unlocking fast travel points, and doing a variety (read: way too many) of night-forced tasks became confusing. Eventually, I just resided in being fine with what I didn't know, but I do get frustrated when a game glosses over explaining things to the player because I don't want to go through a buried menu to find the FYI I missed or didn't understand. 

Similarly frustrating is some of the "quality of life" elements when it comes to managing your inventory, crafting items, etcetera. None of it is egregiously bad, but the combination of a slow-moving cursor-on-console and a lot of button clicks to sell things, move things around, equip them, etc. leads to some long times in menus that began to wear on me. In particular, there was an annoying habit for the game to separate throwables and health packs (among other things) based on the level they were, meaning I would run out of "Level 3" knives, have to go into the menu and select remaining "Level 2" knives, equip them, then exit back out to the gameplay. Doing that on a consistent basis is a menu structure begging to be streamlined. Related to "Quality of life": can we please stop slow looting? This isn't 2015 anymore...I don't want to HOLD SQUARE for 1-2 seconds each time I pick stuff up. Not unique to Dying Light, but it's one of the single most frustrating elements in gaming right now. 

I made it!

From a story perspective, I enjoyed Dying Light 2 more than others. I didn't necessarily find Aiden to be a compelling character, but he was "fine" and the surrounding cast has more than enough personality to go around and keep things interesting. Performances are high marks across the board and this is an element where I felt like the sequel was a large step up from the original. The world building feels grander and in a lot of ways this feels like a Bethesda game in terms of characters, side missions, and scope. Rosario Dawson comes in part way through the game as Lawan, in a quest to help Aiden find his sister, while she removes names from her hitlist. Almost immediately, her character is compelling, complicated, and real and Dawson - who's been on quite the nerd-performance route lately - adds the needed gravitas to her. 

Combine a lot of these elements with some impressive visuals and a pulse-pounding, tone-setting original score and you've got an easily accessible game that outshines the original. To be completely honest that statement should read "from what I can remember" because it's been so damn long, but take it for what it's worth: Dying Light 2 is a worthy sequel that does a lot of things right and by now, the bugs have been worked out. If you haven't yet, it's worth checking out during the doldrums of summer gaming. 

CONS

• Combat can be a bit of a chore when you're doing a lot of it in any given play session
• Some bugs here or there (though I had far less than initial reviews indicated)
• Enemies, both human and zombie, are pretty dumb/bland
• World could have used some more variety
• Does a really poor job explaining various game elements. Nothing critical, just frustrating
• Some poor UI design in menus and equipping things
• Dear God can we stop holding square (or even pressing it) to loot?!

PROS

• Parkour elements are a highlight and keep getting better and better
• Some truly intense moments of first-person parkour along the side of a skyscraper(s)
• Combat is fun once you power up and mix in some parkour elements (dropkicks for the win!)
• Impressive visuals throughout with a distinct tone of a world on the end of hope
• Speaking of tone, DAMN! What an original score!
• Lots to do in the open world with some decent variety
• Map itself has good flow for parkour elements and is vast
• Solid story and great cast of side characters with interesting personalities and strong performances
• Entertaining, intense, and fun -- despite what you may have heard, Dying Light 2 is better than the original and worth checking out

Rath's Review Score | 8/10