It feels like ages since the first Dying Light was released in 2015, and the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t do any favours to my perception of time anyway. But in the sequel to Techland’s breakout title, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, it has indeed been ages since the events in Harran took place; over 20 years, in fact. 

During that time, the deadly virus has spread across the world due to undercover work by the GRE, infecting more people and leaving the world in an even more state of disarray. The resulting dwindling human population have been forced to live in settlements far from each other, with factions forming, leading survivors to fend not only against infected but against fellow humans as well. This has led to what is being termed as the Modern Dark Ages as civilisation as a whole is crumbling while the human population is steadily dwindling. 

Amidst this day-to-day chaos we find Aiden, a Pilgrim (or survivors serving as messengers to communicate between settlements), haunted by strange recurring memories that he wants to decipher. But for now, the most pressing task is for him to find his sister Mia from whom he has been separated some 15 years ago and he is as close as ever to finding her. 

While the game begins with this search, it takes Aiden to Villedor, or The City as you'll get to know it, and further down the proverbial rabbit hole to learn more about his cryptic memories and mysterious past.

After having played the original Dying Light on the Switch, I was eagerly awaiting to get my hands on the sequel. From the trailers and teasers, Dying Light 2 seemed more expansive with an open-world universe that teemed with opportunities and a life of its own. And sure enough, Techland delivered on that.

Even from the beginning, you can see that Dying Light 2 Stay Human is much more varied and detailed than the first game. As an NPC named Spike notes early on, one wouldn't have thought that the end of the world would look so beautiful. With verdant landscapes, overgrown flora in a derelict world and survivors going about their activities, DL2 looks and feels the part. It shows a world that has been frozen in time - at least when it comes to industrial activity - just before everything turned to crap and the environmental storytelling does a stellar job at conveying this feeling. 

Given its open-world aspect, treading across derelict streets and exploring buildings will tell a story of a time long gone through items (and often corpses) littered around. At other times, stories are being verbally shared on rooftops where survivors have gathered over a bonfire to share a breather and a moment as a community; one that you can also share to restore your health. It's a marked visual and graphical upgrade from the original title that, visually, would even send vibes of an FPS version of The Last of Us.

While The City and its surroundings have its fair share of picturesque landscapes, it’s not lacking in ghastly scenes either. Venture into an abandoned healthcare facility and you’ll come across decaying corpses from before the fall, remnants of helpless people that the infected have feasted on, and whose fate you might share if you aren’t cautious enough around the new zombified inhabitants. Out in the city, you might catch a glimpse of other survivors fighting off infected or other factions as they struggle to flee for their lives. At night, the City requires a wholly different approach to venture into as, with the sunlight gone, the monsters are free to leave their lair to hunt freely.

The day/night cycle, open-world exploration and varying areas that you get to explore delivers diverse, well-detailed settings that are also reflected in the gameplay. At one point I found myself vaulting from rooftop to rooftop with an adrenaline rush and shortly after, I was crawling under desks to sneak past infected. 

Through such transitions, Techland expertly achieved a delicate pacing between world building and gameplay that keeps things fresh and engaging throughout while exposing the player to the game’s universe. Switching between adrenaline-inducing jumps to stealth and then boss fights while interspersed with cutscenes makes the game’s flow feel more organic and grips the player in the process. This sequence is just an example though as, luckily, the game does not follow such a fixed template. Missions are varied and don't just require you to just bash whatever's in your way, as you'll get to investigate cases, chase people and sneakily infiltrate buildings.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human's gameplay is indeed gripping, despite the slow-paced nature of the plot. As with the first game, the sequel merges RPG and FPS mechanics with parkour action as you fend off zombies and human enemies. Those who played the first game will come across familiar mechanics like the Survivor Sense to scan your surroundings, a skill tree to unlock abilities, items crafting through blueprint collection, expendable weapons with a durability gauge and upgrade options. It also brings back 2-4 player co-op so that you can parkour around Villedor with your friends.

Even the controls will feel familiar: face the surface you want to climb. press RB and Aiden will, one way or another, grab the ledge and hoist himself up. Heights are your ally and you'll have to cleverly make use of the environment, scout the surroundings and plan your path to emerge unscathed (or at least alive). Vaulting across rooftops, climbing ladders and using ziplines are all fair game. But your path will inevitably be marked with perilous jumps and mini-heart attacks where you think you might fall off a building just for Aiden to miraculously grip onto a window frame in time. And if you do fall, look out for ways to cushion your fall such as dumpsters or even enemies.

  

While it can feel familiar to returning players with familiar mechanics and nods to the previous instalment, it does not alienate newcomers. The game begins with a quick overview of the cascading events in Harran and where the world stands now. Opting for a completely different setting from the last opus with a new protagonist and cast makes it more welcoming to newcomers while keeping it intriguing for the series’ veterans. 

Moreover, DL2 brings new aspects to the gameplay itself. Early on, Aiden is bitten by an infected but his body manages to contain the spread momentarily. Within 5 minutes, he'll turn if he's in the dark and without exposure to UV rays. So when you’re venturing in the dark, you’ll need to keep Aiden’s infection in check, find and use UV shrooms or you will lose life points. This adds an additional layer of survival mechanic to the gameplay that definitely helps to keep you on your toes.

There are new additions to help in Aiden explore as well such as the paraglider which makes for a fun and effective way to quickly get around and binoculars to scout the landscape and mark your map with important locations.

You’ll come across new types of infected atrocities such as Sleeping Biters and Banshees whose encounters require different approaches to tackle. Some enemies will use Power Attacks to deal massive damage so you’ll need to dodge to avoid taking significant damage or even get knocked down, while others have lowered senses, requiring you to adopt a stealth approach to sneak past them and keep your distance. 

The combat system as a whole feels more fleshed out as well. In addition to unlocking combat and parkour abilities via the skill tree, you won’t just parkour and combat separately but also perform parkour combats as you leverage your parkour skills to creatively deal damage to your enemy. For example, performing a Vault Kick will get you to vault over a staggered enemy, enter a bullet time phase where you can use the momentum to spring to another enemy and deliver a powerful kick. 

Rooftops are still your best friend and you’ll need to make clever use of them, especially during a Chase or when a Howler spots you and alerts other infected to hunt you down As they’ll chase after you, you'll need to look out for hiding spots on rooftops or hide within beams of UV lights which offer protection from infected. Weapons are also at your disposal to bash in some monsters’ rotting cranium, but, as you’ll often find out, you’ll be outnumbered and the best tactic is a defensive one.

Minor, yet helpful, new additions in combat are the life gauge of your enemies and a hovering icon for some pesky types of infected. These were absent in the first game but I found its inclusion to be particularly handy as it helps you to strategize your offence/defence on-the-fly.

 

In true open-world fashion, there are more than one way to tackle encounters, get to your destination or accomplish a task, so scout the area and make use of the environment. It’s really a game you'll want to sink your time to explore, try different approaches and immerse in its universe so as to let it grow on you. This is supported by its open-world aspect where you can explore above and below ground level (you can swim and dive now!), meddle with City dweller’s affairs through side quests scattered across the map, scavenge/lockpick crates for parts and craft useful items and upgrades.

The writing and narrative progression is also a marked improvement in Dying Light 2 Stay Human. While I found some of the voice acting to be unconvincing at best in the first game, it is professionally delivered in the sequel. The plot is also more well written and well paced in general. Dialogues are made more engaging in DL2 given that you will be offered to choose your responses at times. Your choices further shape how the story unfolds, as well as side quests.

While the dialogue options are welcome as they make conversations more engaging, those that actually branch the plot are quite limited and there’s a rather clear distinction between the good and bad choice. This is especially reflected in side quests which can be interesting and varied, even bringing a humorous tone to lighten the atmosphere (ever thought you'd help make a perfume in the apocalypse?), but can feel limited in scope. This is because even if the outcome can be branching based on your choice, the branches are rather simplistic. 

For example, in an early side quest, you’ll have to play detective to figure out, upon request by a local merchant, how the water he sold was poisoned from a supplier. After learning the truth, you can either lie to protect the supplier and get a reward (read: bribe) from him or decide to tell the truth to the merchant and buyers. I thought about choosing to lie and collect the reward but still report the truth when I would head back to the merchant. However, this was not a possibility as my report was locked on the decision to lie, leading to the merchant rather than the supplier to be incriminated. 

This might appear nitpicky, and it very well is, but it feels like a missed opportunity to make choices that really matter and give the impression that players are really in control of the outcome. It could be an avenue for Techland to look into and expand the branching narrative aspect of their games in the future.

Moreover, while NPCs bring life to The City as they go about (or sometimes complain about) their activities, converse with other NPCs and independently fight infected (or Aiden for that matter), it quickly becomes apparent that it's only for show as most will spit out the same monologues, except those who'll offer you side quests. This is also not a big deal per se but a noticeable aspect that somewhat downplays the illusion of immersion.

Another aspect of the presentation that struck me as odd had to do with some of the animations. One of those that were apparent to me early on were Aiden's hands making a brief apparition as he runs. It can be distracting, borderline comical even, but you’ll eventually get used to it. Another recurring animation that feels peculiar is when Aiden searches corpses or the environment for items. His hands appear to just feel around, like a mime, not really looking natural.

Also feeling a bit off during my gameplay were the conspicuous transition to cutscenes. The lighting and general warmth of the scene would be noticeably different, bearing a more gritty look with less contrast in the cinematic sequence. However, that might be because I'm playing on a relatively inferior system, the AYA NEO 2021 Pro, at low graphical settings and the difference might not be so noticeable on better performing systems. It's not game breaking by any means but just very noticeable and it's something to bear in mind as you could come across it too.

That said, even playing the game on the AYA NEO 2021 Pro, which is not a particularly beefy rig, was a blast. It played flawlessly on the AMD 4800U APU at 15W TDP, hitting 40fps in the open world areas and 60fps in closed areas at low graphical settings. I hope that the console versions perform as well, if not better, as I didn't come across any technical issues during my playthrough but it is reflective of the PC version only.

Despite those downsides on some aspects of the presentation, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Even if it is set in a crumbling world, the City is a sight to behold with its detailed environments that tell stories of their own and NPCs (as well as infected) populating those environments making it look and feel lively. I loved the cinematic exposition of the plot and its characters as I did the general tone and atmosphere of the game. Sure, it’s yet another zombie game, but the characteristic parkour exploration and combat help it stand out. If you’ve played the first game, this is definitely the sequel you’ve been waiting for; and if you’re coming in fresh, Dying Light 2 Stay Human will deliver as an intriguing narrative-driven game with an original gameplay blending RPG and parkour action.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s universe, the plot’s pacing and the gameplay all condense to deliver a fun and memorable experience. It really shows that Techland has matured as a developer that can deliver a compelling AAA experience. And with at least 5 years of post launch content guaranteed, it’ll be easy to sink in even more hours parkouring the rooftops of The City in the apocalypse.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human - Official Gameplay Trailer