“Dying Light 2” A man hangs from a sign while being eaten by zombies. Photo/Techland Game Poster
By: Christopher Machine, Reporter
The apocalypse has taken a turn for the fun in Techland’s newest game release, “Dying Light 2.” Released on Feb. 4 2022, the parkour-centered zombie survival sequel was released. Players must fight for survival in this post-apocalyptic open world.
Following 15 years after the events of “Dying Light 1,” the game takes place in one of the last known cities that has yet to fall to the zombie infection after the release of its predecessor.
Parkour centered gameplay
“Dying Light 2” takes aim at what made the previous game special and enhances it, giving a rich environment to chase and be chased in.
The story of “Dying Light 2” takes place in the City of Villedor, a big city with different landscapes for you to traverse and explore.
While traversing in games would usually fall into unfun territory, “Dying Light 2” keeps you invested by allowing your character to upgrade your method of traveling by giving you more parkour-centered techniques.
You start off barely able to run, but by the end you’re running off of walls between buildings. With new techniques come new problems, as you have a limited amount of stamina for more strenuous activity, so finding your time and place to use them is essential.
The limited stamina made the game harder, but it made me feel like I was being rewarded with the time that I put in.
How are we staying alive? Techland is known for having the protagonist being already infected before the game has fully begun and “Dying Light 2” follows suit having protagonist Aiden Caldwell be bitten shortly into the beginning of the game.
However, “Dying Light 2” is the first game in the series to tackle how infected survivors deal with the threat of the virus.
This is done by the use of daylight, as the infection is only able to spread in the darkness. That’s good for the day, but what is done about nights?
“Dying Light 2” has this covered, with the use of ultraviolet (or UV) lights and taking immunity booster shots to keep the infection from spreading.
Fighting for your life?
“Dying Light 2” is just as focused with its combat as it is with parkour. Fighting in this movement-based game takes some strategy but is amazing when pulled off.
You become a better fighter in this game by honing your skills and taking on enemies that can be both the living and the dead.
Bandits and raiders are just as plentiful in this apocalypse as the infected, giving the player many opportunities to work on your combat prowess.
While fighting against zombies hasn’t changed between games, fighting against humans has turned into a back and forth struggle with blocking and properly positioning yourself to become more essential.
More often than not I found myself facing off against multiple opponents at once.
While it can be daunting at first, it’s very easy to get into the swing of things. “Dying Light 2” works to give the player more choices than other Techland productions by letting you pick sides at many points in the game.
Often you will find yourself picking between the two main forces in the game, the Peace Keepers who are set on defending what’s left of civilization even if it means protecting them from themselves and the Survivors who want to be able to govern themselves.
Who you side with will impact how the world grows. I ended up with the Peace Keepers and saw more traps being placed around the city to use while fighting back against the zombies as well as other changes to the world for you to discover.
I would not pair up with the Survivors because they treated my character like a jerk. The guy who saves us is a Survivor, but something feels off about him.
Some people may consider them as the villain in the story, yet the Survivors could go either way because some of the things that they do can be for the greater good.
With the release of this game, many were left wondering what happened to Kyle Crane, the protagonist of “Dying Light.”
The end of their world expanding dlc, “The Following” and gave two different possibilities for what happened to Crane.
Crane has to either destroy the city he resides in with a nuclear warhead with the hopes of stopping the spread of the infection, or allegedly becoming a zombie and spreading the virus even further. Beyond minor references to Crane in the beginning, what happened to him has remained undisclosed.
It is available on Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It is still being developed for the Nintendo. The game is $59.99 without including tax.
