Dying Light 2 Stay Human is a sequel that uses the meteoric success of its predecessor to craft an ambitious follow-up. Although many of its ideas can't be fully grasped until it releases, Dying Light 2 appears to be a worthy sequel even in its current state. Screen Rant was invited to play a four-hour demo of the game on PC, about 75% of which was from a few hours into the game and the remainder was in the game's second act.
Dying Light 2 takes place 15 years after the first game. The virus was contained, a vaccine was administered, and yet, things got worse. The world eventually crumbled and cities were consumed by darkness, setting everyone back technologically and socially. Humanity must build a new world with limited technology.
There are many different colonies in Dying Light 2's ever-evolving world, where protagonist Aiden Caldwell can manage the relationships of its people and ultimately, determine their fate. This is a game about choices so large that it's difficult to fully realize how much of a butterfly effect they have by playing just a few hours of the game. There's an overwhelming amount of sidequests to take on - which appear to be more meaningful than simple open-world filler - and the definitive moments impact the world in ways that appear to be far-reaching. Techland estimates that players will miss out on roughly a quarter of the game's content no matter how they play, simply due to the nature of Dying Light 2's branching storyline.
In the preview build, brief glimpses of meaningful change came in Aiden's decision to torch his relationship with a faction or help them. Something similar happens in the second act, which allows Aiden to get substantial upgrades to his own repertoire depending on the choice he makes. With so many belief systems and plots mixing in with each other, choice can either be about personal progression, maintaining relationships, or playing sides off each other like a political mastermind.
Dying Light 2's setting means the world has gone backward technologically, and that means unlike its predecessor, there aren't even modern guns in Dying Light 2. Techland noted the importance of still having some ranged weapons like bows and throwing knives, but they're more of an addition to stealth gameplay. Players won't be attracting hordes to themselves with loud machine guns, but they can still find themselves in intense chases with crowds of undead on their tail. Without guns, this will probably make it far more difficult to disperse these flesh-eaters, and more of a matter of risk and reward.
Although it's not always completely smooth, the vicious hack-and-slash nature of Dying Light's melee combat does make a return. Lack of technology has forced survivors to use virtually everything they can to survive; pipes, machetes, and even signposts make for deadly weapons. The impact of melee weapons feels satisfying, and more powerful critical hits result in a slow-motion kill where limbs and blood splatter across the environment.
Crowd control is also a massive part of Dying Light 2. When it comes to engagements with normal humans, there's a level of strategy that must be implemented that's perhaps more tactical than the avoidance of zombie hordes. At one point in the demo, Aiden found himself with nothing but a rusted pipe, some throwing knives, and next to no health in a room with a group of angry kidnappers. The enemies and Aiden circled a table, creating a piece of geometry that acted as a mediator in what was about to become a bloodbath. Aiden lobbed a throwing knife across the table, allowing a moment to quickly move across the surface and down an enemy. Using a series of kicks, parries, and the remaining throwing knives, Aiden fends off the attackers while the screen reddened, indicating critical damage. These are the moments where Dying Light 2's gameplay shines the most.
Had this claustrophobic battle taken place outdoors, there would've been more opportunities to use the environment. This can be as simple as setting off a propane tank or using a powerful kick to propel an enemy into the spikes set up around the city. A lot of these things were already in the first game, however, and Dying Light 2's gameplay felt familiar, with nothing obviously new to it. If there are innovations, they aren't jumping off the screen at someone who played the game over five years ago.
There was a pretty expansive skill tree in the preview build, but due to the limited time and some technical glitches that reset our progress several times, we weren't able to see the full extent of it. That said, the back half of the preview took place during the game's second act, which was estimated to be anywhere between 8 to 15 hours into the story depending on how quickly the player progresses through the campaign. After completing one of the game's branching story moments, there was a tree of upgrades that included things like car traps, which seemingly allow the player to lead hordes of Dying Light 2's monsters to exploding vehicles.
Even if there isn't anything immediately innovative in Dying Light 2, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Combat still gets the job done and feels satisfying to play, although it isn't without issues. Sometimes kicks don't push enemies in the proper direction, boss battles are just small environments where the player has to flail their weapon wildly while dodging, and there's a general lack of grace when swinging batons and blades around. Given Dying Light 2's lengthy development, some may yearn for more nuance here, but it may be hard to find when it comes to combat.
Stealth in Dying Light 2 can help shake things up. Quiet arrow kills, stealth takedowns (although there's only one animation for it currently), and sneaking around are all available avenues of progression. Although Dying Light 2 isn't a traditional horror game - the player is quite powerful, after all - there are still moments that create anxiety. A number of explorable buildings feature hibernating zombies inside, and making noise can spell disaster, resulting in high-tension stealth moments that add to the world's mystique.
That walking-on-eggshells exploration is one of the few slower moments in the game's preview, as Aiden carefully shimmies past crouched zombies and tries not to disturb them. Thanks to Dying Light 2's parkour, much of the game features leaps from rooftop to rooftop, climbing anything Aiden sees, and moving at impressive speeds. Aiden has the vertical jump of a professional basketball player and at one point, a Techland rep came over to say he can jump even higher by pressing certain buttons.
The movement in Dying Light 2 is designed to give players freedom - there's nothing stopping them from moving through the world the way they choose, beyond the physical limits of Aiden. Dying Light 2's paraglider - another method of traversal - is a little flimsy at first, but another character off-handedly implies it can be upgraded to be faster and smoother, though we didn't get a chance to do so during the preview.
The freedom allotted to Aiden by Dying Light 2's open-world makes tackling problems interesting; there were at least three ways into a compound during the preview, though none of them were obvious by just looking at it from afar. It took a careful examination to map out a path, and even then, after dangerous climbing, an additional point of entry was discovered via an overpass next to the compound. This plotting and progression allowed Aiden to have a powerful vantage point and pick enemies off with his bow without raising alarms. It was rewarding, in at least some part due to the fact Dying Light 2 simply lets players discover these mechanisms and solutions through exploration.
Some clunkiness in the traversal is noteable, though, and Dying Light 2's delay may not be enough to buff it all out. The freedom in Dying Light 2's parkour systems makes it hard to create a seamless experience. Given Aiden's almost comical speed and jumping abilities at times, otherwise easy, yet narrow jumps can be overshot. The game can be generous by letting Aiden latch on to ledges he would've realistically missed, but there were a number of other moments that led to him falling and hitting the ground. It can be painfully annoying when the parkour doesn't work exactly as the player has imagined it, especially because it can flow quite nicely in its best moments - but when it doesn't, it sucks the wind right out of Dying Light 2's most pulse-pounding moments.
In spite of Dying Light 2's flaws, it has a vision, though it may be one that's too big to understand in the fragments of preview play we experienced during our hands-on. Techland is taking a lot of time to make sure Dying Light 2 realizes its potential and at the moment, the outcome is shaping up to be positive, albeit not perfect. Only time will tell if Dying Light 2 is a success, but the fun had even when it blatantly displays its imperfections suggests an experience with such a potent core it will inevitably grab the attention of many at launch.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human releases for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 4, 2022. Screen Rant was provided travel and lodging to attend a preview event for the purpose of this article.