Techland delivered something very unique with Dying Light, and with its upcoming sequel, the developer is making even bigger promises. Dying Light 2 Stay Human is looking incredibly ambitious, and from what’s been revealed of it so far, it’s clear that it’s going to shake up its predecessor’s formula in a number of ways. Here, we’re going to go over a few of the most significant changes it’s making.
NEW PROTAGONIST
While the original Dying Light featured undercover GRE operative Kyle Crane as protagonist, Dying Light 2 Stay Human features a new protagonist, with players stepping into the shoes of Aiden Caldwell. Techland hasn’t said much about Aiden, but we do know that there’s plenty in his past that he cannot remember, and that in order to restore these memories, he goes to the City in search of his sister Mia.
NEW SETTING
Speaking of the City- that’s a brand new location that serves as Dying Light 2’s setting, taking players away from the first game’s setting. By the time Dying Light 2 kicks off, nearly all of the world’s human population has perished, and the City stands as one of humanity’s last bastions. Techland has said that the City is going to be much more vertical than the first game’s setting, and that there’s going to be a significantly heavier focus on interior environments. Something else that’s interesting is the setting’s aesthetic, which sees humanity having reverted to the dark ages in the wake of the zombie apocalypse.
LARGER MAP
Another way that the City is representative of Dying Light 2’s ambitions is its size. You expect open world settings to be massive these days, and it seems the upcoming sequel is taking that to heart. According to Techland, the City is roughly four times as large as the map in the original Dying Light.
MORE CONTENT
Of course, with that much more real estate to play around with, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is also going to have significantly more content than its predecessor did. The original game was a pretty meaty one as it is, but Dying Light 2 is going to be even bigger. According to Techland, though players can rush through the main story in about 20 hours, a playthrough where you take your time to engage in plenty of side quests and exploration will take approximately 100 hours. Meanwhile, if you want to play the game through to 100% completion, you’re going to need to clock in over 500 hours.
GREATER ROLE PLAYING FOCUS
This right here is probably the most significant way Dying Light 2 is changing things up from its predecessor. Unlike its predecessor, it’s an out-and-out action RPG, which means there’s a much greater focus on progression, build variety, loot and gear, and other things that you’d normally associate with the genre. Of course, the headlining change that goes hand-in-hand with this is…
STORY CHOICES
This is the feature that Dying Light 2 has been focusing on the most since it was first unveiled several years ago. The game is going to put a great deal of emphasis on player choice, and the choices you make will lead to narrative consequences, and, of course, multiple different endings. How well that’s handled remains to be seen, but Techland certainly seems to be going all-in on this aspect.
REACTIVE WORLD
Again, this is one of Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s most crucial elements, and one of the many ways that the consequences of your choices in the story will manifest themselves. The choices you make will have an impact on the game’s world itself, and depending on the choices you make, entire sections of the City might flourish- or crumble entirely. It’s certainly ambitious, and we sure hope it’s implemented well- because of it is, it could make for a very special experience.
EXPANDED CUSTOMIZATION
Dying Light 2 Stay Human will be emphasizing role playing with deeper progression mechanics, which, of course, is going to entail what Techland is saying will be more expansive skill trees. Similarly expanded will be the customization mechanics, with players being able to upgrade gear and craft weapons and weapon mods. In total, Techland says the game has over 500 gear pieces- hopefully, the game will strike the right balance with those, because if it does, that would be a huge point in the progression system’s favour.
NEW CROWD SYSTEM
The biggest draw of Dying Light was, of course, the zombies and the massive crowds of the infected that players could run into, especially at nighttime, and that is very much going to be the case in Dying Light 2 as well. In fact, Techland says that the game makes use of a new crowd system, which means you’re going to be running into hordes that are even bigger and behave even more dynamically.
INFECTED CYCLE
Let’s stick with the zombies here for a little bit longer, because as you might expect, they, too, are receiving some improvements in the upcoming sequel. Specifically, the infected are going to have their own evolution cycle in the game, where they systemically evolve and change based on certain circumstances. Not only will that bring new types of infected, that also has the potential to contribute significantly to the game’s systemic and emergent nature.
EXPANDED PARKOUR
Of course, parkour is the star of the show in Dying Light 2 Stay Human, just as it was in its predecessor, and as you’d expect, the sequel is making improvements in this area as well. As previously mentioned, the City’s more vertical design is going to play into that, while at the same time, players are also going to have access to a larger moveset and movement options. Techland has said that it wants to retain the balance it struck with the first game’s parkour system, which was easy to learn and hard to master, so here’s hoping Dying Light 2 is able to succeed in that area as well.
PARAGLIDER
In addition to a larger moveset, Dying Light 2 is also adding in several tools that players will be able to use for traversal purposes. That includes a grapple hook, which, of course, was in the original game as well. The big new addition here, though, is a paraglider. Gliding is, of course, not uncommon in open world games these days by any means, but Dying Light’s parkour and free-running gameplay seems particularly well-suited to gliding. And again, given the City’s much more vertical design, combining Dying Light’s trademark parkour and paragliding has the potential to make for an even more enjoyable traversal system.