Let’s get one thing out of the way: Dying Light 2 Stay Human had many problems at launch, and when it comes to core game design, the Bloody Ties expansion doesn’t really do much to fix these issues. Rather, what you can expect from Bloody Ties is essentially more of the same.

"Let’s get one thing out of the way: Dying Light 2 Stay Human had many problems at launch, and when it comes to core game design, the Bloody Ties expansion doesn’t really do much to fix these issues."

The expansion has a rather simple premise. Protagonist Aiden learns about a mysterious tournament that has been happening for a while in Villedor, and after a series of events, is basically thrust into the midst of the tournament. As you might expect from the core premise of the expansion, combat is the main focus here. Sure, there’s a story with new characters and a somewhat interesting mystery to solve, but combat is definitely the focus with Bloody Ties.

One of the fundamental issues with Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties becomes clear right off the bat: the writing just isn’t particularly compelling. You’re introduced to your guide to the story for Bloody Ties right off the bat in the form of Ciro. However, this new character exemplifies some of the worst aspects of Dying Light 2 Stay Human as a whole; there just isn’t much in the way of good writing to pull you through.

Right off the bat, Aiden develops some weirdly protective feelings towards Ciro, which comes off as weird right from the get go because, let’s face it, how many of us would be willing to lay our lives on the line for someone we’ve met literally just minutes ago? Ciro as a character is rather poorly written, which becomes a problem since his personal quest for vengeance and story ends up being much of the driving force behind the Bloody Ties expansion as a whole.

On a fundamental level, the writing in Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties leaves a lot to be desired. There isn’t much in the way of a compelling storyline to follow, and the characters are just outright annoying, bordering on you hoping that they were actual enemies that you could kill.

When it comes to gameplay, there isn’t really anything new here. Bloody Ties hopes to emphasize the decent gameplay Dying Light 2 Stay Human has to offer. However, Bloody Ties also acts in showing off the deficiencies of Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s gameplay. Compared to the first Dying Light, the sequel’s gameplay is rather simplistic, especially when it comes to playing around with physics, and Bloody Ties tends to put you into arenas that exemplify just that.

"Bloody Ties hopes to emphasize the decent gameplay Dying Light 2 Stay Human has to offer. However, Bloody Ties also acts in showing off the deficiencies of Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s gameplay."

In terms of sheer content, there isn’t really much to chase after. The loot is quite boring, and there isn’t really much in the way of new modifiers for craftable gear. The starting cutscene of Bloody Ties does tease an interesting new weapon, but that turns out to be more or less the equivalent of a wet fart. Nothing’s really going to beat your endgame-level hyper-powered fire-spewing machete, especially when you realize that the recommended level for kicking off the Bloody Ties storyline is 2.

Honestly, if you’re looking for an excuse to come back to Dying Light 2 Stay Human, I should warn you to stay for the gameplay more than the story, which is both short and succinct. At the end, you are left wanting for more parkour and combat amidst the abrupt ending. While the gameplay is both exciting and immersive, the narrative is a let down. And even then, the best part of the gameplay – the parkour and emergent action that you’d expect while free-running around the city – emphasizes the wrong thing. The combat, when you get down to it, is honestly much more boring compared to the original Dying Light.

If you’re hoping for some more interesting encounters during the night time—something like what you’d expect from the original Dying Light—be prepared for a healthy dose of disappointment. Considering the fact that most of Bloody Ties revolves around Carnage Hall, there aren’t really encounters that will challenge your mastery of the game. No fight is going to test your skill at parkour and improvisational combat. No. Most of the fights in Bloody Ties are just going to pit you against regular enemies—and with a worrying frequency, zombies.

"Rather than using the bloodsport arena of Carnage Hall to introduce more interesting concepts in fights, Techland decided that just plain old regular enemies will do just fine, be they zombies or your typical bandit-type enemy."

A surprisingly large amount of the combat sessions in Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties revolves around fighting off zombies, including the latter half of the opening quest. Rather than using the bloodsport arena of Carnage Hall to introduce more interesting concepts in fights, Techland decided that just plain old regular enemies will do just fine, be they zombies or your typical bandit-type enemy.

Visually, Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties doesn’t really offer much in the way of interesting visuals. In fact, the base game’s campaign offers way more interesting sights and sounds than the first expansion. If you’re hoping this to be the point where you get to show off your system’s graphical prowess, be prepared for a healthy dose of disappointment. There’s little in the way of new and interesting visuals, be it in the form of fidelity or art direction, and you aren’t really going to get anything new in the way of fancy graphics and visuals to drive the content home.

Honestly, Bloody Ties is a rather disappointing first DLC outing for Techland. In its efforts to exemplifies the best aspects of Dying Light 2 Stay Human—the gameplay—the expansion in fact emphasizes the most boring aspects of that. Rather than presenting new, interesting encounters that put to test your prowess of the compelling parkour-fueled moment-to-moment gameplay, the Bloody Ties expansion instead focuses on combat.

There isn’t much to do in the expansion than just use your primary attack, and occasionally, the block button. There aren’t any encounters that test your understanding of the core gameplay. In fact, there isn’t really anything to put what you might have learned while playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human since its release back in February to the test. 

When you come down to it, Bloody Ties feels like something that would have been better off as a random side quest in the base campaign of Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Nothing it offers is original enough to warrant its status as the “first major expansion” for the game. Instead, it feels more like an extension of the natural gameplay and story that would have been better off as already available.

"Bloody Ties feels like something that would have been better off as a random side quest in the base campaign of Dying Light 2 Stay Human."

If Bloody Ties is supposed to set expectations for what you can expect from the series of expansion releases Dying Light 2 Stay Human is supposed to see down the line, get ready for some sore disappointment. While nothing in the first expansion is outright bad, more than anything, there’s just nothing new to come back to, especially if you’ve already experienced everything the base game has to offer. 

This game was reviewed on PC.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human – Bloody Ties adds on over six hours of new content to the base game, taking players to a new location called the Carnage Hall. Once an old opera building, the Carnage Hall has been transformed into a post-apocalyptic gladiator arena of sorts. Expect plenty of bloody arena fights, new story content, several new quests and characters, new weapon types, and more. 

Dying Light 2 Stay Human – Bloody Ties is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can get more details on the game in our feature on it through here. 

First of 2 story DLCs

Bloody Ties is the first of two confirmed DLC stories coming to Dying Light 2. In fact, developer Techland have promised 5 years of post-release support, content, and DLC. Techland’s guarantee is completely trustworthy too, after all, they’re only just moving on from supporting the first Dying Light released 7 years ago. That title received a mix of free and paid post-launch content, so there’s no reason to think Dying Light 2 Stay Human won’t receive the same treatment.

Bloody Ties story centres on Aiden entering blood sport

With Roll7’s Rollerball inspired skater-cum-blood sport Rollerdrome releasing in the summer, perhaps post-apocalyptic bloodlust-tournament themed video games are on the rise? Either way, Bloody Ties taps into similar gladiatorial aesthetics, with Aiden tasked with entertaining crowds of blood-thirsty revellers in arena-based combat, encouraged by the promise of unimaginable wealth and fame in an increasingly sadistic world.

New adventure deeper than arena-based combat

Bloody Ties’ plot is said to run thicker than pure bloody action, with themes of rivalry, power, and revenge rearing their ugly heads alongside Aiden’s fight for fame and survival. New friend Ciro is encountered once Aiden enters the pantheon of fame-hungry fighters, and together they’ll join forces solving the mystery behind Ciro’s brother’s death whilst uncovering the true, shady nature of the tournament.

Story a tonal shift away from Dying Light 2 Stay Human

The story of Dying Light 2 Stay Human takes a much more serious turn when compared with its predecessor, with a tense narrative supported by a cast of emotionally compelling characters. Bloody Ties, on the other hand, appears to make a tonal shift once again, with a much more light-hearted, kaleidoscopic, black comedy aesthetic, perhaps owing to the fact fights aren’t just for survival anymore, but for glory and spectacle too.

Story approximately 6 hours

Bloody Ties game designer Tymon Smektala is on record stating in interview there’s a chunky story behind all the arena-based combat, with players expecting to take roughly 5-6 hours to see it through to its conclusion. This – they add – does not include side quests, which Smektala claims will allow players to change the flow of the DLC’s narrative, taking players outside of the main combat arena and back onto the twisted streets of Villedor.

Less focus on human combat

The bulk of encounters in Bloody Ties will be against zombie enemies, with human combat, as claimed by Smektala, taking up around 30% of the DLC’s action. The game’s announcement trailer certainly shows plenty of human-on-human action so Smektala’s promise slightly goes against expectations. It’s not exactly unwelcomed though; Dying Light 2’s thrilling parkour and zombie-ravaged combat are some of the most favoured aspect of the sequel, so it’s great it’s first DLC entry uses Stay Human’s best features as a foundation on which to build its action.

New location – The Carnage Hall

Described by Techland as ‘the epicentre of death, wealth, and splendour,’ Bloody Ties new location is the macabre circus arena known as The Carnage Hall. An opulent arts venue for opera performance in a past life, The Carnage Hall is now repurposed as the ideal venue for the most ‘adrenaline-fueled, blood-soaked’ shows of all time. Bloody Ties won’t be contained purely within the walls of this grand venue though; alongside the building itself is a surrounding area which players will get to explore.

Arena combat is bulk of DLC

All the pomp and grandeur promised in a place like The Carnage Hall means this is sure to be a compelling location in which to fight to the death. Bloody Ties, whilst affording players opportunity to step outside The Carnage Hall’s walls, will predominately take place inside the arena. This is a combat-heavy expansion, after all. An arena battler is said to have given Techland opportunity to home in on the best combat aspects from Dying Light 2, with players expecting to be able to maximise their arsenal in new and creative ways. In short, as the DLC’s designer Tymon Smektala puts it, the violence and brutality of Dying Light 2 has been ramped up a notch.

Spectacles and shows

In the arena, Aiden will be tasked with undertaking ‘spectacles’, that is, multi-objective arena shows that’re based on historical or mythological events. Imagine it this way: it’s the arena floor redesigned to resemble a traditional fable – say, Robin Hood infiltrating the Sheriff of Nottingham’s castle – but with a dark twist. They’ll be creative ways to take on murderous hordes of mutated enemies without it being purely a wave-after-wave arena battle.

New enemy types

A DLC heavily focused on zombie combat should come with rafts of new enemies, and thankfully Bloody Ties won’t disappoint in this department. Fresh mutations await Aiden in The Carnage Hall with sickeningly imaginative names such as ‘The Gorilla Demolisher’. Other freaks of nature known as ‘Cataclysms’ and ‘Infernos’ lie in wait too, and it’ll be exciting to take on these fearsome opponents for the first time come Bloody Ties’ release.

New weapons

Alongside the hordes of new zombie enemies are a handful of new weapons for players to get to grips with, with the best gear said to provoke a sense of status as much as providing devastating power over other fighters. Amongst the surprising new weaponry is the Shield Glove, which Techland purport offers a new way to play with an item both simultaneously destructive and defensive.

Bloody Ties does not fall into trappings of other arena DLCs

As per game designer Tymon Smektala, Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s first DLC is not just another arena title. In their eyes, arena DLCs are characterised as minigame heavy with an overall lack of substance. For starters, Bloody Ties won’t have minigames whatsoever, but beyond waves of enemies, spectacles, and multi-themed narratives already discussed in this feature, Smektala also claims that the events inside the arena itself are very interesting and may even defy expectations. This perhaps is owed in part to the more bite-sized nature of a story taking 6-or-so hours to complete; a more focused narrative gives the development team chance to harness each character, so there’ll hopefully be an emotional payoff after all the blood is spilled.

There’ll be secrets and surprises

Fans of Techland’s titles, and of both Dying Light games in particular, will come to expect Bloody Ties be filled with Easter eggs. Well, players shall not be disappointed; Bloody Ties is said to be bountiful with secrets and surprises throughout, enriching the play experience for those keen enough to explore everything the DLC’s new areas have to offer.

Currently scheduled for release November 11^th

Bloody Ties has had its release pushed back a few times. It was initially slated for release this past June, which was then pushed back to September citing need for further development. That release date slipped to mid-October before Techland landed on its current release date of November 11^th. All these pushbacks should prove fruitful in the long run; Dying Light 2 Stay Human did release with a handful of technical gremlins, so fingers crossed Bloody Ties will be playable without a hitch when it’s eventually released.

Pre-order bonus – the Aristocrat Pack

Deluxe and ultimate edition owners of Dying Light 2 Stay Human will already be eligible to receive the Bloody Ties DLC without charge alongside the Aristocrat Pack. For everyone else, you’ll need to pre-order before the DLC’s release to get your mitts on the pre-order bonus items, which, according to the game’s Steam page, includes the Aristocrat Guard outfit and Aristocrat weapon.

The expansion sees Aiden venturing to a new location, Carnage Hall. It’s here that gladiatorial combat plays out against the Infected and other humans. Along with new challenges and quests, players will meet new characters like Ciro, who’s looking to rise through the ranks and avenge his brother. Of course, you must qualify by completing three trials in The City.

A new weapon is added to the mix – the Carnage Manica, a Power Barricade. Various other weapons are teased, and you face new mutated Infected like Cataclysm, Inferno, and the Gorilla Demolisher. Stay tuned for more details en route to the expansion’s launch.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1oBDswvxq0

Several development team members, including narrative director Piotr Szymanek and director Tymon Smektała, also feature in the episode. They’ll discuss the inspiration for Carnage Hall, the new location that Aiden ventures to, and showcase Carnage Manica (which sounds like a new weapon).

The story of the expansion focuses on a tournament taking place in Carnage Hall with Aiden competing. Of course, strange things are afoot, and along with helping the new character Ciro to avenge his brother, players must also find out the tournament’s purpose. Don’t expect all of the content to focus on fighting humans, as several encounters with the Infected await over the six hours of new story content.

Stay Tuned for more information when Dying2Know premieres. Dying Light 2 Stay Human is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. We may also receive an update on the Nintendo Switch version, which is slated for this year.

https://twitter.com/DyingLightGame/status/1588190928367501318

Here are the 15 biggest games to look forward to in November.

The Chant

“Weekend getaway to a spiritual retreat turned to hellish survival against cosmic monstrosities,” isn’t the worst description for Brass Token’s The Chant. After a rift to The Gloom, a dimension of negative energy, opens and various horrors take over a peaceful island, it’s up to Jess to collect weapons like salt and incense, craft items, and harness spiritual energy to fight back. And also run away, because flight is sometimes just better than fighting.

Along with managing her spirit, players must also care for Jess’s physical and mental health – these will influence her survival and abilities throughout the story. Then there are the other survivors, slowly giving in to the negative energy perpetrating the island. Can they be saved? We’ll find out when The Chant launches on November 3rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

God of War Ragnarok

Over four years since its predecessor debuted, selling millions of copies over a few days, and three years past in-game, the sequel to God of War (2018) is finally upon us. The story sees Odin and Asgard preparing for Ragnarok while Kratos and Atreus avoid the conflict. Of course, it’s not long before they’re involved, battling the likes of Freya, the Valkyrie, the Einherjar, and the mighty Thor himself.

A lot has been said about the experience, with reports extolling its massive size and the development team claiming it’s bigger than they envisioned. Nine realms to explore, new shields and abilities to equip, an expanded combat system, more verticality, larger levels, more enemy variety – the list of improvements goes and goes. On November 9th, the world will finally have a chance to play it on PS4 and PS5.

Sonic Frontiers

If nothing else, you have to admire the guts of Sega releasing Sonic Frontiers just one day before God of War Ragnarok. Nevertheless, those looking for a brand-new 3D platformer to dive into should find promise in Sonic’s latest adventure. After his friends disappear during a hunt for the Chaos Emeralds and he delves into Cyber Space, Sonic finds himself on the Starfall Isles. This archipelago of five different islands is filled with mysterious mechanical beings, and a new enemy named Sage also emerges.

Sonic Frontiers goes for an open-world-esque approach for its exploration, with the different islands presenting various platforming challenges, puzzles, and Guardians to fight. Upon accessing a portal, he can venture into Cyber Space with levels inspired by older titles. Sonic Frontiers launches on November 8th for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and is undoubtedly the biggest Sonic title yet.

Football Manager 2023

Another year, another promising new Football Manager title from Sports Interactive. Football Manager 2023 marks the series’ return to PlayStation but also features improvements to its scouting, squad planning, AI managers, and more. The UEFA Europa League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa Conference League are all fully licensed, and new features like Supporter Confidence and Dynamic Manager Timeline promise to bring you closer to the sport than ever.

Football Manager 2023 is out on November 8th for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Arcade, along with launching day one on Game Pass.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties

Techland has been updating Dying Light 2 Stay Human regularly since launch, and on November 10th, its first paid DLC Bloody Ties will release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Aiden enters a tournament to take on various challenging foes in Carnage Hall for fame and rewards. Things aren’t what they seem, though (surprise, surprise), and you’ll soon be investigating the tournament’s true purpose. In addition to a new story, Bloody Ties also provides new gear, a new weapon in the Shield Glove, and arena missions called Spectacles. You can also fight new mutated foes in Arena Challenges to truly test your limits.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Yes, it’s another Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch for the fourth year in a row. Nevertheless, Pokemon Scarlet and Violent look genuinely interesting. Instead of a regional approach like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Paldea is a seamless open world. As a student of Naranja or Uva Academy, the player participates in a treasure hunt with the freedom to go just about anywhere. All the tropes of a Pokemon title are here – an enthusiastic rival Nemona; Professors Sada and Turo; and even new Legendary Pokemon like Koraidon and Miraidon that serve as mounts when exploring the region.

In terms of story, players can choose from three different routes – Path of Legends to locate the Herba Mystica while fighting Titan Pokemon; Victory Road to challenge eight Gym Leaders and eventually the Pokemon League Champion; and Starfall Street, where they must battle against Team Star. With several new Pokemon, new moves and items, and Terastallization providing new properties for each Pokemon, Scarlet and Violet could be the best 3D titles in the series yet. They’re out on November 18th for Nintendo Switch.

Evil West

Third-person shooter meets stylish beat ’em up combat in the Weird Wild West with Flying Wild Hog’s Evil West. As Jesse Rentier, players must battle vampires in the American frontier. This is done in several violent ways, from firearms to a gauntlet that can electrocute enemies. Throughout the campaign (which supports co-op), you’ll discover new weapons, unlock new perks and upgrades, and ultimately save the country. Evil West is out on November 22nd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.

WRC Generations

Originally slated to launch last month, KT Racing’s WRC Generations was delayed and now launches on November 3rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Career Mode, multiplayer, Quickplay and other modes return along with Split Screen for local play. Leagues Mode is new and involves players completing different events every week and receiving a ranking.

In addition to new Hybrid Cars, major revamps have been made to the progression and Team Creation while cross-platform play has also been implemented. As the developer’s last game under the license (for now), WRC Generations could see it going out on a high note.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

A documentary crew is invited to a recreation of serial H.H. Holmes’ infamous “Murder Castle” by a mysterious recluse – what could go wrong? Not every scary situation in The Dark Pictures Anthology is as avoidable as this, but I digress since The Devil in Me is going for something different with its killing rooms. You’ll still have to make decisions that can influence whether the central cast lives or dies.

But this time, there are more movement options like running, climbing, and jumping, an inventory for managing items, puzzles that require tools, and more. This is in addition to online mode and five-player local co-op. As the season finale, The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me should end things with a venerable bang when it launches on November 18th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC)

Warhammer: Vermintide developer Fatshark’s latest title leans more into the sci-fi Warhammer 40K universe, eschewing hack and slash for more first-person shooting (but still having some hacking and slashing). It’s set in the Hive City of Tertium on Atoma Prime, which has seen an influx of Chaos forces. As a “reject,” one must undertake missions across various maps, working their way up to better weapons and gear while opting for tougher difficulties.

Four classes – Psyker, Zealot, Ogryn, and Veteran – are available, each with different subclasses to specialize in different play styles (like the Skullbreaker Ogryn being more melee-focused). It will sound pretty familiar to Vermintide fans, which isn’t the worst considering how much fun co-op was in that series. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is out on November 30th for PC, with the Xbox Series X/S version launching “shortly after.”

The Entropy Centre

Amid all the action-packed titles releasing this month, it’s nice to have something more laid-back and cerebral. Stubby Games’ The Entropy Centre takes place after an extinction event seemingly wipes out mankind and as perhaps the last one alive, you venture to the heart of the Entropy Centre, which orbits the Earth in a space station, for answers.

The first-person puzzle-solving and time manipulation will look familiar, but Stubby Games puts an interesting spin on this by having you find the solution and then rewind time to solve the puzzle in reverse. The Entropy Centre is out on November 3rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Announced back in December 2017, Gungrave G.O.R.E. has been a long time coming. It’s out on November 22nd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC, and launching day one on Game Pass. Set after Gungrave VR, it follows the Gunslinger of Resurrection, who is out for revenge.

Along with third-person shooting, there’s also close-quarters combat and brawling, and various types of enemies like mechs, zombies, and more to take out. Despite the long development cycle, it remains intriguing and worth keeping an eye on.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PC)

If you’ve already played Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC, then Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a no-brainer. Taking place one year later, it sees Miles Morales as Spider-Man, protecting Harlem from the conflict between Roxxon Energy Corporation and the Tinkerer’s Underground. While many of the same environments and gameplay elements remain, Miles has unique abilities like Venom Blast and Camouflage to even the odds.

There are also new gadgets like the Gravity Well, Holo-Drone, and more to further spice up the gameplay. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is out on November 18th for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and while it’s not as long as the previous game, there’s still a great story, side content, and suits to collect.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is coming to PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC and serves as a remaster of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Even with the upscaled HD visuals and artwork, re-recorded soundtrack and fully-voiced cutscenes, there is so much here to make it feel like a brand-new game.

Random encounters are gone, replaced with Training Battles; skills have been retuned while Finishers now use MP; Buff Cards throughout different battles provide positive and negative effects; new Charms provide different bonuses; and much more. You can even rewind actions within the last ten turns in case of an unfavorable outcome. With its numerous classes and skills, incredible branching story, and various quality-of-life improvements, it may end up a dark horse among some of the bigger releases this year.

Harvestella

The world, governed by four crystals called Seaslight, periodically suffers the effects of the Quietus, which ruins crops and brings death. As the duration of the Quietus increases, you control Ein and must figure out how to stop it.

Along the way, you’ll visit various towns, each with unique crops, materials, and recipes, and interact with many characters (including Aria, who is seemingly from the future), fish, craft and more. Maintaining a farm to fund your mission is one thing – you also need to venture out and fight monsters to make progress with the investigation. Good thing there are 12 different classes, each with unique weapons and abilities to assist in this.

Releasing on November 4th for Nintendo Switch and PC, Harvestella could fill that Rune Factory-sized hole.

Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties will be focused on a new location, the Carnage Hall, which is an old opera building that has been repurposed as a gladiator arena. It will also bring new characters, quests, weapons, challenges, and more.

Prior to this delay, Bloody Ties was due out on October 13, though that wasn’t its initially planned launch date either, with Techland previously having set a September release for the expansion- which itself followed on the back of a delay from June.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is also expected to launch for the Nintendo Switch sometime this year, but a release date for that version hasn’t yet been announced.

We have taken the decision to postpone the launch of Bloody Ties until November 10th, to allow the team extra time to polish and squash bugs.

Are you dying to know more? Ask our dev team questions on Discord and they’ll answer this Friday 6pm CEST: https://t.co/Iyivc8uFWx

— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) September 21, 2022

According to lead designer Tymon Smektala on Twitter, this isn’t the case. Responding to a video, Smektala said that the DLC offers over six hours of story content, “quite a few side quests,” and “plenty of encounters with the Infected.” Overall, combat with humans constitutes a “max 30 percent” of the new content. There will also be some secrets to discover.

Some of the quests have already been teased, like joining the Pantheon (and learning the purpose behind the tournament) and helping new character Ciro avenge his brother’s death. New weapons include the Shield Glove, which makes “creative combat even more creative.” There will also be new gear and special trials against new mutated foes.

Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties is out on October 13th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It’s also coming to Nintendo Switch (via the cloud) sometime this year.

https://twitter.com/smektalaTM/status/1567200613087207426

Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties will be focused on a new location, The Carnage Hall, which Techland describes as “the epicentre of death, wealth and absolute splendour”. The Carnage Hall is an old opera building that seems to have been repurposed as a gladiator arena of sorts, which is in line with previous leaks about the expansion. Expect new characters, quests, weapons, challenges, and more.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC with the Nintendo Switch version coming later. Check out our review for it here.

Bloody Ties will launch on October 13.

https://youtu.be/P__9KlbaUHM

Gamescom Opening Night Live is set for August 23, and producer and host Geoff Keighley has confirmed that the expansion is going to be unveiled during the show. Interestingly enough, its name has also been revealed- the expansion is called Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties.

A leak earlier this year suggested that the expansion would be story-driven and gladiator-themed- read more on that through here. Meanwhile, Techland has previously said that it is going to be set “sideways” to the base game’s events, and won’t stray too far from Villedor, which is where the base game is set.

Gamescom Opening Night Live is certainly shaping up to be a packed show. According to Keighley, it’ll be roughly two hours long and will feature some “cool surprises”. Several games have already been confirmed for the show, including the likes of The Callisto Protocol, High on Life, Hogwarts Legacy, and Sonic Frontiers.

Tuesday, see the reveal of @DyingLightGame 2: Bloody Ties, the new DLC, during @gamescom Opening Night Live. pic.twitter.com/5BW3dOiwSZ

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) August 17, 2022