Dying Light 2 Stay Human preview: Lighting the way

(Pocket-lint) - Back successful 2015 the original Dying Light crippled went immoderate mode towards proving that the conception of an intelligent zombie crippled wasn't a tautology. With its unfastened satellite and eye-catching gameplay systems – similar a parkour motor and a day-night rhythm that saw its zombies execute afloat fearsomeness aft acheronian – it felt similar a thoroughly modern crippled and generated a immense and enthusiastic following.

Now Polish developer Techland – propelled into the large league by the archetypal crippled – is putting the finishing touches to the sequel, Dying Light 2: Stay Human. We attended a preview lawsuit encompassing astir 4 hours of hands-on gameplay of this hotly anticipated crippled – which is owed to motorboat 4 February 2022.

Added choices and consequences

Making the archetypal sequel to a palmy caller intelligence spot is ever a balancing enactment arsenic a developer: you don't privation to deviate from the blueprint that brought success, but you besides don't privation to marque the aforesaid crippled again. Our hands-on with Dying Light 2 suggests that Techland has struck a blessed equilibrium successful that regard. 

There are plentifulness of aspects of Dying Light 2 which volition beryllium comfortingly acquainted to those who played the archetypal game: the parkour-style movement, the overwhelmingly melee-based combat, the unfastened world, the accent connected crafting, and the day-night rhythm successful which the zombies deed the streets successful afloat super-aggressive effect aft the prima goes down.

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But this clip around, Techland has added an other level of complexity to that blueprint, via what it calls choices and consequences. Those, it maintains, not lone let players to change the storylines they acquisition but the satellite itself.

We interviewed Techland's Lead Game Designer, Tymon Smektala, providing a large woody of penetration regarding the sequel. "In the archetypal game, determination was a communicative which was ever scripted, and you had perfectly nary interaction connected it astatine all. So, our originative director, successful the archetypal condemnation successful the plan docs successful pre-production, wrote: 'We request to effort to springiness players the aforesaid magnitude of state successful the communicative that they person successful the gameplay.' Then we started reasoning astir what we could bash to marque it a small spot different, and settled connected choices and consequences not lone changing the communicative but besides changing the satellite astir you."

In practice, determination are 2 means of making choices successful the game. The archetypal is simply a strategy called City Alignment. At times successful the main storyline you'll travel crossed important infrastructure buildings – the archetypal we encountered was a water-pumping station; the second, aboriginal connected and successful a antithetic portion of the city, an energy substation. Having got some online aft bouts of elaborate puzzle-solving, we past had to determine which of 2 section factions we would reward with power of them – thereby affecting the equilibrium of powerfulness successful the metropolis (there's immoderate echo of The Outer Worlds astir that).

Plus, we encountered branching moments successful Dying Light 2's storyline, peculiarly erstwhile pursuing side-missions, successful which we had to, for example, determine whether to transportation connected trusting 1 (somewhat unreliable) quality and proceed helping them to execute their plan, oregon veer disconnected astatine a antithetic tangent. Even with a longer-than-usual play-through, we weren't capable to witnesser the precise consequences of our choices, but Dying Light 2 surely breaks distant from the communicative linearity of its predecessor.

A modern mediaeval setting

Another pronounced displacement distant from the archetypal Dying Light crippled comes astir arsenic a effect of Stay Human's overarching storyline. It's acceptable 15 years aft the archetypal viral outbreak, arsenic chronicled successful the archetypal game, truthful takes spot successful a precise antithetic wide environment, which Techland describes arsenic 'modern mediaeval'. That is, portion the metropolis of Villedor's buildings are inactive lasting (albeit successful thing of a authorities of disrepair), the surviving humans surviving wrong it person reverted to a mediaeval signifier of lifestyle.

It's curiously pertinent fixed that we're inactive successful the grip of a pandemic (albeit not 1 which induces zombification), and offers a neat means of addressing 1 of the fewer criticisms of the archetypal game, whose storyline divided sentiment and faced accusations of being somewhat bland and straightforward.

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Three factions person emerged: the Peacekeepers, the Survivors, and the Renegades. The archetypal of those, arsenic you would expect, connection a signifier of authority; Survivors look to beryllium protagonist Aiden Caldwell's spiritual brethren, since they are conscionable mean radical trying to survive; portion the Renegades lucifer a thoroughfare gang. 

A increasing web of missions

Protagonist Aiden has entered Villedor arsenic a subordinate of an outcast pack called the Pilgrims, which grants him a measurement of impartiality. He's connected a quest to find his missing sister Mia, with his aboriginal investigations revealing that helium needs to get to a portion of the metropolis called Central Loop, closed disconnected by the Peacekeepers, whose section person promises entree if Aiden tin ascertain who had precocious murdered Lucas, the Peacekeepers' erstwhile leader.

At this beauteous aboriginal signifier successful the storyline, the choices strategy comes into evidence. While venturing retired astatine nighttime connected behalf of a Survivor called Sophie to find her feckless member Barney – who has gone acheronian (radio communications inactive enactment successful Villedor) portion trying to get a cache of precious crystals – you're told of different Survivor, Birdie, who had been with Barney, and past you determine whether to hazard looking for him arsenic well.

A web of quests and side-missions past emerges, which mightiness not delight those who similar everything to beryllium chopped and dried, but astatine slightest showing that Dying Light 2's communicative complexity is an bid of magnitude greater than that of its predecessor.

As Aiden finds a breakthrough successful his investigations – utilizing what the crippled calls Survivor Sense, meaning helium tin observe humor trails and the similar – there's an brushwood with a mini-boss, Hermann (who is Sophie's bodyguard), starring to yet different large choice. Dying Light 2 is decidedly not a crippled for the congenitally indecisive.

Our demo was past fast-forwarded a fewer hours further into the game, to Central Loop, which is characterised by an abundance of skyscrapers, having been the fiscal territory pre-outbreak. Aiden's ngo determination is to reconstruct power, which had been retired for years, resulting successful acquiring a paraglider – an highly utile point assisted by useful updraft fans – enabling gliding for sizeable distances. It's not each connected ft oregon by zipline successful Stay Human, which adds to the fun.

Slick, responsive melee action

Gameplay-wise, Dying Light 2 precise overmuch continues wherever the archetypal crippled near off, but shows plentifulness of signs of other refinement. Front and centre each the mode done is the melee engine.

Unlike the archetypal game, however, accepted guns won't diagnostic astatine all. Smektala comments: "Melee combat, visceral combat, in-your-face brutal encounters is thing fundamentally written successful Dying Light's DNA, truthful decidedly we wanted to absorption connected that."

That's not to accidental there's nary ranged combat though: successful keeping with the modern mediaeval theme, determination are bows and crossbows – we acquired a bow which was peculiarly effectual for zombie headshots – and that it volition beryllium imaginable to trade a boomstick that, arsenic Smektala says, "just fires once, but erstwhile it does, it truly has a devastating effect."

But there's nary request for specified hardware erstwhile you person a melee motor arsenic precise and responsive arsenic that of Dying Light 2. With 1 of the crisp crafted weapons – a cleaver improvised from an aged road-sign, say, oregon a machete – you look to person good power implicit your purpose and timing, and erstwhile you drawback everything right, slicing a zombie's caput cleanable disconnected with a azygous slash, it's profoundly satisfying.

Blunt weapons similar constabulary batons are arsenic handy, acknowledgment again to that creamy power system. And it's each kept beauteous simple: you tin press-and-hold for a dense blow, truthful if you sound a zombie down, you tin motorboat into a vaulting determination that inflicts other damage; positive you tin dodge and support against incoming blows.

As you progress, you summation blueprints for crafting the likes of Molotov cocktails, grenades and mines, and observe you tin bash things similar prime up state canisters, airy them and chuck them astatine groups of encroaching zombies.

Crafting, skills and rooftops

As successful the archetypal game, you tin mostly debar zombie interactions by sticking to Villedor's rooftops, which besides location immoderate important resources specified arsenic honey, chamomile and lavender for crafting healing packs. After dark, unless he's determination bathed successful UV light, Aiden has to instrumentality medicine to halt his immunity dropping beneath a definite level.

The crippled has 2 accomplishment trees, for parkour and combat, bringing a raft of caller moves and perks. At the decision of astir quests and side-quests (and sometimes randomly), Aiden finds chests containing alleged Inhibitors that tin beryllium utilized to amended stats similar wellness and stamina. Lock-picking again features prominently, and weapons swiftly degrade, but are plentiful and easy crafted.

Writing by Steve Boxer. Editing by Mike Lowe. Originally published connected 16 November 2021.