Dying Light was a funny old game. Mostly passed over by indifferent critics, it went on to pick up a considerable following who were more forward in their praise – chief among them being none other than the legend Fumito Ueda, a man of impeccable taste who in naming it his game of 2015 always made me curious to go back for more. I only ever briefly sampled Techland’s parkour-infused follow-up to Dead Island, enjoying its cornball combat and open world full of athletic opportunities for half a dozen hours before moving on to pastures new.
Dying Light 2 looks like it’ll do a lot more to get its hooks into passing players like myself. After several delays – and coming up to some seven years since the original launched – Techland recently offered a sizable chunk up to press to play. After four hours with a couple of generous segments of Dying Light 2’s campaign, I’m certainly keen to get stuck in for plenty more.
Looks Like Dying Light 2 Will Be Worth The Wait! – HANDS-ON IMPRESSIONS & NEW DYING LIGHT 2 GAMEPLAY Watch on YouTube
So what’s changed? Set 20 years after the events of the original Dying Light, the sequel introduces all-new protagonist Aiden Caldwell. It’s an anonymous name for a lead character who seems like something of a blank slate (even if it is a fully voiced role, with Jonah Scott’s performance completely nondescript), though I think that’s intentional as Dying Light 2 puts its story firmly into your hands. This is a game world rich with rival factions for you to pick your path between, and branching storylines backed up by dialogue choices, all of which inform and influence the world around you.
Those small tweaks make a big impact on Dying Light, making for a much more immersive experience. Our time with Dying Light 2 kicked off in Old Villedor, a ramshackle and very much run down section of the game’s vast map. Indeed, it’s one of seven sections of a map that’s supposedly four times larger than that of the original Dying Light, and even after three hours poking around it felt like there was plenty still left to see.
All that breadth would count for nothing if it wasn’t backed up by some depth, and Dying Light 2 really delivers here on multiple fronts. A ramshackle bazaar acts as a sort of hub, and it’s where you’ll find shopkeepers as well as quest givers. Some will send you out into the wilds of the city with a simple fetch request, while others offer up questlines that can get a little more .