DYING LIGHT 2: STAY HUMAN
City crazy
Dying Light 2 Stay Human takes place 20 years after the first game. The protagonist is Aiden Caldwell, a wanderer who arrives in the last human city, Villedor, in search of his sister and immediately becomes involved in the confrontation of local gangs. Purely story quests are now much more intriguing than in the original. Aiden’s sister was one of the children experimented on by Dying Light scientists, and unraveling their research is set to become one of the central themes of the sequel and the link between Dying Light 1 and 2.
But first of all, it is not the quality of the story that catches the eye, but its participants. In the original, colorful characters were not often met, but in the segment of the sequel that I played, almost every character aroused interest.
For example, Aiden met with the leader of one of the factions – Sophia, who is guarded by the bully Hermen. Once he went deaf while saving the little Sophia, and now it is very easy to get close to him unnoticed. So now they protect each other. Or here are the engineers: father and son, the eldest is a little crazy and therefore often becomes the object of ridicule. But they still try to benefit the faction and prove that they ended up in it for a reason. In the original, such stories were found only in side quests, but in Dying Light 2 they come across in every task. This was also influenced by the new dialogue system, in which the player can choose lines and influence the development of the conversation and upcoming events.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human: Press Release Preview
In the side quests of Dying Light 2, there are also interesting personalities. This guy, for example, wants the main character to help him assemble an electrified goat pen. So they, in his opinion, will more actively give milk.
There are three sides to the conflict in the city. Military “Peacekeepers” are better equipped and try to administer justice according to their own concepts. Slightly more peaceful preppers are just trying not to starve to death. And radical former renegade prisoners live only for profit – this is a local analogue of the raiders from Fallout, only renegades in the past also bombed Villedor with chemical weapons. Such diversity, however, sometimes has a bad effect on the overall style of the game: in the midst of a green post-apocalypse, the military in full uniform looks like a group of cosplayers, and survivalists as factions rarely have anything in common in clothes.
Things to do in Villador
The last city of mankind is divided into two large parts: the Old City overgrown with greenery and the more modern and high-rise Center. The change in time of day plays a much more important role in them than in Harran: now most of the zombies sit inside buildings during the day, and go hunting at night. Moreover, some quests even have special notes about the best time to complete them.
During daylight hours, crowds of infected people accumulate in the houses, which quickly notice the player, and it is almost impossible to find a quest item or open a box in such a meat grinder.
The main nuance of the day cycle is that at night Aiden spends the infection resistance scale, because in the world of Dying Light 2 everyone is initially infected. At the same time, judging by the demo, it became much calmer and safer at night than in the first part, and the behavior of the infected during this period hardly changes.
At night, you can even dial the “chase level”, as in GTA, but I couldn’t rise above the first of four.
At key points in the story, the player decides which faction the strategically important building will go to, and how the city will change depends on his decision. To capture a structure, sometimes you need to complete a story mission, and sometimes you need to solve a puzzle. For example, in the Center you need to stretch the wires to the generators to power the power plant.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human: Press Release Preview
If you give the water tower to the Peacekeepers, cannons will appear on the roofs of the city, and the survivalists will place jump panels instead.
There are also intermediate buildings that are reminiscent of the towers from the first Watch_Dogs: to capture them, you need to solve a small puzzle of complex acrobatic elements. And in a couple of story missions from the demo, there were outposts that, when captured, were occupied by the faction that issued the quest. And after that, all the loot in the building disappeared. A similar takeover replaced the simpler opening of safe zones from the first part. It doesn’t impress as much as the narrative sandbox that was promised at the announcement, but it still makes the world more diverse and allows you to change it to suit your playing style.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human: Press Release Preview
Acrobatics, on the other hand, must be mastered in order to learn the secrets of Willedor, because the city, judging by the demo, is a paradise for fans of “question questions”: inhibitors to increase health or stamina, weapons and other useful loot are hidden here and there.
Parkour in Dying Light 2 is much more cinematic and fluid than the original, and there are no pauses between tricks. Because of this, it takes time to get used to it. Running here is reminiscent of a combo from slashers: you have to constantly think on the go and find structures.
