It's been quite a while since I've written a review, been a bit burnt out from this site. But Dying Light 2 felt like a good game to come back from. In a year where I've tried to buy every single big release, this was one of the ones I was perhaps the most excited for. I really enjoyed my time with the first game. How long this spent in development was a little worrying but the new features they promised sounded enticing and I was sure they would do a good job if they just focused on improving what they had accomplished already.

The launch of Dying Light 2 was a mess. I remember a twitter post promising "500 hours of content" and was Immediately a bit worried but still hopeful. And then launch happened. My initial impression was a bit mixed and as I played the bugs started to show more and more. I lost a lot of progress because things wouldnt load properly. Some scenes would be without dialogue, some missions wouldnt start. I ended up taking a really big break until I decided to try and finish it a month or so ago. I can say the state of this game has been improved a lot. It still lacks a lot of polish in some areas, especially with character models loading in with textures and the occasional no audio but it didnt feel like a chore to play anymore and I could focus on the good stuff.

For one, the parkour excellent. Im not really a fan of the upgrade system but all the moves you can do make things feel really amazing. The grappling hook is very limited but fun. Only issue is that everything costs a lot of stamina so if you wanna use stuff like the glider it limits a lot of creativity. I do recommend turning off the auto ledge grab setting as well as it makes the gameplay a lot smoother. The combat is okay. Enemies block a lot and the sound effects are really bad, but the gore is great and it is always satisfying to dropkick someone off a building. There is an interesting concept with the main character being infected and there's some scenes where that turns into really fun stuff. This is all limited to story though and tbf it would be very overpowered but to not even have it as a mechanic post game feels like a missed opportunity. Biggest gameplay disappointment for me though was the nighttime chases. Night time in the first game was downright scary but it felt really lackluster in this one. I had to run around in circles purposefully to try to get level 4 and it still took ages. The actual open world itself also feels okay. It gets a lot more interesting in the second area when more traversal options open up. The enemy density has been improved since release but at launch it felt like a ghost town. The side content is all kinda standard for the genre but its stll enjoyable and fits within the context of the game. I didnt get much out of the siding factions deal. I was gonna do cleanup but be warned that the game decides there should be a difficulty spike where it scales all enemies up a few levels if you decide to play postgame. This made things a bit more annoying for basically no reason so I decided to move on to other games.

Then there is the story. A lot of people say its terrible but to me it really wasn't. A large part of that is because I have been in love with Rosario Dawson ever since Men In Black II but also Idk, I enjoyed it? I thought the stuff with Frank and Hakkon and nightrunners was pretty interesting. It has some really good music in a few moments and I was quite pleased with the ending I got. The protag is kinda blank and I dont even remember his name but it didnt bother me much. I also liked the story in the first game which was also shat on though so take my thoughts with however much salt you'd like.

In the end, Dying Light 2 is a mess of a game. Its unpolished, had a middling launch, is definitely not gonna take 500 hours of your time even if you're diehard ... but still in the end I had a positive experience from it. I liked the characters and the parkour is as fun as ever. I know just about everyone is kinda over them but I will never not love zombie games. It should of been delayed but I'm glad it wasn't abandoned. I'm hopeful techland can make up for this with Dead Island 2 next year. Im not quite sure if its pre order worthy yet but I'll keep a close eye on it for next time.

Thanks for reading everyone. Up next I have some reviews for things like Rollerdrome, Bugsnax, Balan Wonderworld, Marvel's Avengers and Stray I've been neglecting. But we'll see how it goes, hopefully it doesnt take another month for y'all to hear from me lol. I appreciate your support < 3

Trophy Completion - 55% (33/58)
Time Played: 43 hours 35 minutes
Nancymeter - 73/100
Game Completion #131 of 2022
October Completion #8
Spooktober 2022 Game #5

Was excited to play a zombie parkour survival game but instead got a tutorial screen and crafting menu simulator with a story that NEVER EVER STOPS HAPPENING. Quick survey, you know the people you work with that casually game? Do they like this shit? Is just brutal time-wasting and barely functioning grab bags of mechanics really what they are into?

This game is trying so hard to be every game ever made that I can't actually discern what it does well. It looks amazing but it means nothing reads very well in this parkour game, and the parkour feels really messy and unwieldy, just generally cancelling itself out in every facet.

also can we do away with the protagonist commenting on every thing they see? At the beginning of the game when you find multiple dead bodies for an "end of the world" party, Aiden just will NOT stop explaining how sad and tragic this all is. I can discern with my own eyes if something is sad or not, I don't need Poindexter to explain how I should be feeling.

There is just so much from the first 3 hours that makes me realize just how much I'm not liking anything Dying Light 2 is doing. I really think games need to be simpler and get to the point quickly, because I genuinely don't know who I'd recommend this too. Yeah, this game has an absolutely bloated opening and turgid buildup to a plot you will be incapable of caring about. Fuck AAA.

Esse jogo se tornou um dos meus favoritos de apocalipse zumbi, eu realmente gostei bastante do início ao fim, principalmente da gameplay e do gráfico que são INCRÍVEIS

A história me prendeu também, muito emocionante e o final foi brabo demais

Zerei junto com o meu amigo Ricksson
Foi MUITO DIVERTIDO

Com certeza esse jogo é um dos melhores pra jogar com amigos, tiveram vários momentos engraçados, tensos, difíceis, tristes e emocionantes

E claro, os personagens são ótimos, gostei bastante de todos eles

Sem dúvidas o que eu mais gostei do jogo foi da gameplay (o combate e o parkour principalmente), era muito viciante ficar matando zumbis aleatórios e pulando em prédios kkkkkkkkkk

MUITO BOM!!!

There is a lot to talk about with this game, and I think it's a bit of a mixed bag that thankfully ends up being more positive than negative. It has plenty of elements that work really well and help it stand out as one of the most exciting games of the past few years. But then at the same time it has some glaring issues that would make even Ubisoft blush.

Dying Light 2 offers some really fun parkour and hilariously goofy combat but struggles with it's mission structure and narrative. 90% of it's characters are completely certifiable which both works to its benefit and its detriment. Some moments are goofy and ridiculous, while others can be obnoxious and grating. This mixed bag of emotions and tones leads to a story that can often times feel like you've just been made chief diplomat at the nut house and it's your job to sort things out... while also on a tab of acid. At first, being tossed into a war between two deranged factions was very entertaining, and made it genuinely interesting to try and figure out which group of 60IQ individuals was more reasonable to side with. And while your major choices DO ultimately matter for the endings, their immediate effect on the world and characters has been DRASTICALLY downplayed from what the original gameplay demos might lead you to believe. The game has an initial appearance of deep RPG systems, and while there are some really fun choices and decisions to make (particularly with side quests) it ultimately feels more surface level than it should be. Though it's still way more of an RPG than Cyberpunk, so thats something I guess...

The main story itself is also a puzzling affair. And by that, I mean that I find it puzzling that writers are still dumb enough to think that a story about searching for a loved one we have ZERO attachment to will ever work in an open world game. Just like in Fallout 4, the most interesting parts are the factions and side characters, and I can guarantee you that 99% of players forgot Mia's name within 3 hours of being set loose in the open world. And while the endings themselves are mostly... fine, the wording on the final decision is needlessly fucking vague and my friend and I picked the wrong thing because we thought it meant something else. That was a nice slap in the face that didn't need to happen.

My biggest issue with this game however is definitely the cutscenes during missions. I know this issue is exacerbated by the fact that I played it in co-op (which requires a full cut to black when loading) but it happened for all 40 hours I spent with this, so im gonna complain about it. For whatever reason, this game decided that you need to load into a cutscene for every basic character interaction, and then load back into gameplay for every tiny section of walking. There is literally a mission where you run for 15 seconds, have a 5 second cutscene of someone opening a door, then load back to 10 more seconds of running, then another 5 second cutscene of a door, then 10 more seconds of gameplay and then another cutscene. What the fuck is this?? Just make it all gameplay or all a cutscne. Pick one. Please. This happens so frequently and it gives Ubisoft a run for it's money in the pointless bullshit department. It's irritating because the game has some genuinely fantastic set pieces that are (unsurprisingly) moments where the game just lets you take full control. But several other set pieces that should be fun are squandered by this hot potato of cutscene to gameplay. It feels so obvious that their AI and level streaming/loading are not quite as good as the should be since they need to hide it so blatantly, which is disappointing. And the amount of times they have your character momentarily pass out so they can load something is staggering. It had to have been at least 10 times during the last few hours of the game.

Back to a more positive note, from the visual side of things, the environments look really good and the ray-traced lighting is a great edition. Some people complained that this game is more colorful than the first, but I don't see that as an issue. The last game featured the ULTRA VIBRANT brown, grey, and tan color palette... so I think adding a bit more visual flair to the sequel was the right move. I also like the use of particle effects throughout the world, like leaves blowing in the wind, odors rising from the chemical dumps and dust and debris trickling off rooftops. I think they go a little too far in certain areas, but I'd rather that happen then not have it at all. Sonically, the game is no slouch either, and showcases some good world ambience and fantastic music from the legend Olivier Deriviere. The voice acting however, is only just decent-to-good with Rosario Dawson being the big standout.

In the end, I think this game is a really interesting one, and a title that I'm happy I played. But I think it falls flat in several key areas. Is it fun? Definitely in co-op, and it's fairly fun in solo mode as well. Just don't expect too much narratively.

6.5/10

Dying Light 2 is yet another example of feature creep ruining a promising sequel that could've outshone the original completely, but failed. It's not a complete faliure, of course: I just LOVED the improvements they've made to parkour, how they retooled some combat mechanics, and the way they tackled night gameplay. But with it's fuck-huge open world with icons constantly assaulting your senses, it's hard to just sit back and enjoy the good parts of this one, and the story is immensely dissapointing. The OG Dying Light didn't have the best story either, but at least there were memorable and fun characters supported by great cutscene direction and voice acting; now it's just cliche morons bumbling their way into an anti-climactic ending. Really dissapointing. If Techland intends on making a third game someday, I'd want them to narrow it's scope a little bit, or at least introduce some more sandbox elements and greater enemy variety, not double down on scripted idiocy or live-service elements most players won't even touch.

Truly incredible. I saw someone else say that this game can flip flop between being the best game and the worst game in the same ten minutes and good god, they were right on the money.

- This is the most fun I've had with first-person parkour in any game. Not Dying Light 1, not Mirror's Edge. It's a bit floatier than DL1 because you now lightly snap to thin/narrow terrain. After about an hour of play you get used to it. After a little more time and a few more skills, the convoluted paths laid out for early-game Aiden are more a suggestion than anything. This game hits new heights once you can completely disregard the paths laid out before you and blaze your own trail.

- Gear just does not matter at all. You get 5 pieces of gear with bonuses of 1-2% each. I usually just pick whatever gear has XP bonuses.

- Things like the immunity system actually make night and dark areas scary again. Sleeping biters are a fun incentive to come back to places in the middle of the night.

- The new upgrade system sucks. I don't mind the inhibitors, but all the skills in the skill tree feel kind of limp and way too situational to ever be useful. Compared to things like "you get a grappling hook" or "here's unlimited combat stamina" from DL1, the Big Final Perk in each tree is worth less than dirt.

- Rarely, Aiden will giggle or cheer himself on when you do one of the parkour skills you've learned, and it's so goofy and childlike that it's really endearing. I notice it once every 6 hours or so (infrequently enough to avoid annoyance) but it does a lot to make Crane 2 feel more organic than Crane 1 ever did.

- I quite like the new grappling hook! I know people are disappointed it doesn't just let you Spiderman around (it actually uses physics now) but I like this system a little more, feels a little more skillful, a little more interactive.

- The heights of the second half of the map are thrilling! I don't much care for the paraglider and generally try to avoid using it as much as possible, but when you're running on the side of a skyscraper it feels a lot different than making small jumps between mid-rise residential buildings (like those in Old Town in DL1).

- The story. Oh boy the story. I was essentially neutral on the story until the epilogue - the voice acting oscillates between passable and mind-boggling, and Rosario Dawson makes a prominent appearance as an insufferable Marvel character.

- The ending. I'm not going to spoil anything, but in the ending I got on my first run most of what happens was essentially pulled out of thin air. I think I confused the game with my choices because I watched a character shoot themselves in the head in the center of my screen only for the epilogue to say they're ruling the city.

- The faction system had the potential to be interesting but I just cannot bring myself to care about the Survivors at all. They are just a thoroughly charmless group who consistently treat you like you're the biggest asshole they've ever met. I saw no reason to not side with the Peacekeepers until roughly halfway through the story when the game decides some shit needs to happen so I can make some big story choices.

- Why would you remove text chat? Accessibility issues aside, I'm not trying to hear chip bags and music from two rooms over.

Dying Light 2 has gotten a year of patches, and is now surprisingly good. Well, if you consider Dying Light 1, but bigger and with a story that scrapes into average territory instead of awful to be good, then you're in luck.

This game is huge, and there's like 120 side quests, at least 40-50 of them are of decent quality (aka have plotlines). The combat is even better than the first, the graphics are gore are much better, and you generally get a lot of bang for your buck with this game. I would recommend it over any Ubisoft sandbox, and doing parkour tricks and dismembering zombies stayed legitimately fun for the almost 40 hours I spent playing.

The games main flaws are some atrocious sound design and most obnoxious completion requirements I've seen since the PS3 era. Zombies in this game love to scream. Low quality, bitcrushed screams that hurt my ears. And they don't fucking stop! The sound mixing is so bad in this game I played it mostly with the volume super low. The platinum trophy is also horrible, requiring 30 hours of controller rubber banded to move in a circle, farming 50 super rare random encounters, somehow grinding up 1 million dollars when top tier rare items might be worth 10K, and getting 200+ collectibles, many of which are permanently missable. I had every intention of doing this until I got to the endgame and realized how big of a waste of time it would be.

So play it, enjoy it for the fun combat and parkour, do lots of side quests and pack it up. A good live service game this is not, but it is a very decent open world adventure compared to nu-Ass Creed or Horizon. I don't mind a AAA sandbox if this gameplay is this fun.

I was having a lot of fun with Dying Light 2 until the final few story missions. As a whole the story and characters are not as interesting as the first, but the core game mechanics are a blast to play around with and the world is great to explore.

In the final hours, the game is loaded with awful timed objectives and repetitive fights. For example, the final boss battle is horrendous - just as you are about to beat the boss, there will be a cut-scene, after which the boss has their health back. It repeats this 6 times. The battle barely changes and the boss doesn't go through phases. I don't understand the decision. When coupled with the criminal "get from A to B in 2 minutes" objectives, everything feels rushed and antiquated.

Despite this, I still don't regret the 45+ hours I spent playing the game because I was entertained on the whole. Techland are very much making Bethesda-lite games and I appreciate them for that.

Brother, eu me esforcei bastante pra jogar isso aqui, o começo é bem divertido mas me perdeu muito forte depois de um tempo

o bagulho é que tudo nesse jogo parece uma tarefa extremamente chata, só a movimentação que é MUITO legal, mas de resto... é tão chato, tão sem inspiração

eu cantei a bola do primeiro plot twist desse jogo horas antes de acontecer, e foi exatamente o que eu tinha previsto

no fim a unica coisa que sobrou de bom nesse jogo é a movimentação, exploração é um pouquinho divertida mas eu sinto enquanto exploro que nada do que eu pego é realmente importante, eu só pego alguns itens aleatórios aqui e ali e fodase

Someone took a look at all the fun parkour and combat stuff in the first game and said "yes, what a sequel needs is a major focus on a branching narrative straight out of 2007 and all the fun stuff to be locked behind skill trees with not one, but two different currencies required to unlock them".

It does finally get back to the standard set by the original game but only in the final third of the game and honestly, I don't blame you if you sack this off many hours before you get anywhere near that. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze.

Decent. Minor spoilers beware. Those who love the original Dying Light will absolutely enjoy this. Those who weren't such massive fans though...I would recommend waiting for a sale. Overall, Dying Light 2 does improve much over the original. Sadly, it also takes a few steps back in terms of story and characters. The combat against humans is a tremendous improvement over the original's in my opinion. Adding parries and blocking was a right move, as it gives players more options in combat. Combine that and some parkour skills and you have a pretty decent combat system. The best ever in an FPS game? No. But it is extremely fun to dropkick thugs and zombies off buildings. The dropkick is extremely satisfying to use. Especially after parrying an enemy, jumping over them and drop kicking another grunt right after. Makes me wish that parkour was utilized in combat a tad more. Maybe they did. I wouldn't know. This is the same game that locked SLIDING behind a skill tree. Really? I was shocked to figure that out. First impressions would've been better if Techland actually let you use certain skills right away. But most players won't even unlock all of the skills since it is locked behind exp progression. It may take a while for Dying Light 2 to reveal its full spectacle and I understand that may be a problem to some. If you really want to unlock the whole skill set available to the player, then I recommend playing through many side quests that there is no shortage of. Unfortunately, most of the time, I barely cared. In fact, I didn't care much for the story itself.

The story in Dying Light 2 is a mash of bland and uninspiring ideas that could've gone somewhere interesting, but was ultimately brought down by the underwhelming writing and subpar characters. Techland desperately wants the audience to care for the characters in the story but their attempts at making them relatable and charming fell flat. Relationships with the protagonist, Aiden, felt forced and rushed. Hakon's relationship with Aiden went by faster than a bullet train with how quick it went from Point A, Hakon befriending you and saving your life, to Point B (plot point I won't spoil but it's really nothing interesting). It just gets worse from there. Lawan is an even bigger sucker for Aiden for no reason at all. Aiden is a forgettable protagonist with the blandest personality out of all the cast but yet everybody still wants to sleep with him. On a mission where Aiden's life is at risk, Lawan gets extremely upset and worried and ends up risking her life as well. Then later, she gets pissed at Aiden for making her worry and trekking all the way to where Aiden was in danger and doing so ruined her favorite shoes. Like...I'm sorry? I only knew you for a few hours. Why would I even remotely care? Because you're the embodiment of the tough, snarky, badass girl that every AAA game pushes into their narrative to act like they're progressive? She is literally the exactly same person as Jade from the last game. She was just as forgettable due to the fact I had to google what her name was again. At least make her interesting and unique. Actually, that goes for everybody in the cast. Make them all interesting and unique. It's even more hilarious when I found out that she's romanceable. Seriously? Where does that fit into things? It came completely out of left field. Once again, Aiden only knew her for like a few days. From the moment where we met to where she's romanceable spanned throughout only 1/4th of the main story. Talk about rushing things. I wouldn't be upset about it as I am if it had some whiff of decent writing and charm. Sadly it is an apocalyptic AAA shooter. Every main character has to be as boring and one dimensional as possible.

The only thing that really impressed me throughout my playthrough was a minuscule comment made during the main quest regarding the choices that I've made in the open world. An NPC mentioned how they need an electrical station up and running but another character noted that I've already turned it on during my exploration of the open world. Then everybody in that room proceeded to thank me. The mood turned sour when they found out I decided to give the electrical power to the opposing faction. It was only two lines, but those two lines felt like my actions during side quests actually have weight to it. Yes, many other open world games react to the choices the players make but only choices made during the main quest. This was something I did out of my own curiosity while free roaming, outside of the main quest. This was the only time this happened to me during my playthrough but I don't doubt there's more like this. At least, I hope there is. I beg for more games to do this. It tremendously helps to make the world feel more immersive.

Ultimately, the free-flowing parkour and tense combat are all the positives I have for this Dying Light 2. I haven’t tried out the co-op but I expect it to be the same quality as the first game. Graphics? Pretty good. There’s a noticeable improvement in the gore and first-person animations which is nice. Soundtrack? There’s a few note-worthy tracks here and there, but nothing too special. Performance? On my RTX 2060, pretty damn well. Day One patch fixed all the issues early copy reviews had so no problems there. Although every time I boot up the game, it would suffer heavy stuttering and frame drops for a few minutes. Weird. Zombies? Yeah, that’s one of my few nitpicks with this game. Why are all recent zombie apocalypse games all about human conflict? Yes, I understand that human conflict is the reason why zombies are there but come on, not even one zombie boss in the main story? Even The Last of Us 2 had a sick boss fight against a disgustingly incredible zombie midway through. Nearly all boss fights in DL2 played the exact same way. With the exception of the final boss which is a huge upgrade compared to the original. Then again, not hard to improve on QTE: The Boss Fight. Those willing to try out Dying Light 2 should wait for a sale.

Eu curti a esse jogo. Acho que a história não é tão interessante como a do 1° jogo, mas gostei muito do protagonista do 2° jogo.

O jogo é bastante divertido (na maior parte das vezes). o parkour, o grande charme desse jogo, é excelente e bem divertido (pelo menos pra mim); o combate é muito bom também. O problema pra mim é que esse jogo ficou bastante difícil do meio pro final, e acabou ficando bem estressante, principalmente no combate contra os outros humanos e chefes.

Morri tantas vezes que acabei ficando muito irritado e isso me fez deixar o jogo de lado por mais de um mês. Na verdade, eu comprei o jogo em janeiro, e só agora em abril eu completei ele, então na verdade eu fiquei uns 2 meses sem jogar por conta da frustração que tive. Mas é aquilo, não sou um jogador muito bom, então não necessariamente você, caso jogue, tenha alta dificuldade e frustração como eu tive.

O mundo aberto é bem grande, com vários locais internos para explorar, muitas missões secundárias para fazer, eventos específicos que ocorrem em determinados locais e em determinados momentos do dia. É um jogo realmente bem longo, caso você decida jogar o máximo de missões secundárias possível. Porém, eu duvido muito que atualmente o jogo tenha 500 horas de duração, como a Techland, desenvolvedora do jogo, disse que teria.

Outra coisa muito bacana é que de fato a árvore de habilidades é bem grande e diversificada, e os upgrades possíveis para a própria cidade em que o jogo se passa são muito interessantes e bacanas.

Eu curti o jogo. Eu ainda gosto mais do Dying Light 1, principalmente por conta da história, mas ainda assim foi uma experiência divertida, ainda que chata e frustrante nas incessantes batalhas que se sucedem no final do jogo.

Pretty entertaining sequel to the first Dying Light. Just more of the same zombieslaying goodness. The added features like the paraglider and improved grapple hook are nice for traversal. And the weapons are all fun especially Lucille from The Walking Dead.

Also glad to see this game getting more updates. Feels way better to play now.

The only thing I guess I don't like about Dying Light 2 is the human combat. I don't find the parry system too engaging. But good news is they're easy to take out with a crossbow!

Loved 😍