Not the worst game I've ever played. But then again...

Where do I even get started on this one, I just finished the first game, but didnt go too deep with it since I figured I'd spend all my time 100%ing this one since its the sequel it should be better right? Yes, and no.

Played through Dying Light 1 RIGHT BEFORE this one on hard, so I figured hard difficulty would be a great fit for me, since it felt good to play in the first game. I WAS WRONG. The difficulty is completely nonsensical in this game for two reasons.

The game starts you out weaker than a tube sock that's been soaking in warm water for 20 years. Enemies when you start can take like 30 hits from your BEST weapon before they go down. Early on in the story (not even 3 missions in I believe) you have to unlock a sewer entrance or something like that, didnt seem like a problem, or was it? There was around 5 zombies sitting overtop of it that even with all the loot I collected up until that point, it wasn't enough to take them down, leading to the first quarter of the game to be an unfun frustrating mess, not strong enough to loot anything, nothing to find as well due to low level.

Flash forward to around a bit before the midway point of the game, and I could've sworn the game somehow switched to "game reviewer mode".


Suddenly I noticed that I take absolutely NO damage from anything, and everything just suddenly falls apart like stinky toilet paper. It continued like this getting even easier and easier, until combat feels absolutely boring, clunky, and ends up just being "walk forward and swing until everything dies", "if you get low on health, dont worry, just slowly walk away and heal, thanks for the 30+ medkits, dunno what I would do without 40 immunity boosters and 30 medkits at all times.

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So now that the combat is pointed at and laughed lets talk about everyones favorite part of the first game, imagine a fast paced chase, ducking and weaving through buildings running from zombies, surviving by the skin of your teeth while they get closer and closer.

now imagine all of that ruined in the sequel, yeah, they ruined the BEST thing about the first game, and pretty much the ONLY thing that really separated it from other zombie games like Dead Island for example.

How did they ruin it? hmm, well for starters, you start the game with the stamina of my 87 year old grandfather after a long night out. Want to climb a wall? Nah, you gotta walk or else youll fall right off. Want to hit an enemy more than twice without passing out? Nah you gotta just fall over and take a nappy boo.

Stupid stamina meter that you have to follow a little hide and seek game to upgrade, as well as your health, which the game starts you out with a healthbar the size of a thumbtack.

Not the worst system, but absolutely pointless once you pump yourself with a few shots, you turn into a unkillable hulk within hours making that whole grind lame.

Stamina aside, your character somehow feels like hes walking on slippy slidey cracked eggs, your legs literally have a mind of their own making you fall off of things constantly and a strange time controlling your speed on a keyboard. For a game about fast paced parkour, this guy cant seem to get a grasp, grab onto, or even walk in a straight line half the time.

Wait, this game even had parkour in it? I actually dont remember since there is a line between climbing and parkour. Dying light 1 felt like parkour but could definitely be expanded on. Dying light 2 just feels like youre forever stuck in the climbing sections in a first person Uncharted game. That is, until you unlock the glider, once you do that the game completely turns into climb up somewhere tall fly slowly and boringly to your next destination

and dont even try to say that it is worthwhile to go exploring on your way, every single "dungeon area" is a complete copy and paste of the last one, and its not like you need any loot, since the quest rewards are more than enough to kill anything easily, or buy things to make whatever you want. Not worth it at all to go looting anymore.

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Then my favorite part of the game, when it was finished. Do you know why? BECAUSE I CANT FINISH IT. I defeated what I presume to be the final boss, and you know what my reward is? A dying woman in my arms on loop into a black screen that crashes my game every single time I load it up. So I cant even finish this game.

That isnt even the half of it, flying into a new location you have to always be on foot, since flying always unloads the ground for me when I enter a new area of the map, so I end up seeing dissapearing buildings first, then everything else goes as well so I just fall into the abyss forever and have to reload.

Also, jumping on top of a pipe caused me to glitch inside it during a major story quest in a sewer, leaving me stuck there until I crafted enough molotovs to kill myself in there to reload.

Getting stuck seems extremely common in this game, be careful when flying into the peacekeepers base (a major story location) if you go too fast, youll fall right behind their sign, leaving you stuck there with no way out (you cant jump in friendly locations).

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Talking about story locations makes me want to talk about the story, but I honestly dont think I can, since theres only like two things that actually happen in it, everything else is just random shit that comes up that half of it doesnt even feel like "main story" material, I can barely tell the difference between main quests and sidequests in this game since half of the main ones have as little to do with the plot as the side ones.

Characters are a mess as well. Aside from a few that I enjoyed, everyone was just so damn boring and they are introducing and killing off characters all the way up until the ending so you barely have a grasp on who you are supposed to care about until a few quests later when they either die or you have to make a crazy choice with them

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Now its time for the good things, and believe me, there arent many.

the map design is pretty decent, getting from one place to another always has a fun path to it across rooftops or through the streets.

Aidens voice actor is amazing, and for the most part, everyone did a great job with what they were given.

The game looks pretty good, and runs not bad either on my PC.

its always fun to mow through zombies albeit a little too easy later on.

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And last, the ending. Or lack thereof, last chapter literally feels like they want you to stop playing, it feels like its forcing you out of the game at mach speed with no payoffs for anything built up. Half of the stuff isnt even resolved by the ending as well and they wrap up everything in a 10 second cutscene about some crap you dont even care about? nah.

This game isnt great, no idea why I put so much time into it. Had more fun writing this review tbh.

Wow, what a game. I did NOT expect much by just looking at it. This is a must play for fans of sonic, warioland, or just about any fan of any of the great platformer indies, like Celeste, or Meatboy for example.

Graphics- At a first glance, yeah this game could look "ugly" to some people. I was interested by the premise of an acid trip 90s Nickelodeon aesthetic that looks like it was rendered in Microsoft Paint. But then again, this game has STYLE.

Every single animation in this game is PERFECT, with the more stretched and crazy the expressions go, the more I love this games style.

Story- Eh, if you go into this game expecting a deep story, then you must not like these types of games.

Gameplay- A lot of people compare this to Warioland (which i believe what the developers were going for) but to me, it feels like I'm playing Sonic again for the first time. Levels are BUILT for speed, and traversing them is extremely fun as well.

You cant get tired of the gameplay considering every SINGLE level in this game as a new mechanic to play with, sometimes even two. But it NEVER feels forced for gameplay diversity, every power up or mechanic feels natural in the world.

Music- Some tracks are kind of filler, but the ones that are good? They are really good, and got added to my playlist.

This game was built with love, and I appreciate the developers for working so hard to make a fun fast paced platformer.

P.S. I miss Mort the Chicken.

The new "definitive" way to play Dead Space. There doesn't seem to be much of a reason to go back to the original anymore. This game is more-or-less a direct remake, while also changing some of the more frustrating parts of the original like the turret section, and also giving each gun an alternate fire which spices up gameplay as well.

This version looks and feels fresh and new while still being the same game we all played a long time ago, and I cant wait for Dead Space 2.

For some things that I didn't enjoy all that much, is that some areas are just plain out frustrating. The enemies that hug the wall are really annoying to play against because of the ammo consumption and the little enemies that they spawn as well. I was also hoping for a bit more scares in the game, but its atmospheric so I understand. The game is a bit frustrating in its narrative because its just a never ending loop of "thing break", "go here". Which doesn't really do much of getting people invested, so for the most part you kinda just start to zone out whatever it is that you are doing because it just becomes the same after a while.

A lot of these complaints I had with the original though, and this game is just a better version of that. So when its all said and done, this game isn't half bad and if you enjoy the original, then I'd suggest picking it up.

Not bad, it's a good start I guess.

Game is far too easy, even on the hardest difficult, but the combat is a bit of fun for a while. It does get a bit frustrating later on though

Story isnt all that interesting, but the main relationship sidequests are. Main story has almost an inexcusable horrific conclusion though.

All side activities in the open world are basically what you would expect from a lazy developer. Braindead tiny puzzles scattered around every 20ft that do nothing for enjoyment aside from people who want to spend hours doing the same thing over and over again. The world feels absolutely barren outside of hogwarts itself, even though there is infinite things to do, none of it feels like any more than a checklist of meaningless tasks to do.

Hogwarts itself is built amazingly, and the developers did put a ton of effort into the school, and even the little details. So i have to give them credit for that. Harry Potter fans will be surprised how much is jammed into the school. You can explore every single room top to bottom in it.

The gear system is ripped straight out of whatever base template developers are using nowadays, but I appreciate the ability to transmog clothing based on anything you have ever picked up. I just wish that there was whole outfit slots you can select because this is one of those games where you constantly pick up new gear that is better so keeping your signature look is really frustrating after a while transmogging constantly.

Beast taming is pretty fun for about 3 minutes but it is pretty barebones so you end up just forgetting about your beasts after a while.

Not much reward whatsoever for doing all of the tasks around the map though in which there are hundreds everywhere.

Final boss is a joke. Thats literally all I have to say. The game ended on an absolutely horrible note with me.

There needed to be some sort of morale system in this game, you can break into houses and steal things from people, you can extort more money from quest givers, you can learn unforgivable curses and be rude to everyone, but no dialogue reflects this and there is absolutely no downsides to not do this since nothing changes in the game if you are a terrible person.

Side note- Fuck JK Rowling, I didn't factor this into my review of the game though.

This game is pretty mediocre for a modern open world game. But it does have some bright spots that shine brightly