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Softonic review

Sequel to the horror zombie game

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is an action-adventure game by Techland. This game will take players to a zombie apocalyptic-themed world. Your mission is to stay alive and save your fellow man while fighting zombies that appear at every turn.

Dying Light 2 offers plenty of aspects that will be comfortingly familiar to those who played the original game. These include parkour-style movement, melee-based combat, open-world, and a day-night cycle. However, the game added an extra level of complexity by adding choices and consequences to the blueprint. It also has a longer-than-usual play-through, which spans up to 500 hours

A continuation of a story

Dying Light 2 Stay Human comes with the same adventure and survival horror gameplay that the first Dying Light game offered. Like its predecessor, you are thrust into a post-apocalyptic world infested with zombies. Your goal is to stay alive and save your fellow humans. Be careful, however, as everything you do has consequences. Although, the story takes place twenty years after the first game.

This game also offers players more freedom in completing missions, allowing them to make choices that affect the story and open world. If you align yourself with the Peacekeepers, you will gain access to more traps and crossbows, while being on the side of survivors takes you to trampolines and zip lines. In addition to factions, most of the city's population consists of survivors and members of the faction during daylight hours, and the zombies emerge only at night when people are inside their homes.

As with its predecessor, the combat will be mostly melee-based, with the majority of fighting using melee weapons. These weapons can be upgraded with different blueprints and components. Note, however, that the weapons can have a limited lifespan. They will also degrade as the players use them in combat. Thankfully, there will be long-range weapons, such as crossbows, shotguns, and spears players can also use.

Multiple important characters

There will also be a main protagonist, who goes by the name of Aiden Caldwell. Like its predecessor, Aiden can perform a wide variety of parkour moves. He can perform climbing skills, leaping off from edges, sliding, and wall running. He also has multiple tools, including a grappling hook and a paraglider. This can help him traverse the city four times bigger than in the original game. 

In addition to the main protagonist, this game will have many essential characters with important roles. There is Lawan, a woman who sees Frank as a father figure, and she has ambitions to become a Nightrunner. She teams up with Aiden to get revenge. Aiden's former mentor, Hakon, had been a prominent member of the Nightrunners—the underground force that once helped people. Frank Marwey, leader of the Nightrunners and Lawan's mentor. Jack Matt is a leader of the peacekeeping force in the city, and he believes that only he has what it takes to bring order back. Juan Rainer is a peacekeeper supplier who may become Aiden’s friend, depending on the choices made by the player. Chris Williams is a former prisoner who leads a group of ex-convicts known as the Renegades. Lastly, Waltz, an ex–GRE doctor, experimented on young children, including Aiden, Lawan, and Mia.

Extra level of complexity

While Dying Light 2 continued everything fans have come to love about the first game. This time around, the developers added an extra level of complexity to the blueprint called choices and consequences. Unlike the usual gameplay choices, however, your choices do not only alter the storylines but the world itself. The consequences are far-reaching, with you being able to bring prosperity to a faction while destroying another settlement.

Another thing that the game offers is a growing web of missions and side quests which involves various players. With such, the already long play-through is lengthened even more. It also made the narrative even more complex than its predecessors. However, while it brings more challenges, this huge number of side missions may not please those who like everything to be cut and dried.

Finally, players will be happy to know that Dying Light 2 will also feature a four-player co-op, which you can play straight through to the end. The co-op is intuitive, foregoing some of the hassles that come with progressing in someone's lobby. Anyone who joins someone's team will keep their progressions and items. Furthermore, the co-op is also tied to the narrative choices. Whenever a choice comes up during a session, every player has the chance to vote. Still, the host gets the final say.

Revamped Experience

The excitement around Dying Light 2 Stay Human reaches new heights with the Reloaded Edition. It's packed with all the latest updates, including the much-anticipated first story DLC, "Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties," complete with firearms, engaging board quests, and action-packed Survivor Missions. As you dive into this grand adventure, you'll encounter a brand-new storyline, discover uncharted territory, and arm yourself with innovative weaponry.

The heart of this edition is the DLC, which takes you on a thrilling new journey. You'll accompany Aiden, as he finds himself in the thick of a brutal tournament where more than just the title is at stake. Your decisions will be crucial as tensions escalate in the quest for power and vengeance that could change the course of lives. 

However, the challenge doesn't stop at human opposition – monstrous adversaries await. Beware of the newly mutated threats such as the powerful Gorilla Demolisher and the devastatingly dangerous Cataclysm, Inferno, and other extraordinary horrors. In this world teeming with peril, your survival skills will be put to the ultimate test. Making it out as a survivor or becoming another forgotten casualty—the choice is yours to make.

Bigger and better

Overall, Dying Light 2 has taken the zombie survival franchise to a greater height. Although it follows the same formula as its predecessor, it has an even more pleasingly open-world feel. The storyline is also made more complex with the tantalizing prospect of your choices influencing the narrative and your surroundings. Finally, unlike many linear and gun-based zombie titles, it is not an on-rails game.

PROS

  • Bigger open-world map
  • Choices adjusts the storyline's directions
  • Standout melee combat
  • All players can vote during choices in co-op session

CONS

  • Too much sidequests
  • No discernible graphics improvement
  • Weapons have a limited lifespan

Program available in other languages


Dying Light 2 Stay Human for PC

  • Trial version

  • In English
  • V 1.15
  • 3.9

    (84)

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