Welcome to our review of Dying Light 2, the game that feels like several GOTY games came together, made beautiful love and had a lovely little baby game…
After the Harran virus had taken over the world, humanity found refuge in the last few settlements still standing. Pilgrims—people who travel through the unforgiving, post-apocalyptic world—serve as a connection between the enclaves, carrying resources and valuable information. You are one of them, and you find yourself in The City, the place where humanity might find hope once again.
As a reviewer, you come across amazing games in your career as well as the absolute opposite. When I think about this game there are a lot of things to consider as it feels like more than just one game. It offers an open-world approach to what could also be described as a Zombie fighting game with a massive story supporting it. On top of that, you can add in a ton of Parkour to get around, and slowly but surely you get the perfect blend that became Dying Light 2.
When I previously called it a love baby, imagine Uncharted, Breath of the Wild, The Division, and many others just came together. It is like those games just were made to prepare me for the experience called Dying Light 2, which are high praises, but it just felt like everything fell into place as all the pieces connected easily.
Take the open world and the crafting part from Breath of the Wild, but just make it so much more lifelike. The weapons are breaking in exactly the same way, but there’s not just a kit or a set to craft the most powerful tools. Instead, all tools are made from scrap and with pure survival instinct in mind. From battle-worn axes to improvised baseball bats held together with barbed wire, elevating the immersion drastically.
Toss in the parkour of Uncharted, but make it much freer. While you get a preset route in Uncharted, in Dying Light 2, most of the parkour is completely as free as can be, with a few obvious exceptions. From roof jumping to finding new safe zones to be able to escape the incoming dangers, it’s all up to you to find the safest route but watch out for the traps. Not all routes you’ll take are as safe as you would have guessed in a world that’s in ruins.
Dying Light 2 really captivates the free-running parkour vibe, but there’s also a lot of action going on too. From your everyday bad guys to the infected, with all their varieties. The usual suspects, right? Well, it runs a little deeper than just that, but that is up to you to find out. But do let me answer one thing already, there are tons of enemies and whether you chose to sneak up on them to take them out or go all out bat-shit-crazy on them, the choice is always yours. One thing’s for sure, you’ll need to fight hard in order to survive.
I had a few encounters where I just decided to go all out. Block incoming attacks and try my best to beat the enemies as flashy as possible. Like when you perfectly counter someone and then just use their body to attack another player by using them as a stepping stone for a jumping kick. The amount of AEW wrestling style antics, I just love it all.
Another part that I just adored was the story. You all know I never spoil the good stuff, but this game is really on another level, from first being the liaison between settlements to finding out more about your past and the search for this Waltz guy and a mysterious sister called Mia. Making friends and forging relationships along the way, it’s all there and forms a unique and unforgettable journey. The story serves as the glue to keep you going and thanks to it, you’ll want to come back each and every time, to learn even more.
What really gets me going in this game is the fact that you are really being led by the hand, despite the open-world feeling. You always know what to do and all the menus are incredibly handy. You always got everything a few clicks away, even things like crafting multiple items at once, like they just made this game out of the point of view of a hardcore game enthusiast. The quality of life improvements can easily serve as a blueprint for future open-world games.
Until now, I have not even mentioned the best part of the game. The difference between day and night. When the sun goes to sleep, the monsters come out to play. Much like your everyday horror story, but there is seemingly no real comparison as danger might come from any point in this game. Since the infection runs deep in this game, you’re not only facing off with monsters. If you want to survive, you’ll better learn to adapt quickly and hope you’re able to overcome every danger the game rapidly throws at you. You’ll need all the luck of the world to survive a night in Dying Light 2. Without light, you can consider yourself as good as dead.
When you get out of the sun or UV light, the timer on your life starts. Get back in the light or any UV source or you become infected. That is the part that truly makes Dying Light 2 so special. There is just never a dull moment in this game and before you know it, you are losing your sleep over this game, much like me.
In conclusion, Dying Light 2 is simply amazing, even I, someone who’s afraid of real life heights and still kind of iffy when it comes to them in video games, I am just flying across the place, getting more skill points so I can perform even more awesome tricks. When a game does this for me, I can only give it a perfect score. I know it is very early in the year, but this is going to be a tough one to beat for my personal Game of the Year.
