The firstDying Lightgame was made famous by its parkour and combat, with the former being a mechanic rarely seen in first-person games, and the latter being an improvement onDead Island’s combat. Now, withDying Light 2on the horizon, it’s clear that the sequel will evolve even beyond the original, as Game Rant learned during ahands-onDying Light 2preview.
It’s striking how much effort has gone into overhauling the combat and parkour mechanics as they were inDying Light.All around, parkour has become a lot floatier and entertaining, while the combat has been married more closely to it. That’s not to say thatDying Light’smechanics were bad, but they were far more monotonous than what Techland is doing now.
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Faster, Floatier Dying Light Mechanics
Dying Lightwas a solid game, but it didn’t have much of an identity. Dropping players in the middle of a generic city with an equally generic protagonist, it was easy to get caught up in simply mindlessly thwacking away at zombies. That’s something that developer Techland wanted to address in the sequel,Lead Designer Tymon Smektałatells us during an interview. The changes camr based on “players’ feedback, media feedback, and our own internal feedback,” all of which helped the studio narrow down what needed to improve with the sequel.
Eventually, the team decided that it wanted to “combine combat and parkour together,” breaking up the cycle of running and stopping to attack enemies that players could get caught in while playing the original. Based on our time with our demo, that’s something that Techland has managed to do well. While there’s still thecoreDying LightDNAto be found,Dying Light 2feels a lot different. The fighting is a lot more frenetic, and it can be chained together with some of the parkour moves.
As an example, Smektala tells us players “can stagger an enemy, jump on it, use it as a springboard to kick another guy, jump off another guy, then maybe do a ground-pound and land on the rest.” We’re able to pull off similar feats during our gameplay demo, running along and bouncing off of walls to take down enemies with surprising gusto. It breaks up the cycle of swinging at an enemy’s head multiple times to take them out, which goes a long way to make a more enjoyable experience.
Plus, the world has been peppered with obstacles for players to climb around on as theyparkour throughoutDying Light 2. It’s here that it sees its biggest improvement, as there are plenty of ziplines, billboards, and other objects to help players move around the city. It’s all in service of better verticality, whichDying Light 2seems bent on providing players.
Dying Light 2 Has Deeper Human Enemies
Whilehumans were a threat inDying Light,they’re also on the receiving end of an overhaul. According to Smektala, “the day is for humans and the night is for infected.” During the day, human enemies will be roaming the streets in greater numbers, ready to smack down the player whenever the need arises. There will be more zombies hidden away in certain areas too, pushing players to explore the city streets.
On the flip side, the zombies that are typically hibernating during the day will wander out into the streets at night. The caves they typically inhabit will then be easier to explore, and host to some ofDying Light 2’sbest loot. While players might be tempted to skip the night as some did in the firstDying Light,the valuable loot and more robust night objectives should force more players out into the wilds at night, balancing the day and night cycle split.
The marrying of parkour and combat, along with a more diverse selection of enemies, sounds exactly like what theDying Lightformula needs. It should be enough to please returning fans, while making things a bit more approachable for newcomers to the franchise.
Dying Light 2: Stay Humanis in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
