Dying Light 2: The Mediocre Sequel

On February 3rd, I preordered the ultimate edition of Dying light 2. I needed a new refreshing game to play and Dying Light 2 looked promising.

I had high hopes for the sequel after completing part one back in 2015. I was so ready to see how this game would perform on next-gen consoles and all the new parkour skills implemented into the game.

Fast forward to now, I have almost completed the game and I have to say that I'm not too excited to finish it.

Let's talk about why.

I am going to start with the storyline of the game because I have so much to talk about when it comes to it. Spoiler-free, so don't worry.

The Story

In Dying Light 2, you play Aiden, who is searching for his lost sister, Mia.

...yeah, that's the whole premise of the game.

You are searching for your sister and of course, you get tangled in other survivors' affairs thus increasing the story's length.

If the story already sounds very basic then your assumption is right. It is very mediocre. Even with all the new introduction of drama from other characters. I just couldn't help but feel uninterested.

The characters in this game are also kinda unlikeable. I found myself sighing and rolling my eyes whenever a certain survivor would stop Aiden in his tracks to speak with him.

The only character in the game I grew a liking to was Hakon and if you played you will see why.

The rest of the characters were just all the same to me.

When approached they are hostile and look down at Aiden until you go and do their quest. This just made none of them memorable and overall bland.

A few survivors you encounter give the game a comedic relief. Making you laugh at the silliness of the quest they task you to but other than that, the rest of the characters were bland to me.

The Environment

Villedor is the beautiful environment you see up above. You have trees and grass growing from rooftops. Giant towers and windmills to climb. And lots of new structures to help you maneuver around the city.

It looks amazing when playing and I found myself admiring the texture of water on roofs or the view of the whole city from a towers peak.

I don't think Villedor can compare to Harran but it is still a wonderfully designed city.

The Gameplay

Deep Silver is one of the leading game companies when it comes to creating a fun zombie slashing game. If you ever want to release some mayhem on zombies then you'd want to look at Deep Silvers games.

With that being said, Dying Light 2 does provide players with a fun hack and slash experience. You can hack off zombie limbs, bash open their head, or impale them with a throwing spear.

There is lots of fun to be had with Dying Light 2 but there aren't too many creative ways to kill zombies, unlike Dying Light 1.

I feel there was a lack of creativity when it came to killing zombies. Sure, hacking off limbs is fun but you can hack off limbs in any zombie slasher game nowadays.

There was this feeling of, "been there, done that" when playing at times. I often felt bored.

Now I know there is a limit when it comes to how you can kill a zombie but the game started feeling like a poor recycle of the first game.

Your choices of weapons aren't too broad. You get a hammer, pipe, machete, a crossbow at some point and that's about it.

I was honestly hoping for some Dead Island creativity when it came to customizing weapons but that didn't happen, unfortunately.

Dying Light 2 does offer some cool new skill perks for players but nothing too amazing. I mean you have to purchase a heavy attack from a skill tree in 2022, come on guys.

Aside from that, the parkour is fluid and smooth. It's a blast to run around the map and to have so many options to choose from when parkouring.

Wrapping Things Up

Dying light 2 is a solid 6/10 in my book. It is a fun zombie game but it is far from some of the reviews left on its accolades trailer.

An accolades trailer that was released only a couple of days after release. Interesting.

After Cyberpunk 2077 and Battlefield 2042, I know better than to trust game reviewers.

If you know, you know.