Why New Players Should Be Excited for Dying Light 2

With a brand new setting and time frame, Dying Light 2: Stay Human will be the perfect sequel for veteran Dying Light players and new players alike. It will feature a new protagonist named Aiden Caldwell who doesn't know his past, so the player will be able to learn about it along with him.

Why New Players Should Be Excited for Dying Light 2 Cover

The sequel to the wildly popular zombie game Dying Light was announced recently to have the title Dying Light 2: Stay Human during an informational episode called “Dying 2 Know.” During the episode they revealed a seven-minute gameplay trailer that revealed a lot of brand new details about the game that indicate that new Dying Light players will be on the same page as older ones.

Dying Light 2 takes place 20 years after the first game

Dying Light 2: Stay Human takes place around 20 years after the events of the first game. The setting is also brand new. Villedor is the new city that houses humanity’s last stand after 98% of them fell to a mutation of the original virus. With this passage of time, most of the things that happened in Dying Light won’t have any real influence on the events of Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

New players will have the privilege of unraveling a new story along with the veteran players. This will put everyone on the same playing field right off the bat. Older players should still get ready to hunt for easter eggs from the first game, though. With a game as big as this, there must be loads of references from the first game sprinkled in around the map.

Concept art for the new city of Villedor

Concept art for the new city of Villedor

It is a new zombie virus, with all new mutations

Secretive scientists created the new virus and somehow let it escape. It is unknown whether it was on purpose or not. Additionally, the survivors inside this last vestige of humanity used a “radical” new weapon to fight the infected that actually caused them to mutate in the following 15 years that lead up to Dying Light 2: Stay Human. There are going to be brand new zombie types to fight or evade, especially since the sequel doubles down on one of Dying Light’s main appeals: its awesome parkour mechanics. Just like in the first game, the characters of Dying Light 2 use parkour to traverse the world and stay away from the infected.

In the trailer we can see a few of the new types of infected. There was a wide variety of new zombie mutations in the trailer. They showed us a huge zombie with a hammer and even a zombie with oversized claws. There definitely appears to some infected that might be more worth evading than fighting. A large variety of new zombie types could be either damaging or advantageous to the game. It really depends on the developers finding the sweet spot. Personally, I don’t want to see any variation of the Toad to come back. The rest of the zombies weren’t nearly as annoying.

A body hangs while zombies reach for it

A body hangs while zombies reach for it

The new protagonist knows as much about his past as we do

The new protagonist in Dying Light 2: Stay Human is named Aiden Caldwell. Aiden doesn’t actually know who he is or where he came from. The only information he has is that he has a living relative somewhere out there. Everything Aiden learns about himself, the player will also learn. This is a surefire way for a player to connect with the protagonist on every level.

The coolest thing about Aiden is the fact that the player will get to dictate the kind of person he is. You can make Aiden the most altruistic person in Villedor and the characters around him should reflect that. Aiden is the kind of “blank slate” character that many players should be excited to play as, especially those new to Dying Light. 

There are brand new mechanics along with the old ones

Techland dropped a boatload of new information on us in the new gameplay trailer for Dying Light 2: Staying Human. One of the most exciting bits of information hints at a new gameplay mechanic in the game. Any veteran of the original Dying Light knows that the most dangerous time to be out is night, but Dying Light 2: Stay Human will give us a little more incentive to go out past dark. We saw that there are nests all over the world that are full of infected during the day. At night they clear out to be more active. This presents the player with a new and unique option to get at the loot inside: Stealth.

The city on fire at night time.

The city on fire at night time.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human will allow the player to use stealth tactics to sneak in and out of infected nests with presumably high tier loot. The developers may have even added a section of the skill tree for the player’s stealth ability.

This is a well needed addition to the game, as in Dying Light the only thing to do after dark was run away from juiced-up Volatiles or sleep through it. The game was great, but nighttime always did feel a little boring if you weren’t a thrill seeker. Here’s to hoping that they will add even more things to do during the night. It would be even better if there were a set of side missions that are only available if you stumble upon them in the middle of the night.

The developers are giving the player more options to complete quests

In Dying Light 2: Stay Human’s gameplay trailer we got the chance to see some of the other ways you can play the game. In the trailer, the player used stealth tactics such as hanging from ledges to attack human enemies. This would add a whole new way for a player to go through their quests. Techland also showed that there is also going to be new ways of customizing weapons. It is similar to Dying Light in that you can have different weapons based on your skill tree. There were bows, ropes and even throwable blades. There will be a playstyle for everyone in this sequel.

If stealth is a fully fleshed out playstyle with its own skill tree, this game could be absolutely massive. That’s also meaningful for the replayability of the game. The potential here reminds me of Cyberpunk 2077. Although Cyberpunk 2077 may have had issues, the option to play the game how you wanted to was generally there. If Techland does it correctly, Dying Light 2: Stay Human could be game of the year material. 

A dark area with enemies running around

A dark area with enemies running around

With the help of Piotr Szymanek, a screenwriter with a background in cinema, and these new gameplay mechanics, Dying Light 2: Stay Human has a very real chance at being the best game released this year. With so many new options and the ease of access it has for new players, this game has the chance to truly be the game that many people wanted Cyberpunk 2077 to be: a blockbuster game with a deep and entangling story with perpetually entertaining mechanics to keep us playing months after release. Dying Light 2: Stay Human releases on all platforms December 7, 2021.

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