Welcome to Old Villedor the last bastion of humanity and where the events of Dying Light 2 Stay Human takes place. The world has basically ended with the outbreak of the Harran virus which creates zombie-like creatures known as the infected. You play as Aiden, a Pilgrim. Pilgrims are couriers that travel from city to city or in the game’s context are called zones. Aiden is in search of a man named Waltz in thinking that he knows the whereabouts of his sister.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human is not a direct sequel to the first game. Instead, the game is set in the world of Dying Light. The main character Aiden is on a quest to finding his sister. In his quest to find his sister, it takes him to places that he isn’t familiar to. Along the way he meets allies that helps him on his quest. Some of them successfully giving him directions while others gives him items that he needs to bring to a certain destination.
The NPCs also join you in your quest at times and they are actually very helpful in situations. But there are times that you’d have to help them out as they normally get in trouble so you’d have to come to their rescue.
The first part of the game takes you through a tutorial of sorts. Teaching you the basics of the game that includes how to forage, how to traverse by parkour and how to craft things. Along the way, it will also teach you the basics of stealth and how to take on more than one enemy. Aiden will have access to skills necessary for him to survive any combat situation and also how to traverse the islands. The leveling system follows a typical RPG progression, where you gain experience points for actions that you do. Once the experience points gets to it limit, you then gain a level earning you skill points that you can use to unlock skills for Aiden.
Game play is a mix of open world parkour fighting mobs of enemies and finding and upgrading gear. Gear that helps you specialize into classes like Medic which raises your recovery and parkour ability, Tank which specializes in two handed weapons and damage reduction, Ranger which helps you go stealth and attack from afar and Brawler which helps you with one-handed weapons. The parkour is passable but often feels floaty, traversing building from building is not very fluid and sometimes you feel like sliding instead of running. Combat also feels a little bit awkward, weapon animations are few and very repetitive. One animation I would have liked taken from the first game was where the weapon gets stuck on the enemy giving you the feeling that you are really chopping through an enemy. Enemy animation is weird on how they attack you, how they fall down rooftops and other things.
Story is captivating with a lot of lore to explore. There’s not a shortage of side quests to pique your interests as you learn more about Villadore’s history and you meet unique individuals and you get to learn their story. There are so many things to discover in the game that writing about them won’t fit here if I tried. But that’s where the game ultimately shines as it’s an open world fit for a game filled with zombies.
The game has a good variety of enemies with old and new alike. Letting players of the first game get that nostalgic feel and yet bringing in some new flavor to keep the game from being stale and redundant.
Every huge game comes with its fair share of bugs and there are many that I have noticed. From wall clipping to quests not showing as complete. One unique bug to the game is when you attack an enemy, their whole body contorts in a way that makes them look like eldritch beasts.
Visuals are good with good level design that goes so well with the parkour gameplay. Colors are vibrant with a bigger emphasis on lighting. One problem which is more or less for the console version is motion blur, which is in place due to the low framerate.
Sound is a big factor in this game as it can be a cue for you to stay quiet. I do like the fact that you can really hear each raspy breath of the zombie. However, I feel that it’s too unrealistic when I can hear a zombie’s growls from a mile away. It makes you think it’s just nearby but in reality it’s too far away to attack you. Nevertheless, the sound is eerily beautiful that it really gives you the creeps in certain areas.
Altogether, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is a game that offers a great story and fast paced gameplay. Fans of the first game will truly enjoy this game as it offers a mix of what they love about the game as well as introducing new details that they will love. It is apparent that there are still bugs in the game and hopefully that will be worked out soon but the game right now is more than playable.