Maneuvering between zombies – review of the game “Dying Light 2”

Techland has shown many times that it can make solid top-shelf titles. Can the newest child of Polish game makers compete with the greatest?

DyingLight 2 is the latest work from Techland studio, which introduces us to a world full of fighting, villainy and ubiquitous zombies. We play the role of Aiden, a pilgrim who travels through a ruined world in search of his lost sister. The protagonist does not remember much about his past. He only knows that, together with other children, he was the subject of experiments in a secret research facility. Years later, finding a long-awaited clue as to the probable whereabouts of his relative, he ends up in the city of Villedor, gaining a very valuable key along the way.

The story presented in the game is quite uneven. It is quite interesting in its entirety, there are some solid twists and turns that completely turn everything that we took for granted so far, but unfortunately sometimes she sometimes too romances with cliché solutions, stinging in the eyes with their predictability. In this respect, the prologue is the most lame, being a pretty good introduction to the mechanics included in the production, but quite a simple directorial creation. However, it is worth getting over it, because after getting to the aforementioned city, it only gets better.

A vibrant city

After a fairly claustrophobic and linear prologue, we get access to the first of the two parts of the city. Its open structure has been fully exploited. Virtually nothing keeps us from choosing the path to follow. It is worth playing the explorer, because in the maze of lower and higher buildings you can find many interesting places and people. Not only can we find nooks and crannies hiding treasures of various values ​​or characters who want to entrust us with side quests, but also meeting places where by the fire the survivors tell each other stories, sing, and later in the game tell each other rumors and myths that have arisen around our protagonist. Getting into quiet groups is a really nice escape from the constant rush that the game encourages us to take. In addition, the first part of the city is an ideal place,

One of the most important mechanics included in the production of Techland is the day and night system that radically changes our behavior. Moving around during the day is much safer, zombies are slow, sluggish and less diverse in terms of species (although they cannot be so neglected), random events are more frequent and more diverse, and NPCs enjoy the charms of the eye-pleasing sun. At night, however, we are constantly accompanied by the screams of the unfortunate, the undead pulsate with energy, spreading out in crowds on the ruined streets of Villedor. Then we can also come across their more dangerous varieties, including quite numerous howlers, which, upon seeing Aiden, set off an alarm that summons crowds of bloodthirsty corpses. This initiates a chase

However, night is not only a greater threat from mutated corpses, but also a chance to become one of them, because all the inhabitants of Villedor are infected with the unfortunate virus, which, apart from places exposed to sunlight or bathed in ultraviolet light, slowly transforms everyone into a beast. Traveling during the night is therefore more dangerous in many ways, but risk is rewarded in two ways. First of all, we get much more experience necessary to develop combat and parkour skills (however, before we see a nice-to-the-eye rate of additional points, we have to survive until the morning), secondly, darkened zombie hideouts are empty, giving us access not only to better equipment, but also to inhibitors needed to increase the amount of life and energy of the protagonist. It is true that we obtain them while completing tasks from the main plot, but additional syringes are always included in the price. At night, we can also visit the nests of more powerful corpses, which are arenas with mini-bosses, where we can also fight for the aforementioned medicine.

This apocalypse is beautiful

I have to admit the people responsible for how DyingLight 2looks, they did a solid job. The locations are thoughtful, full of details and objects that facilitate efficient exploration, and the streets and buildings are full of litter, debris and wrecks. The whole thing looks convincing, perfectly reflecting the atmosphere of civilization emerging on the ruins of its former glory. The looming forests in the background further intensify this effect, giving a deceptive feeling of the peace reigning there, so different from the city full of bandits and more peaceful people. The atmosphere, however, is not only in the appearance, but also in the creation of quite numerous independent characters. In particular, I remember the moment of riding the elevator with the military squad, when out of boredom one of the uniformed begins to hum a song loudly, then is silenced by the commander, who after a while presents his correct interpretation of the melody. Although usually in scripted moments, the creators skillfully build the impression of the naturalness of the world. Add to that many well-written characters with whom you really make friends or can’t stand their shoes and manners, and you get a world that every now and then appears exceptionally vivid.

Unfortunately, the sound system does not deserve such praise. You have probably heard about the terrible level of Polish dubbing in this production more than once. I myself heard a few opinions that after a few minutes with the title, players switched to the English version, staying with it until the end. In fact, when I heard how artificially and caricatured my first rational opponents sounded in the prologue, I grabbed my head, fearing for the quality of the whole. However, I decided to give my own voices a chance and I must admit that this first impression is really unfair. Yes, then there are also moments that should not be allowed in the final version, but on the whole it’s not as bad as it might seem.

Unfortunately, the musical setting is not one that is memorable. In the menu, we hear a track that is depressing on the one hand, but on the other hand the heavy atmosphere disappears somewhere between the other sounds that are not very coherent with each other. During the game, we will not pay much attention to it, because we have a not very expressive background, which might as well not exist at all. With one rather significant exception …

Catch me if you can

Getting DyingLightit was also quite a successful title with a lot of good content, and it was famous mainly for one element – parkour. In the second installment, the creators also rose to the heights in this matter, doing something phenomenal. From the very beginning, when our skills are not too great and the energy bar ends too quickly, you can feel how much heart has been put into this segment. The design of the location begs you to use it for gymnastic performances, jumping between the successive roofs is a lot of fun, and climbing the ledges quite efficiently allows you to correct your mistakes. The skills unlocked over time and additional equipment in the form of a rope gives us almost unlimited exploration possibilities, while being a truly wonderful experience. Even a paraglider definitely slows down the frantic traversing of the ruined city, sometimes it can be quite a pleasant way of getting around. The musical layer also flourishes here, because it becomes faster and clearer when we perform consecutive acrobatics, presents a dramatic pause while hovering in the air after making a jump, and above all enhances the feeling of unstoppable momentum or the joy of a complicated climb. Parkour inDyingLight 2 is so rewarding that even though I have traveled some routes dozens of times, I have been constantly enjoying traversing them, and I only used the option of fast travel twice – when I wanted to see how it works and when I had no other choice.

You can also speak positively about the fight, although without pauses as in the case of parkour. Mechanically, it is trivially simple, based on blows, parrying and dodging, but combined with Aiden’s gymnastic abilities, it can turn into a very spectacular art, although keeping a good pace is not so easy here. Between fast one-handed weapons, powerful two-handed weapons, throwing accessories in the form of various types of bombs, grenades and knives, and devilishly effective ranged weapons, everyone will find something for themselves. In all this delightful dismembering of opponents of varying degrees of intelligence, unfortunately, the fight with the final boss is more tiring than fun, which after the earlier pleasure is quite a disappointment.

Dear gentleman here i present you poop

DyingLight 2 is a fairly extensive game, containing a lot of various content, and in the case of such large productions, there will always be some bugs. Unfortunately, although up to the premiere level of Cyberpunk 2077 far away, there are simply too many mistakes to ignore. Characters teleporting after the conversation ends, strange behavior of NPCs’ heads making it impossible to talk to them, corpse of the unfortunate man devoured by zombies who are standing carelessly, even turning their eyes towards the hero, or the lack of English translation of some words, though not so frequent, clearly visible. However, they were not such a big problem and only sometimes it was necessary to return to a given place at a different time for everything to work as it should. However, getting the computer to restart (fortunately only once in my case) and the crash of a few of the videos that make up the ending and the summary of the game are things that already offend too much *.

It is also worth mentioning that, as in the case of the first Dying Light , also in the second part we can start the game in cooperation mode. In this case, one person can call for support in the form of a group of up to three players. It is true that the progress of the campaign only counts for the host, but the reward in the form of experience, equipment and the ability to learn the consequences of various choices before making them in your own campaign is a very pleasant option.

Dying Light 2 is an undeniably successful game. Admittedly, it has its drawbacks, it is a bit lacking in perfection and you can complain about a bit, but the phenomenal parkour, satisfying combat model, expressive atmosphere and wonderfully written characters make it a title that cannot be ignored. It is a singular experience that you can safely go through several times, making quite different decisions. So if you like zombies, a note of risk and exploration, I strongly recommend you to read the work of Techland.

 

* There were some major patches between the writing of this text and its publication, so things have improved.