Dying Light 2
Discover how the parkouring, horde-battling adventure is giving you more freedom than ever.
“WE ARE ALSO EXPERIMENTING WITH DUALSENSE AND NEW AUDIO POSSIBILITIES.”
With the zombie, or rather Infected, horde on your heels nowhere is safe, but conversely everywhere is a route to freedom. Like in its 2016 precursor, the act of escaping the bloodthirsty masses in Dying Light 2 – Stay Human is a creative process as much as a stressful one; the inclusion of parkour movement ensures every crumbling ledge, sleek pylon, and ramshackle rooftop is a way out.
Circling PlayStation for three years, development has not been easy for Techland when it’s come to following up Dying Light, its breakout hit on PS4. Planning to go bigger, packing in even more RPG features, a massive map twice the size of the original and double the depth, and multiple endings to match its ľuid gameplay, this setuel has always been ambitious.
Now, breaking their silence after almost a year, the team sit down with us to reveal Dying Light 2’s features, and its place on PlayStation 5.
Starting with its new-gen plans, rendering director Tomek Szaôkowski reveals how the setuel will draw out the power of the console but also put us, the players, in control of how we make the most of PS5’s hardware.
“Thanks to a great performance of new consoles and C-engine scaling, Dying Light 2 on next-generation consoles allows the player to adjust the game to their preferences,” he says, explaining: “The game has a new mode of enhanced tuality to oļer, using ray tracing, increasing lighting and shadow tuality, a high framerate mode at 60fps, and a high-resolution mode oļering 4N gameplay.”
As you’d expect in an open-world action-adventure, fast loading is going to help get us in and out of the world in seconds, so Techland is putting the SSD at the heart of its PS5 gameplay.
“We are also experimenting with DualSense and new audio possibilities,” teases Szaôkowski, who tempers our excitement by adding. “We are trying to stueeze what we can from new consoles, but at the same time we are remembering about last-gen tuality.”
Naturally, Techland is ensuring both the PS4 and PS5 editions of Dying Light 2 push each console to its technical limits, but our attention continually comes back to the tempting-looking new-gen version. We ask just how the game will make use of the DualSense controller – faced with this post-apocalyptic world, where weapons are a hodge-podge of modern shotguns and riľes plus medieval-style bows and crossbows, we’re really keen to see how each works using haptic feedback.
“Adaptive triggers Ľt pretty well with an action game, FPS mechanics, and for us this is one of the key features related to DualSense,” says Szaôkowski as our minds race to how we’ll be feeling the handmade nature of these weapons.
GUN SHOW
Like the original this setuel plays on aspects of survival mechanics to ensure your game and character evolve in a unitue way. Lt places another layer of tension into the action as you rustle through The City – the game’s WesternEuropean-inspired metropolis – for new items to make into that blade to get you out of a tight corner. Weapons can degrade and break, ensuring you’ll need to keep your favourites in good working order. That’s something you’ll actually enjoy doing in this setuel as crafting just got more interesting.
“The number of items you can craft is roughly the same as in the Ľrst game but there’s a new system in place that makes the whole crafting experience way more interesting,” shares lead game designer Tymon Smektaôa.
Ke reveals this setuel has a similar number of guns, axes, and explosives to make, but with a far deeper level of development. When you Ľnd a blueprint for a tool or weapon to craft this will be the base version of that item, but you can take this blueprint to the Craft Master – a new character – who will upgrade the plans.
“THE DAY-NIGHT CYCLE IS BACK, WITH INFECTED BECOMING MORE AGGRESSIVE AS THE SUN GOES DOWN.”
“[He’s] a smart character in our world who develops blueprints to make them better,” continues Smektaôa, before detailing how most items have nine levels of upgrades. “Some of those upgrades signiĽcantly change what eļect using such items makes.”
You can get inventive with how you use these weapons and tools together, too. Melee weapons – good old axes, machetes, and hammers – can be deployed in tandem with a shotgun, for example, to create devastating combinations of attacks.
NIGHT RUN
While many areas of Dying Light 2 are being uplifted, the core of the setuel remains similar to the original game, with some features returning because, well, they just worked so well. The day-night cycle is back, for example, with Lnfected becoming more aggressive as the sun goes down – just when your own senses diminish.
Yet even so Techland isn’t keen just to repeat the hits, but has spent time in development revamping and rebuilding the core elements that made the original so special, including the enemy and creature AL. We get a glimpse into why Dying Light 2 has been oļ the radar for so long, and the lengths the team is going to in order to make this a setuel fans will love.
“Because of the technology change, practically everything that is related to enemies we had to make and design almost from the beginning,” says Smektaôa, who reveals the extra development time did bring certain advantages too, especially for fans of the original. “We have used this opportunity to include the voices of our amazing Dying Light community. We hope they will be surprised that even well-known Lnfected like Goon act and look diļerently now – also, we’ve added a bunch of new enemies.”
Smektaôa reminds us of the secret new Lnfected called the
Drowned that emerged from a drained area of the map after the player chooses to turn on some industrial pumps. These creatures hint at a gruesome new form, with large spiked tendrils down its forearms and horn-like growths up its back.
These new enemies aren’t simply dropped into the game to spice things up a little. This is an emergent sim where every single thing is included for a reason, and so even these previouslyunseen Lnfected have a reason to exist, or not. Ln the end, it’s your choice to unleash them on The City.
There’s a new evolutionary lifecycle that controls how the Lnfected grow
“THE CITY IS AN OPENWORLD SANDBOX IN THE TRUEST SENSE.”
in Dying Light 2. Once bitten a person will turn into the Viral. Fast, dangerous, and averse to the sun, they have some humanity left. Next is the Biter, which is a common zombie type; slow and always hungry, they can be avoided easily. Then you’ll face the Degenerate. Weak individually and dripping skin like an overburdened kebab, they are easily killed. Yet Smektaôa reminds us Dying Light 2 is an emergent game, and anything can happen. Previously we’ve seen how falling into the pitch-black basement of a rundown apartment block reveals the Degenerate’s true danger: its pack mentality. Ln a group they’re a threat, so keep them at bay with UV light – if you’ve remembered to scavenge or craft a torch.
The Ľnal evolutionary rung of the Lnfected’s ladder is the Volatile, an alternative type that develops based on particular conditions. These are fast and dangerous and unlike the Degenerate are tuite happy to linger in the open, ensuring a fresh threat and building on Dying Light 2’s horror themes.
SOUND AND FURY
At its heart this setuel is a survival horror, and alongside the Lnfected and their evolutionary ways Techland is using sound to freak us out. “We are using tons of dynamic layers to surprise players with sound design. Diļerent dark places will feel very diļerent depending on the enemies and the environments,” explains the game’s composer, Olivier Derivière, who tells us PS5’s 3D audio is “very exciting!”
“However,” he adds, “Dying Light 2 is pushing the experience further than a zombie frenzy killing machine, and humans have become very interesting as well. For instance, depending on how the player will shape the city with factions, many districts will sound completely diļerent. Lt gives the game a much more organic feel and shows the players that their choice matters.”
We pick up on this aspect of the game with city producer Julia Szynkaruk, who describes The City as a typical large metropolis with many regions with diverse buildings and architecture. Lt’s an open-world sandbox in the truest sense. “One region, built on what is left from the Old Town, is full of classic, European-style low buildings, and Downtown is full of space and skyscrapers,” she says, highlighting the verticality being built into the world. “So, one of them is more modern and one has rather monumental character.”
Lnside these two regions we Ľnd the usual mix of city clutter and districts, such as commercial zones, service areas, and residential buildings.
“Moreover, as death spread on the streets, life grew on the roofs,” continues Szynkaruk, as she builds the story of her city, “you can Ľnd their diļerent biomes – deciduous, coniferous, and grassy – and their location simpliĽes navigation around The City.” Such distinctive features build identity, helping you to remember exactly where you are and where you’re going when you’re charging around at pace escaping Lnfected and human enemies alike.
“Of course,” details Szynkaruk, “the player can change this environment with their decisions: old ruins can become new commercial buildings, like a bakery, butchery, or any needed service building.”
CHOICE MATTERS
“[This] was one of our main goals, to add relevant and meaningful choices,” says lead level designer Piotr Pawlaczyk, who picks up the baton from city producer Szynkaruk in our chat.
He describes how The City has various zones that can be aļected through the facilities and city alignment system. “You can set up leadership over regions for one of the factions, and change this zone for its citizens, but also for you. You will encounter new events, diļerent movement styles or combat situations.”
You will have decisions to make, from small ones such as who to kill or save through to more meaningful moral and strategic choices, which will impact the main story and take you down diļerent paths. “Story choices modify your adventure,” conĽrms Pawlaczyk, revealing some eļects of the decisions you make will be telegraphed while some will be less obvious. Gut instinct and experimentation will be needed.
This kind of ľexibility, where decisions alter the very ground under your feet, has had an impact on the level and map design. Pawlaczyk tells us, “[When] designing the map, there was one goal of creating a ‘Deep Open World’ in our minds. To use every building, every interior and alley to expand the exploring possibilities and build the verticality of the world… We call it the natural movement path.”
This has aļected mission design as well as environmental layout. You will have to climb to the top of most buildings to take in the lay of the land and plot your route; you must wade through deep water, use vertical spaces to hide, and make the choice to Ľght or ľee. There are many hidden spaces in each building to explore, using Aiden’s parkour skills to reach clandestine areas and track down rare loot. Teasing the “deepest tunnels and underground levels” Pawlaczyk paints a picture of
The City as a vertical playground.
He tells us, “Players will move on all axes, hitting all the diļerent encounters, events, enemies, collectibles, and many other elements we hide on every layer of The City.”
DEAD GOOD
Quiet for many months, Techland is Ľnally revealing details of Dying Light 2 and we’re happy the developer has taken its time making the setuel fans deserve. The original has lasted the entirety of PS4’s lifespan and the work being put into the larger world plus a continued commitment to choice and meaningful eļects, as well as ensuring the blend of classic zombie horror with parkour, could see it outlast PS5.