Dying Light 2: Stay Human Review: ‘A far cry from zombie greatness’

DYING LIGHT 2: STAY HUMAN REVIEW FOR PC, PS5, PS4, XBOX SERIES X|S, XBOX ONE, AND NINTENDO SWITCH.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is finally here after a tumultuous development period. Looking past the pre-launch drama to the game itself, does this follow-up to 2015’s parkour-fuelled zombie survival title do enough to push the series forward in terms of story and gameplay, while also leveraging the power of the new-gen systems? Not quite.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before

Dying Light 2’s narrative is a marked improvement over the original, with a more interesting protagonist leading the fight in a world that is almost totally taken over by the infected. It’s a predictable plot, but there are enough curious questions that need answers to push players forward. Main man Aiden Caldwell is played well by voice actor Jonah Scott and he’s joined by a few standout allies, with Rosario Dawson’s Lawan being the main highlight.

Beyond the primary cast, however, other characters are either totally forgettable or memorable only for their obnoxious qualities. Thankfully, the devs at Techland have implemented a “Skip Dialogue” button that I ended up using for all but the main missions.

In Dying Light 2, players can choose to side with a “good” or “bad” faction. I started out by siding with the goodies, but quickly became bored at how the story was developing, and so ended up on the dark side. Honestly, the “melee first, ask questions never” is a much more enjoyable way to play, though many characters will hate you for it. Fortunately, they’re so unimpactful that I’ve already forgotten their names, so it hardly matters.

Dying Light 2 tackles many heavy topics, but the poor writing ruins any chance of emotional impact. Some seriously messed up stuff happens, but it’s tough to care about it with dialogue and characters this bland.

Killing a zombie has never felt so good

The power of the PS5 results in Dying Light 2’s wonderfully fluid gameplay. Though there’s the option to prioritize resolution over frame rate, I can’t see why anyone would opt for that. 60 FPS makes everything just so much smoother and also makes inputs feel more responsive.

My only issues with performance are the forced motion blur and occasionally blurry landscapes, the latter of which becomes an issue as you climb higher. Other than that, Dying Light 2 looks pretty damn good, despite the push for 60 FPS.

Unfortunately, a number of bugs have plagued my review experience. From falling through the ground to dialogue being automatically skipped, it’s been a bit of a nightmare. The good news is that the devs have been rolling out patches throughout the review period, so it seems like they are on the ball. At the time of publishing this review, however, I’m still skeptical of a totally polished game being ready for launch.

Run, jump, fight!

As with the first game, Dying Light 2 shines brightest when it comes to traversing the environment and fighting zombies. Luckily, this is exactly what players are encouraged to do for the majority of the experience.

The fun, brutal combat has been made even better. Firearms that made encounters a simple matter of peppering a trigger are now almost totally removed. Instead, there’s a bolstered melee arsenal and a vast number of modifiers that add elemental damage, buff stats, and more.

As for traversal, parkour is back again and Aiden has even more tricks up his sleeves than previous protagonist Kyle Crane. However, these do have to be unlocked over time, which is a shame to see. When I first started the game, I was confused at why I couldn’t slide, before realizing I’d have to work to unlock that basic maneuver. Initial skills are too limited and I don’t think it would have been overwhelming to give players a little more to play with. It sucks when games hold the good stuff for 10+ hours in.

When players aren’t going hand-to-hand with a variety of undead and soon-to-be-dead enemies, or running from rooftop to rooftop before deploying the new glider to sail to the next objective, they are looting.

Dying Light 2 has a lot of loot, from crafting materials to temporary buffs. Lucky players will find a high-level weapon with a ton of mod potential and this is where the true dopamine hit lies. Finding a nasty new melee weapon and trying it out on zombies is the key gameplay loop that I just couldn’t stop chasing. However, the sheer number of zombies that are lootable but then end up “Empty” is maddening. Why make bodies lootable if they have no loot?!

Be afraid of the dark

On a more positive note, the nighttime expeditions also make a return, as do the buffed rewards given to those braving the night and its unique, highly lethal Volatile monsters. This time around, however, playing during the night is now not as optional. There are nighttime missions that players will need to get through if they hope to get some unique rewards and progress side-mission content. I personally love this, as nighttime turns everything up to 11, with combat made much more intense and chase sequences being outright terrifying. I did everything I could at night, as that extra layer helped rescue the otherwise uninspired mission design.

Played alone, the nighttime events may be too much for some. Thankfully, co-op once again makes a return. Up to four players can join a game and fight together. This is great to see, as my fondest memories of the original game took place in co-op. However, Dying Light 2’s mission structure is clearly built around a solo player, so it can make it awkward to suddenly have three more people shoved into the experience.

I feel like Techland could have focused on the co-op implementation a little more, to build upon what made the first game so much fun with friends (and strangers). Hopefully we’ll see the multiplayer experience expanded upon in post-launch content, which the devs have been good for in the past.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human Review: Is it worth buying?

While Dying Light 2 does a lot right with its gameplay and new-gen presentation, it’s still a far cry from zombie gaming greatness. The weak story, uninspired mission design, limitations on initial player skills, and bugs let it down in a big way. Sure, a lot of this will be easy to ignore when fighting the undead as a four-man squad, but “it’s fun with friends” is an excuse that can only get you so far.

Dying Light 2 was reviewed on PS5 with code provided by the publisher.