Dying Light 2 Stay Human

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Dying Light 2 Stay Human released on February 4th, 2022.

Back in 2015, Techland developed the critically acclaimed, Dying Light, which went on to get excellent reviews from various gaming sites.

I personally love Dying Light, so when I got the chance to pick up and play its sequel, I was fully on board and expecting to put hours into this world!

Surely enough, I did just that, and although the story wasn't the absolute best it could've been (in my opinion, considering Dying Light 1's excellent plot), I still had a blast with the weapons, huge map, music, and much more!

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

The plot takes place in the same universe as the first Dying Light. 

With a massive pandemic turning civilization into monsters, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is about a second, more deadly pandemic, that is rampaging through the city of Villedor. 

With the city in chaos, it is up to you, Aiden Caldwell, to maneuver through the enormous amounts of locations and defeat monsters, collect loot, help civilians, and, of course, find your long-lost sister, Mia. 

When playing this game you will hear the word Pilgrim a lot. 

Pilgrims in Dying Light 2 Stay Human are people who take on the task of traveling outside safe zones, between different human settlements. 

Aiden (the protagonist) is one of those Pilgrims and due to this, you have a wide variety of parkour skills at your disposal. 

These parkour feats include sliding, climbing ledges, leaping off platforms (buildings, roofs, etc.), and even wall running.

The way Techland developed Dying Light 2 Stay Human, is that you level up two different categories throughout the game. These categories are Parkour and Combat. 

The more you engage in Parkour and / or Combat, the more points you accumulate, and then you can use these Skill Points to unlock these various feats. 

I loved the feeling of the parkour in this game, more than the first Dying Light! 

Using the right trigger to jump and holding it to grab, was the perfect combination, and the sound effects were incredible too!

Techland did a great job with the ambience, similarly to the first game, with examples like hordes yelling from far away to make you panic (even if it wasn't real and just to scare you). 

The controls and sound design were top notch for me, but the rest of the game did unfortunately lack in motivation to continue. 

I loved the world and the gameplay, but for the PS4 (at least for me), a lot of this 24-hour (average) game was mixed in with bugs, frame rate drops, and massive audio issues with dialogue!

The audio, with the dialogue, would most of the time bug out and you would just be watching the cutscenes in silence. I found this more active towards the final few missions. 

The frame rate drops and bugs also happened more frequently in the city of Villedor more than the first map of the game. 

Fighting the Renegades (bandits) in this map specifically, bugged out big time with the enemies freezing and damage given / taken, taking a few seconds to occur. 

Normally I wouldn't care about this stuff, but it did make a huge difference in the gameplay / immersion. 

One feature in Dying Light 2 Stay Human I found very interesting though, and does help with its longevity / replayability, is the choices in the game's campaign you can make.

There are three factions in Dying Light 2 Stay Human, which are...

    - The Survivors

    - The Peacekeepers

    - The Renegades

Though you only can partake in activities with the Survivors and Peacekeepers (as of writing this blog post), all three factions have heavy impact on your playthrough.

For example, there are various facilities in the game's world that, when completed, you can assign these facilities to either the Survivors or Peacekeepers. 

Each faction has different rewards for doing so, and when I played, I chose the Survivors every time due to their navigation rewards like the trampoline jumping, and zip lines!

Dying Light 2 Stay Human has a whopping eight different endings with the main story decisions and who you decide to partner with.

Main characters like Lawan, Jack Matt, Mia, Hakon, Frank, Waltz, and more, all have their own branching paths that are only accessible when / if you go down the appropriate path(s).

One main feature of Dying Light 2 Stay Human is the use of UV lights. In this world of madness, UV lights are used to keep infected away. 

Settlements all around, and even safe zones (which you can unlock to have spawn locations / sleeping options) all have UV supplies, lights, upgrades, and more.

When night arrives, your Parkour and Combat points are multiplied due to how dangerous (and terrifying) it is to maneuver. Though, if you die, you do lose all those accumulated (valuable) points.

You also have chances to be engaged in Chases at night. These are basically the worst thing to do in Dying Light 2 Stay Human if your easily stressed / scared. 

There are multiple stages to these chases where infected sprint for you, and if you can get far away (or in a safe zone) enough, you get even more points. 

These points are then stored when morning arrives or if you sleep. 

I noticed in Dying Light 2 Stay Human that the vast amounts of side activities you can do, don't truly matter in the end. 

What I mean by this, is that side activities like the Parkour Challenges, GRE Anomalies, or even the Airdrops, all don't matter essentially for completing the main game with a decent player level. 

When / if you play just the main campaign missions, you will get the weapons, skills, and information needed to finish the game right from the get-go. 

I didn't find a reason to complete hardly any of the side activities, only doing so when I accidently encountered them.

The collectibles are outstanding though in this game and they all contain really fun information on the ever expanding Dying Light universe. 

While I found Dying Light 1 more interesting in terms of story, Dying Light 2 Stay Human did have incredible quality of life improvements like the controls, graphics, branching story results, and simply, just overall, more amount of content. 

I would recommend Dying Light 2 Stay Human but wouldn't be surprised if you never touched it again post campaign, like myself (as of writing this blog post).

Pros: 

    - Excellent Sound Design

    - Massive Amount of Content

    - Memorable Characters

    - Longevity / Replayability

    - Great Control Schemes

Cons:

    - Boring Music

    - Lackluster Plot (Compared to First Dying Light)

    - Lack of Side Activity Encouragement

    - Frame Rate Drops in City (at least on PS4)

    - Audio and Texture Glitches

My Rating for Dying Light 2 Stay Human (on PS4):

3 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.