Dying Light 2: Staying Human dropped Feb 3rd, 2022 and the anticipation is finally over. Whether you are using your agility to perform some impressive uber running to stay away from harm or duking it out with the herds of zombies roaming the open world, the goal is simply to stay human and help reshape the world to come.
The wide world of zombies has been a fascination of mine since I laid my eyes on any of George Andrew Romero’s flicks. I got wind that Dying Light 2 was on the horizon and I just had to see what all the hype was about. The story is straightforward, players take the reigns as a wanderer that must help one of the last remaining settlements. In this world, the virus has won and civilization has fallen back into the darkest of times. Players are required to solve various missions to progress through the story. One of the more challenging parts of the game is the grind for materials. This aspect of the game grounds it in a form of reality.
Countless hours can be spent roaming around the distraught city looking in every inch in search of weapons, materials, and ingredients. Between the primary missions, I often found myself doing what one does in open-world games, exploring. However, unlike most games, every inch of this game wants to ensure your untimely demise. Games like this will lead you into a sense of security when you start going up against some of the low-level zombie mobs. These are a good warm-up at best, once night hits, you got to keep on your toes and roofs.
As players progress through the game, they are presented with various options and avenues for skills and upgrades. This allows players to fine-tune the experience to fit their desired skill set. If you like to be a brawler or a tank, players will obtain gear that will also reflect and enhance those skill traits. To gain new skills, you need to find GRE stashes. Each has its challenge to unlock or clear. After about 15+ hours into the game not only were I hooked, I found myself getting drawn into the world. I started focusing on some of the side missions and trying to find hidden stuff.
GRAPHICS
The visual styling of DL2 is wonderful. I often found myself reaching new heights in the game just to look at the scenery and even snap a few screenshots. The sense of realism in the world design and the artistically crafted textures sells the game for me. One feature that sets DL2 from others is the day/night cycle. Each part of the cycle has its pros and cons. For example, daytime is much easier to navigate as well as staying alive. Nighttime offers rewards for being out at night, as well as some locations, that have stores and gears that can be easier to access as the dead are outside at night. However, being out at night has its risks that defiantly make you question the worth. If you are low on supplies, I would not suggest going out hunting at night.
I will stay this game runs decently on older graphics cards. Currently, I am still rocking my RX580 as prices have not come to a normal MSRP range to make me want to budge on a new one. I wanted to mention this simply because I know I am not the only gamer waiting in the want a new GPU club. While my settings are not fully maxed out, this did not impact playability for me at 45+ FPS. I did experience some dropped frames during heavy. While it seems to work well on older Graphics cards, I would urge you to look for something a bit north than an rx580.
AUDIO AND MUSIC
While visuals take center stage, the real scene-setting feature is how well a game includes its audio effects and music. I have played countless games where the audio effects either feel a bit too ingenuine or implemented half-assed. This is especially true when it comes to horror-type games. I want to be engulfed by the atmosphere and feel of the game. Dying Light 2 is one of those I would put at the top of my list for well-implemented audio effects. The constant moaning from the various zombies scattered everywhere not only brings out my fight or flight responses but also increases my anxiety during gameplay.
A plus for streamers, players have the option in the audio settings to enable streamer mode that will avoid playing copyrighted music during streaming events.
CONTROLS
Dying Light 2 features full mouse and keyboard support along with full controller support. While initially, I played using the tried-and-true mouse and keyboard combo, I found that some of the base key mappings left a bit to be desired. I took a chance with my Xbox one wireless controller, this worked perfectly without any need to change settings. While the learning curve for the controller was short it did not come with a few deficits. Reaction time was decreased with a notable delay.
Currently, I did not have another wireless controller to test with, I am going to chalk this up the wireless connectivity and not the game. At the beginning of the game, the tutorial does a good job of teaching the controls but players’ milage may vary at this stage.
OPEN WORLD
DL2 features an open-world model. This allows players to experience the world around them independently from one another. This allows players to navigate the game in various ways that play to their play type. You could run rooftop to the rooftop and avoid the decaying herd of zombies while still progressing through the story or you could wander the streets, bashing in the heads of the undead while searching for more gear, ingredients, and scavenging for parts.
This plays back into the grinding required to build up your skills with creating first aid components and even upgrading your weapons. It does seem that the bigger initial payouts are with the main storyline, the vast amount of side quests and goods to find can fill the void.
Influence and choice play an essential part in the experience that is dying light 2. Throughout the players’ gameplay, you are presented with choices that will shape the outcome. You may be pitted against a possible new ally and a street vendor that tried to sell poisoned supplies. Will you turn that vendor in? or strike a deal? These are the types of decisions that will allow players to direct their outcome to the story. I would think this plays close to what it would be like in real life. Scary thought, isn’t it?
Dying Light 2 features Co-op online play. This enables players to play with 2-4 players to aid each other. Players can host a game and battle through endless zombies and aid you in the story progression. Are you interested to see if the grass is greener on the other side? Join a friend who came to whiteness first hand how their choices have shaped the world for them.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I would like to point out that on Steam, players can opt to purchase the deluxe and ultimate bundles. Each comes with additional gear and freebies. For more information, please check out DL2 on Steam. The current price on Steam is $59.99 for the basic version, $79.99 for the deluxe, and $99.99 for the ultimate editions. Deluxe and Ultimate feature legendary renewable weapons and other swag.
System Requirements
Min Spec
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows® 7
- Processor: Intel Core i3-9100 / AMD Ryzen 3 2300X
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti / AMD Radeon™ RX 560 (4GB VRAM)
- Storage: 60 GB available space
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows® 10
- Processor: AMD / Intel CPU running at 3.6 GHz or higher: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel i5-8600K or newer
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB or AMD RX Vega 56 8GB or newer
- Storage: 60 GB available space
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.