After years of delays, Dying Light 2: Stay Human is only a few weeks away. The sequel to 2015’s hit open-world zombie action title promises to bring an even bigger and more dynamic story to the series. Along with that, Dying Light’s widely praised parkour and combat are being expanded even further, with plenty of gear present to modify the player’s abilities. Thanks to Techland’s commitment to supporting Dying Light 1 long into the second game’s development, there is expected to be a lot of content in Dying Light 2 in both single-player and multiplayer varieties. Fans are going to have a lot on their plates once the game drops.
However, some are now wondering how much is too much. On January 8, 2022, the official Dying Light Twitter account posted an image declaring that it would take dedicated fans at least 500 hours to fully complete Dying Light 2. This was very quickly elaborated on, clarifying that this hour count referred to getting 100% completion and seeing absolutely all content the game has to offer across multiple playthroughs. This was followed up again on January 10 with a second graphic explaining that the main quest would only take around 20 hours to beat, and completing all the side quests as well would push that up to eighty hours. That’s still a beefy playtime, but a lot more comparable to what the first Dying Light had to offer.
How Long is Dying Light?
The original release of Dying Light was about as long as one would expect an average open-world game to be. According to HowLongToBeat.com, playing through the main story takes an average of around 18 hours. Several hours can be shaved off through skipping cutscenes, minimizing deaths, and beelining straight to objectives, but generally, the game could be completed by a focused player in a moderate amount of time. Engaging with extra content is where Dying Light’s true breadth of content becomes more obvious. Players who engage with side content are known to take anywhere from 35 to 100 hours to beat the game, with 55 hours being the average for completionists.
Dying Light 1 doesn’t stop there. Many updates came out to give the game new modes and features, and one of the biggest was a paid expansion called The Following. This was the main selling point of both the season pass and the re-released Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition. As this expansion is aking to a Dying Light 1.5, it is the length of a full game, if a smaller one than Dying Light proper. With The Following’s ten-hour campaign and the other bonus content it brings, the average time for completing Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition is about 80. That’s an impressive 25-hour increase over the base game, and that’s not even counting the three-hour-long Hellraid DLC and the various side modes and multiplayer content. There’s a lot to do in Dying Light.
How Dying Light 2’s Length Compares to Dying Light
That’s a lot of quality content to live up to. It’s not hard to see why Techland was initially comfortable with declaring that Dying Light 2 has 500 total hours of content; some people have spent over 500 hours playing the first game. However, those hundreds of hours came from playing the base game, as well as repeatable challenges and competitive modes, over and over again. The Dying Light 2 hour count is solely derived from base-game singleplayer content, but also will take repeat playthroughs to fully experience. Contained within those 500 hours are all of the main and side quests, all possible choices and endings, full-clearing every part of the map, experiencing all the dialogue, and finding every collectible. With over 500 pieces of gear scattered across Dying Light 2's open world, players are definitely going to take a long time finding everything. Most players aren’t motivated enough to do more than reach credits, so players don’t need to worry about throwing their life away to fully experience Dying Light 2.
As for how a normal playthrough will go, Dying Light 2’s length is comparable to Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition. Its main story will last around 20 hours, and completing all available quests will take about 80. These numbers indicate that Dying Light 2 is slightly larger and denser than the original Dying Light, but that is expected from a sequel. The time players spend with both Dying Light’s, assuming they enjoy them equally, will be about the same. It will be interesting to see what sort of post-launch content Dying Light 2 gets, but for now, fans will have more than enough zombie action to keep them coming back for more.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human launches February 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
