2017 was a fairly monumental year in gaming. The Nintendo Switch launched, alongside one of the greatest games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Cuphead surprised and delighted Xbox fans, and Persona 5 continued to make the PS4 a standout console. But in the midst of everything, a little game called Fortnite released, changing the way the games industry would function forever. Now, just about every big AAA game has some form of live-service component, with even single-player games like Dying Light 2 following suit.
It's been over six months since Dying Light 2 first hit store shelves, releasing on February 6, 2022, and through the help of its live-service model, Techland has been able to add a plethora of new content to the game, ranging from small elements like cosmetics to entirely new game modes. If Dying Light 2 wasn't considered worth a purchase at launch, it certainly is now after half a year of free updates.
Dying Light 2 Six Months After Launch
Over the last six months, Dying Light 2 has received a good handful of major updates alongside countless bug fixes and technical patches. The first sizable Dying Light 2 update occurred just two days after the game was released, showing Techland's dedication to making the experience as smooth as possible for early adopters. But while Techland would continue to update Dying Light 2 with a handful of new missions and parkour challenges, the first major update came at the end of April.
Simply titled "Update 1.3.0," this free DLC added a slew of new content to the game. Along with a higher difficulty tier for parkour challenges, and a handful of fresh ones, this update added the long-awaited New Game Plus mode, which went above and beyond what is usually expected from this kind of mode. While most New Game Plus modes simply increase the difficulty for the player's next go-round, Dying Light 2's adds some more spice, changing enemy locations, adding new Inhibitors, and adding some extra loot to reward players for taking on the increased challenge.
In July, Dying Light 2 would receive another major update, this time changing how missions worked, adding some new currencies, and laying the groundwork for Techland's five-year plan. In the 1.4.2 Update, Dying Light 2 received a new NPC called Agent Harper. Upon talking to Harper, players would be given a series of quests, some of which were the standard Dying Light 2 missions and some of which were the brand-new bounty missions. Completing these missions will now reward players with additional types of currency and will increase their new loyalty rank. Continuing to earn this currency and progress through the ranks will reward players with exclusive cosmetics and weapons.
The next update heading to Dying Light 2 is the 1.5 Update, which expands on the foundations laid in Update 1.4.2. A new Agent, Shen Xiu, will be introduced, bringing a whole host of new missions and bounties to the game. It seems as though Techland has really hit its stride with Dying Light 2, and over the last six months, the developer has proven how committed it is to its five-year post-launch roadmap. The future looks pretty bright for Dying Light 2, with more free content and paid story DLC both on the horizon.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A Switch version is scheduled for release later this year.
