Dying Light 2 was a relative breath of fresh air from fans of big-budget games, providing a game proportionate to the promises that were made, as well as the expectations that were set, by developer and publisher Techland. While the game has been fairly well-received following its release in December 2021, there is still a plethora of additional content that the game could greatly benefit from.
One of the most obvious changes from launch that would greatly benefit Dying Light 2 is the implementation of a New Game Plus feature. With this feature confirmed to be coming to the game in the next major update, the potential benefits that it could bring to the zombie-infested title are numerous.
What is New Game Plus?
New Game Plus is a gameplay mode that has been historically most prevalent within titles that lend themselves to the role-playing game genre, and has been rumored to come to Dying Light 2 for some time. Players are able to play New Game Plus after beating a game, with this fresh playthrough retaining things like experience levels, items, and abilities from the original playthrough.
In addition to this, the main appeal of many New Game Plus modes is the subsequent scaling of enemies to match a player's retained end-game level, with droppable loot and rewards also scaling. This fosters an appeal for players to keep playing, leveling, and upgrading gear, providing untold benefits to the overall replayability of a title.
The Benefits of New Game Plus in Dying Light 2
Now that a New Game Plus is officially confirmed to come to Dying Light 2, the ways in which the game lends itself to such a game mode seem more obvious than ever. With the core gameplay of Dying Light 2 being contingent upon skill trees, leveling up, and rarity-specific gear and weapons, it more than meets the pre-requisites of role-playing elements that are quite necessary to facilitate a worthwhile New Game Plus.
Dying Light 2 already offers post-game exploration, which additionally boasts an enemy scaling system, meaning players could theoretically level up infinitely in post-game against scaled enemies while earning scaled weapons and gear. The main problem with this gameplay being confined to the post-game is that a large majority of the game's content will have already been completed by most players at this point, offering little to no incentive for players to level up and explore. With players already turning to mods within Dying Light 2 to stave off tedium, it is clear how New Game Plus will be hugely beneficial in shaking things up while being relatively easy to implement.
Translating the enemy and loot scaling that is already a key factor of Dying Light 2's post-game to a New Game Plus mode will allow players to make serious use of the resultant combat and parkour benefits. With the branching storyline of Dying Light 2 and its multiple endings, starting a fresh playthrough is already an attractive prospect, and being able to do this within a New Game Plus mode allows players to further explore the game's story without the limitations of starting anew.
New Game Plus modes have traditionally lent themselves well to co-op RPGs, with the genre-defining Diablo franchise utilizing New Game Plus modes as a key factor that has influenced its success and replayability. With Dying Light 2 also priding itself on its co-op gameplay, New Game Plus gives games all the more reason to play with friends for much longer and with much more variation.
Dying Light 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. A version for the Nintendo Switch is currently in development.
