As the release of Dying Light 2 gets closer and closer, Techland has been eager to show off plenty of footage of the game. It's nice to see Dying Light 2 in a nearly finalized form after rumors of cancellation and further delay were circling late last year when its initial delay was announced. Now that it has a set release date and everything seems to be going according to plan, analyzing the gameplay shown off in trailers and previews is much more feasible, as it's unlikely to change in any major way before its launch.
Parkour played a big part in the original game, but it seems to be a much bigger aspect of Dying Light 2 to the point where the series's focus looks like it's gone from a zombie survival series with parkour elements to a parkour series with zombie elements. While that change might be subtle, Dying Light 2 is focusing much more on its movement system compared to the original game, and hopefully it proves that parkour should be included in more games as a core mechanic.
Dying Light 2's Improved Parkour
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
A lot of Dying Light 2's marketing cycle has been devoted to showing off the enhanced parkour skills that its protagonist Aiden Caldwell has. Techland has stated that Dying Light 2 will feature double the number of parkour moves available to players compared to the first game, and that seems to be corroborated with the pre-release footage of the game that's been shown off so far. While the original Dying Light was a great entry in the zombie game genre, its parkour aspects felt a little bit half-baked, but its sequel's newfound parkour emphasis looks like it's changing the game up for the better. If Dying Light 2 turns out to play as good as it looks, other games may want to take note of its traversal system.
Where Parkour In Gaming Can Go From Here
Parkour in gaming isn't something invented by Dying Light, as games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Mirror's Edge came far before it. That said, Dying Light 2 seems like it might be proving the idea that adding more thoughtful movement abilities to the player's arsenal might improve a lot of titles. For example, the Assassin's Creed franchise dropped more and more of its parkour systems as the series got older to the point where now, freerunning doesn't require much thought to do. Although they're still great games, the Assassin's Creed series has lost a part of itself that, according to some fans, was essential to its original identity. If the franchise were to reintroduce parkour as a more thoughtful mechanic, it would add a level of depth to its movement that could add a lot in terms of substance.
There are a lot of titles that have added parkour elements to their series, but franchises could do more than just adding a slide mechanic. If Dying Light 2 is successful, then it could be something like a proof of concept for other ways to make traversal interesting. This isn't to say that every game needs to have in-depth freerunning mechanics, but for studios that include quick movement or borrow some minor freerunning ideas for their games, thinking about how to flesh those ideas out more could be beneficial. After all, a more thoughtful experience that allows players to try things out and master the game's movement mechanics could prove to be a lot of fun. Even if Dying Light 2 isn't as successful as it seems like it might be, plenty of other games have proven just how fun parkour can be, leading by example and showing how to get movement right in video games.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human is set to release December 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
