Distinguishing itself from most open-world games, Techland's Dying Light series offers players the chance to train their acrobatic skills by leaping across the ruins of a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. Dying Light 2, first released in 2022, was a sequel that brought back many headlining features from the original - including impactful, first-person melee combat as well as a new version of its parkour movement system. Over time, Techland has committed itself to improve Dying Light 2 with post-launch content updates, and the 2023 roadmap seems to have some big changes in store for fans.
Dying Light's brand of fast-paced action is relatively unique, so even when the story isn't as engrossing as the best open-world RPGs, its presentation more than makes up for those shortcomings. With Dying Light 2, Techland focused on responsive gameplay and creative worldbuilding, giving the sequel a compelling identity among numerous other zombie settings seen in gaming. When it's at its best, players can freely swing between hordes of enemies all while diving from towering rooftops, and recent developer insights hint that an upcoming parkour update will take that experience to greater heights.
More Improvements Coming in the Dying Light 2 Parkour Update
Just recently, Techland released the Gut Feeling update for Dying Light 2 which includes visceral zombie dismemberment along with new crafting options and encounters to help fill out the open world of Villedor. During a developer interview, franchise director Tymon Smektala describes his hopes that the upcoming parkour update can reach the same level of quality as these recent additions. It makes sense from a design perspective - parkour is one of the core features of the game and is intertwined with both movement and combat. As Dying Light 2 aims to grow larger in the years ahead - like its long-supported predecessor - it will have to keep the title fresh based on player feedback.
Based on the studio's history and Smektala's comments about Dying Light 2's 2023 roadmap, it appears that players should expect parkour to receive all-new traversal methods in a way that's similar to how other gameplay systems have been overhauled. Specifically, the team's goal is to make parkour feel a bit more grounded, and a part of that would include extra animations and details to bring traversal closer to the first game in terms of realism. With that said, the core gameplay will likely retain many of its most recognizable elements, but it's also possible that the world could feel more interactive as a result of these efforts.
Players won't have to wait that long to see all the changes to parkour in Dying Light 2 either, as the update is scheduled for the month of June. Consistency has been a key factor in the game's overall success, especially given how much the team has already covered since launch. Seeing as combat, enemy variety, and events have been the focus of its most recent updates, one would hope that the game's trademark movement system only has room to improve going forward, as long as it doesn't veer too far from what makes it enjoyable in the first place.
Many buildings in Villedor are multistory and contain a variety of climbing holds to keep players on the move, and considering the amount of visual feedback put into the Gut Feeling update's gore system, it would be nice to see its movement features receive the same kind of attention. Rather than simply boosting off of walls, or sidestepping entire buildings, it sounds like Techland intends to put parkour back into the forefront as something that maintains Dying Light 2's gameplay flow as an atmospheric, emergent RPG experience.
Dying Light 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
