Dying Light 2 finally releases in February next year, almost two years after its initial planned release date of Spring 2020. While Dying Light 2 has suffered quite extensive delays since being announced in 2018, it has done little to kill the excitement of fans, who are eager to finally get their hands on the game. The sequel to the original Dying Light has been long-awaited, with fans keen to finally get more of what made the original such a popular title. It seems as though Dying Light 2 will have this in spades, judging from the numerous trailers that have been released.
It has also been made clear from Dying Light 2’s trailers that the game will also have a pretty compelling story to keep players interested beyond the gameplay. The story of Dying Light 2 that has been shown so far will be disappointing to fans who were hoping to continue on from the original game, but for fans looking for something completely new, there’s a lot to consume. Throughout the game’s trailers, little nuggets of campaign information has been dropped, setting up a story-centric experience not too dissimilar from the likes of the Fallout series.
What’s New In Dying Light 2?
Aside from the all-new story of Dying Light 2, the game also introduces a ton of new features to innovate and improve over the original. The first thing players may notice is that Dying Light 2 has new zombie types, which will be sure to keep them on their toes as they traverse its harsh open world. Of these new zombie types, the Sleeping Beauties look as though they may be the most pervasive type. They look like they’ll be a pain to navigate past since they've infested The City. Other types include the Revenant and Banshee, which look to pose slightly more of a threat in one-off encounters, but don’t possess the strength in numbers of the Sleeping Beauties.
The aforementioned City is also a new addition to the series, seemingly providing a dangerous, yet exciting experience. One of the major gameplay innovations of Dying Light 2 is the ability to pick a Faction and model the open world of Dying Light 2 to that Faction’s views. This is one of the more exciting gameplay innovations, and should be interesting to see how the concept of a malleable world and story will merge with the overarching narrative of the game. The Factions system of Dying Light 2 will offer players freedom in how they approach the game, but players are yet to see how this will work exactly.
Dying Light 2’s Story
While the Factions system is likely to shake things up from the previous game, it is the main story of Dying Light 2 that will likely hook players in. This story has been highlighted throughout the game’s teaser trailers, but particularly at E3 2021. At the PC Gaming Show, it was revealed just why Aiden came to The City, and what motivates him to face zombies where others would stay away. Aiden’s story isn’t entirely unique though, and it may sound quite familiar to fans of the Fallout series, who have seen a similar premise in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.
Like in Fallout, Aiden is motivated to wander the post-apocalyptic hellscape of The City after being separated from his family. Aiden was locked up along with his sister at a young age, repeatedly being experimented on to find a cure to the infection. A fire sees the two separated at five years old, and they don’t see each other again.
The concept of both being separated from family, and experimented on will be very familiar to Fallout fans, who will remember the Vault-Tec experiments of the Fallout series. The story of Dying Light 2 may appeal to Fallout fans, while the open world gameplay should also be of interest. There may be a big overlap between the Fallout and Dying Light community, which may be only further strengthened by the story of Dying Light 2.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human releases February 4, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
