After speculations,a delay, and a weird bit of PR,Dying Light 2: Stay Humanhas finally hit store shelves. Players looking for a sequel to Techland’s well-received first game will definitely be elated with this game, which basically expands upon almost every aspect from the first game. Everything from the incredible combat to the brilliant traversal mechanics feels great and intuitive to use, making for an awesome time as players explore each nook and cranny of Villedor while dealing with the undead denizens that reside within.
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That being said,Dying Light 2is far from being a perfect experience. Just like the first game, its sequel also has its fair share of issues that range from minor oversights to glaring problems that take away from the overall fun factor of the experience. Keeping this in mind, the most flawed aspects ofDying Light 2are mentioned below.
7Making The Main Narrative More Exciting (Somehow)
This is probably the biggest thing that needs to be rectified inDying Light 2. Techland has placed a greater focus on the story of this game, so it’s a shame thatthe narrative is still quite threadbare and doesn’t really hold the player’s attention… even when it’s being shoved down their throats.
At this point, it can be quite tough to try and make these story moments more exciting. A few additional scenes that contextualize Aiden’s actions might be a decent fix… but this can add to the game’s problems if not executed properly.
6Adding More Depth And Personality To The Characters, Including Aiden Himself
Dying Light 2sports a large cast of main and side characters that Aiden will encounter in his journey torid Villedor of the zombie plague. However, none of these characters are particularly engaging, and their personalities feel almost wooden at times.
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This can be fixed with the addition of more dialogue, scenes, and everything else along the same lines. Even Aiden could do with a makeover of his own, since he feels like a rather passive character who’s just along for the ride instead of taking an active part in combating the zombie epidemic.
5Improving The Animations And Textures Of These Characters As Well
WhileDying Light 2’s visual fidelityis pretty great in its own right, there are times when the game shows its weaknesses in this department as well. This is mainly noticeable in the rather plastic-y look to certain characters, giving them a rather uncanny valley look.
If that wasn’t bad enough as is, some NPC animations are absolutely stilted and wooden. This can be bad for the immersion of the game, so it would be great if Techland could tweak these textures and animations to make them more lifelike.
4Reducing The Dependency That Players Have On Scanning The Environment
As is the case withmost open worlds,Dying Light 2also features the dreaded mechanic of scanning the environment every few seconds to find items, treasure, loot, and everything else along the same lines. Obviously enough, relying on this mechanic becomes quite tiring at times, even though it may be necessary, especially in indoor areas.
Techland can try various fixes to combat this reliance on such a lazy mechanic. Either these lootable items can be made more visually distinct, or their presence can be highlighted automatically when Aiden is near such interactable objects.
Another open-world gaming trope thatDying Light 2incorporates is the need to scan the environment with binoculars from high vantage points to reveal points of interest. This would’ve been a rather engaging way to explore the map if the game trusted the player enough to realize which places should be explored.
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As it stands,Dying Light 2goes into autopilot modewhenever these binoculars come out, marking spots on the map when players focus on them… even if they might be obscured by the environment as well! This kills the sense of exploration and discovery in-game, so Techland should take a page out of Breath of the Wild and either make these areas more visually distinct or trust players to find these areas during their travels.
2Reducing The Overall Length Of The Game
A huge problem withDying Light 2is the excessive length of the game. The fact that the developers thought that a 500-hour playtime is something to brag about shows just how much this game likes to pad out its runtime.
Dying Light 2’s quality can be improved immensely by removing filler content and improving the pacing of the game. As it stands right now, the game lasts around 40 hours but will lose players halfway through the experience since there’s almost nothing new to keep them engaged after this point.
1Tweaking The Paraglider To Make It Less Frustrating
The paraglider isa great addition toDying Light 2, making the parkour of this game even more engaging. Floating around the game world and maintaining a sense of momentum is pretty great, even though the paraglider itself can be rather imprecise to control at times.
This isn’t a huge issue in most cases but becomes particularly irritating during challenge missions that require players to use the paraglider. Trying to make precise turns with such a flimsy tool turns from a minor source of annoying to a huge area of frustration in record time!
