Review - Dying Light 2 : Good Ideas - Bad Implementations - Nice Gameplay

 

© Techland
All rights reserved

Welcome to a new installment of the series, this time a highly expected sequel that wasn't what we wished to be.

TL;DR

Chronicles Conclusion:

Solid Game But Wait For A Discount

Pros:

Great combat

Progression feels organic

Parkour is on point and feels very great

Overall better polished game than 1

Lot of content for completionists (Collectables)

Cons:

Inconsistent Protagonist

Bad Polished Story

Decisions have zero weight on almost all outcomes

Repetitive nature missions

Some loose ends for the story at the end.

Ridiculous excuse for having so poor weaponry and no fire guns

A lot of "Scripted moments" that feel so dumb in the context of the gameplay 

The Prelude:

You will read sometimes things that take for guaranteed that you know DL1.

If you don't, no worries you won't miss much but I encourage anyone to play the first game before this one in case you want to play both for a better experience on the QOL improvements.

The atmosphere of a lost world trying to survive another day is well achieved

The Story Context:

Dying Light 2 was the very expected sequel for more than seven years of the highly praised first entry.

We start 20 years after Dying Light ending, the game don't specific the time line or ending that's canon or at the least if "the following" is canon.

The world as ended, the infection won and the humanity is on the verge of disappearing, "storywise" Viledor, the city where the game takes part.

The face is gold 

It's one of the last and much probably the last stand of humanity, everyone is infected but the light takes a more important role.

This time all the people has a bracelet that monitors the state with three different lights, green and red being the important ones and orange well don't need explaining.

I won't be talking about the story plot because to be honest is bad (personal take) but the little surprises are at least interesting so if you're interested they worth the while.

The missions are pretty straight forward but I would lie if I don't say that they're great, the most of them are the typical going from A to B but the game does a pretty good job in keeping that fresh.

The atmosphere are well achieved

The Map Structure:

This is one of the most criticized points on my perspective, the game has this "Under X faction controlled area" that gives you benefits each time you capture a critical zone like a power plant or a water pump station.

You can choose certain "modifications" for example if you give them to the "government like faction" these zones will have traps, you will get a special remote to activate them and make your life easier.

If you choose the survivors, these zones will get you parkourish things to help you travel across the zone more easily and comfortable, like claws that get you up a building or air vents that let's you glide more far.

The Decisions:

All the way fight these clowns

The game has a lot of decisions, some better than others because they only change little bits of a mission or a dialogue but others change the gameplay completely and the sequence of the important ones will put you on a specific ending track.

For example the one of the image:

(Spoilers) the only thing that changes is that you can kill these dudes on a fight or negotiate with them and later on the story they will give you a secondary quest, not relevant but an extra quest for anyone interested (I didn't doubt a moment to end those dudes).

That globalize almost all the decisions, a bit of gameplay but that's it, so far almost all the decisions do this, a little change on gameplay or a glimpse later, my problem with this particular mechanic is the way they sold it to us.

Farther the game, the most different than the paths diverge but the missions are some different objectives or a totally different mission, not what they sold on the promotional videos but I take it over nothing.

To end this section, the factions is some of the best parts of the game because they do a whole lot of content like side missions, chats, different interactions to know them better and as my opinion they got a nice complement to the story.

The factions are very different but the story does a great job making both sides gray instead of black and white

In Conclusion:

The game does an excellent job making you explore the map for weapons and the most important, the inhibitors (Upgrades of life and stamina), getting more skill points and the gameplay is so satisfying as the parkour and combats with other survivors are so well done.

The downside is that the content outside of the collectables and the grinding of getting upgrades, aren't as engaging as the main story and some secondary missions so it's a pretty bad implementation of quality content mixed with filler hours.

To end this review I have to say that the game isn't bad, is very divisive on the content because all the things that promotionals sold wasn't what we got.

The nights are scarier but the presentation of the night was far better on the first one

You have a lot of decisions, actions and answers to a lot of situations but sadly I have to say that more than 80% of the choices don't do much besides so little things or anything at all.

The game is good, personally I found the story being pretty bad and a total disappointment to the ending of DL1.

The nights are far more scariest than the prequel but after some updates, the first few months the nights were child's play.

The protagonist of the second one is a dumb person that are constantly being bested and manipulated.

This is highly disruptive with the gameplay and the player decision because is far stronger and smarter when the script don't enter into play.

To finish this, I recommend that you enter it with a permissive mind for dumb script twists and gigs, the gameplay and combat worth it alone so I hope you enjoy it.

The inhibitors are good for getting more hours but bad if you don't like grinding

Thanks for reaching the end! 

Additional note : If you like the content please consider following us on:

Twitter: @TheChroniclesOG 

Facebook: The Chronicles Of A Gamer

Support the project: Buy Me A Coffee

Quora as The Chronicles Of A Gamer for more relaxed content like memes and other things relationed with the world of videogames.

We have a community on Reddit too, see us as r/TheChroniclesOfAGamer to be the first one to see our new content.

Also you can consult the Contact Us page for a direct way of contact for business or feedback, feel free to get in touch.