Dying Light 2 Stay Human from Techland is launching in a couple of days, so it’s now time for you to learn more about this open world experience. Check our Dying Light 2: Stay Human review!
Dying Light 2 Stay Human from Techland is launching in a couple of days, so It’s now time for you to learn more about this open world experience. It’s been a long wait, with development taking around six years, but we now have a sequel that improves on everything that Dying Light set out to do back in 2015. It takes place 20 years after the events of its prequel, which means you’ll be playing as new protagonist Aiden Caldwell, who will use not only his skills and the weapons and tools he can get his hands on, but also whatever is around him in order to survive.
The bad news for everyone in Dying Light 2 Stay Human is that, unfortunately, the virus won. After everything that happened in Harran two decades ago, civilization has pretty much fallen back into the dark ages, with the remaining humans in constant conflict, trying to scavenge any of the remaining resources to just try to stay alive for one more day. This time around, you’ll be exploring the open world of The City, one of the last human settlements and one of the last bastions of hope.
The game can be played in one of three different difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, or Hard. For Easy, the game is adapted for gamers who are more interested in enjoying the game’s story, thus making enemies easier to defeat and they deal less damage, all while resources are easier to find. Normal offers the standard experience, balanced for you to take on a journey in which mistakes can cost you dearly. And then we have the Hard difficulty setting, which makes enemies deadly right from the start, since they’ll deal more damage and will adapt to your tactics. You’re going to have to make every single resource count, because there are going to be harder to find, and merchants will offer less craft parts as well.
The game is played from a first-person perspective, which means you’ll move with the left analog stick as you use the right one to look around. Pressing and holding the R3 button – that is, pressing in the right analog stick will allow you to use your Survivor Sense. This will highlight any enemies near you, as well as any resources for you to collect, or any items to investigate so that you can learn more about what has happened before. You’ll sometimes need to crouch with the Circle button so that you can sneak around some bitter-infested areas, or to enter hiding spots.
There’s going to be a lot of jumping in your future, since the game places a big emphasis on exploration and on being able to use your parkour skills to climb through each area. You’ll also be using a variety of melee weapons, which you can use with the R2 button to attack. Blocking will also be crucial, so time things right as you press the L1 button to stop enemies from dealing considerable damage. Do be aware of how melee weapons won’t last forever, since every time you use one it will degrade, so you should always have a backup or two.
Consumable items can be cycled through by pressing up on the D-Pad, so that you can then use them by pressing and holding down the X button. You can cycle through weapons by pressing right on the D-Pad, so that you can use regular weapons to defeat regular enemies, keeping the stronger weapons for when you run into the more powerful opponents you’ll run into. You’ll have a flashlight you can use to light your way when needed, which will be extremely handy when exploring inside of buildings or hideouts.
Dying Light 2 Stay human features a day and light cycle that you can use to your advantage if you plan things right. You see, the infected are not very fond of daylight, so they won’t be venturing out when the sun is shining bright. Because of this, you probably shouldn’t go and explore one of their hideouts during the day, because it’s going to be packed with enemies that will completely destroy you before you realize what you’ve gotten yourself into. Wait until nighttime, and the monsters will go out hunting, which would probably be a good time to go through their hideout to hopefully find a powerful weapon, a new blueprint, or the craft parts that you need to improve your equipment.
You see, as you explore The City, interact with characters and complete quests, you’ll gain access to blueprints. Blueprints are recipes that allow you to craft consumable items – such as healing kits to recover from your wounds – accessories, and even modify weapons to improve them. To do this, you’ll not only require to find blueprints, but also have enough craft parts for each one. You can read the craft part descriptions to learn more about who they’re used and where you can find them, so that you can improve your odds of survival.
Aiden’s performance in combat and parkour will allow him to level up, giving him access to points that can be spent in the combat and parkour skill trees. For the combat skill tree, you can unlock a headstomp to attack enemies who are on the ground, a power attack so that you can charge up your attack to deal more damage, or a block charge, or so that you can charge at an enemy in front of you and knock them to the ground when blocking. As for the parkour skill tree, you can boost your jumping height, increase the height from which you can safely fall down without taking damage, giving you a chance to slide with the Circle button when running towards a low pass, gaining a boost to your speed and mobility when you’re crouching and trying to sneak around, or being able to jump up while performing a wall run.
You’re infected, and that means that you’re in constant danger of eventually turning. Because of this, you need to make good use of UV lights that can help to slow down the process, while also damaging – or even destroying – the zombies who get too close to it. If you’re lucky, you might find items such as UV mushrooms that can help to increase your immunity for a bit. You’ll experience this early in the game when you’re saved from turning thanks to UV light and some very powerful inhibitors.
Inhibitors are so powerful, that not everyone who uses them can manage to survive after receiving a dose, given their concentration and chemical content. But worry not, because Aiden Caldwell is no ordinary individual. During the extended tutorial segment of the game, you’ll run into a situation in which your stamina won’t be enough to climb out of your trouble. But if you scavenge around for a bit, you’ll be able to find some extra inhibitor doses in a special case. Collect them and use them on Aiden, and you’ll manage to keep him from turning while also boosting his stamina by a small bit – just enough to be able to climb high enough to make the jump that will save your life. Inhibitors can also be used to boost Aiden’s health, which is very important since the further you progress in the game, the deadlier enemies will be.
There’s a lot to do In Dying Light 2 Stay Human, with several locations to explore and danger around every corner. Exploring inside of this or that building might reward you with the scraps needed to craft some lockpicks to open the doors that could lead you to a secret stash of resources… but it could also lead you into a group of sleeping beauties, enemies that won’t attack unless you make too much noise or get too close to them. Turn of your flashlight, crouch and sneak around and use every hiding spot you find, so that you can make it to your next goal in one piece.
While working on any of the main story quests or on the many side-quests that the game will throw at you, there’s also the option of searching for one of the many collectibles that will bring you closer to doing everything that the game has to offer. There are 117 mementos, 63 tapes, and 70 graffiti for you to locate, so you’re going to have to keep your eyes open at all times, because you never know when your Survivor Sense will mark a collectible for you while you’re running away from the zombie horde.
See that video above? This will give you an idea of how you can customize your experience with Dying Light 2 Stay Human by selecting one of the three different graphics modes that the game has to offer on PlayStation 5. You can play in Quality Mode, Resolution Mode, or Performance Mode. Quality Mode will allow you to play the game with ray tracking, which helps to make everything pop, but does lower the overall framerate. Resolution Mode will bump everything up to 4K resolution, which is great for those of you with TVs that support it – and if you own a PS5, odds are your TV is also fairly new as well. The last option is Performance Mode, which allows the action to move at 60+ FPS, which makes for an extremely dynamic experience.
As expected, Dying Light 2 Stay Human has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to add to your collection. The list includes 48 Bronze trophies, 8 Silver trophies and a single Gold trophy. It’s not going to be an easy road towards that Platinum, since there’s a ton of stuff for you to do in Dying Light 2 Stay human. Sure, there are several trophies that will pop as you progress through the game’s story, but you’re going to have to work for the rest of them! There are metro stations to activate to fast travel around The City, windmills to activate, inhibitors to find in dangerous locations, airdrops to collect, bandit camps to clear, items to craft, defeat 20 enemies in a row with a melee weapon without taking any damage, performing 50 headshots with a ranged weapon, defeating 50 enemies with a spear, and more.
It’s been a long wait, but it’s definitely been worth it! Dying Light 2 Stay Human sets out to expand on everything that its predecessor did back in 2015, with an area that is four times bigger than what was presented by its prequel, a bigger emphasis on the parkour side of things as you try to avoid confrontations whenever possible to stay alive. There are factions you can ally yourself with, which will change how the story for Dying Light 2 Stay Human develops for you. Because of this, you won’t be able to see everything that the game’s story has to offer during a single run. You can definitely take on this one more than once to see all of the different options, which greatly increases the replay value, offering hundreds of hours of content for you to enjoy – and that’s before even considering the story DLC that Techland has planned for this sequel, since they’ve said they’ll support the game with content for at least five years! Dying Light Stay Human 2 is out on PlayStation 5 on February 4, with a $59.99 price.
Disclaimer
This Dying Light 2 Stay Human review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Techland.
