Dying Light 2 - A Fine Game That Falls Flat 

I would have to agree unfortunately. I was beyond hyped for this after playing the first game. To be fair it held my attention for 40 hours, but after you explore the world for a while, you realise how bland and uninteresting it is. Also getting rid of the roaming volatiles at night seriously nerfs the fear factor.

My main problem with DL2 is the environment. The city of Harran was so cool and diverse, with the old town, the slums, the trainstation, the beach/bridge area etc. while Villedor seem bland and boring after a while. One of the things that annoys me about Villedor is you are never really forced of the rooftops, whereas in Harran you sometimes had to get to ground level to get to your destination and that's where the intensity really skyrocketed and got the adrenalin pumping. I never really feel in danger in Villedor the same way.

The jump button on RB is perfect, its so you can jump while still being able to move your head, since most people use their thumb for the right stick and A you're not having to switch between them

I feel they've lost a lot of what made one so great and stood out. I hadn't played a zombie game since the Dead Rising, and Left 4 Dead franchise that kept my interest until the first Dying Light. Dying Light 2 feels like it's too busy going after trends, and it's kinda feeling like a typical Ubisoft title, especially the layout, towers, and stealth mechanics.

Dying Light 2 suffers from the same issues every zombie media eventually falls victim to. It's no longer about the zombies or horror but about human relations in the post apocalypse. Super disappointing.

Its rare that a cult hit rebounds into a great series. The first game has a corny story but one of the best gameplay loops I've ever played. Loved the DLC too. I hope they try a new IP and use lessons learned to create a more consistent and polished product. Maybe hire a real writing team.

There’s another ending where Lawan joins you when you leave the city, if you’d developed their relationship enough and made specific choices that develops their relationship romantically. As well, you need to have spared Hakon and chosen to save Mia in the end. It’s a nicer ending overall, as the trauma Lawan has suffered during her time in the city kind of covers the reason as to why they’re both leaving. The city is saved, you get your maidan. Still doesn’t help the story from being a mess, but at least it’s the nicest ended and one that feels more justified as to why you ultimately leave the city.

I think jump on R1 is clever, since you can jump and keep your thumb on the camera stick

they completely turned their face away from the deep immersiveness (atmosphere, music, sound FX, the "look" of interiors and dusty damaged streets that were full if subtle untold stories, unique safehouses that shared the same feeling and immersion, extreme fear at night, etc etc etc theres more on this tangent - but mainly all these components created a **consistent** feel through one another) that displayed their passion in the first game, and replaced it with generic open world game features that were so basic - and Techland thought that's what would elevate their game

12:38 "You can't help but feel as though you should be quiet, and respectful" *Meanwhile, just casually trampling the bodies under foot like leaves on a forest floor*

The music in this game absolutely slaps. Especially "empowering yourself". climbing that massive tower with THAT track in the backround made me feel somethin

Dying Light 2 is OK. Wish it had more meaningful choices and wish they had mroe consequences. But for the game we got, I had fun with it

One of the most shocking things about this game was how many people online were trying to convince me this was going to be a contender for “Game of The Year”(this became especially confusing since Elden Ring released two or so weeks later). I was so confused by this. This game is the definition of “mid” in my eyes.

As someone that adores dying light and dead island, I personally felt that DL2 was undercooked and needed more time

He makes a good point about the intro, would've been cool to see bodies at different stages of decomposition as a hint at survivors keeping the building in good shape after the fall, also the game should've used skeletons for any non living dead meant as a set piece. The body can rot to bone in about 9-12 days on a summer, and seeing as the seasons just don't change in villador. This would've given any "fresh" corpse more significance because you as the player would know that one was more recent

Dying Light 2 feels EXACTLY like what it is.... A game that had WAY more ambition than what the end product delivered. It's very clear that they realized a year or so back that they were not gonna be able to deliver what they promised/wanted as far as story goes, decided that there was no time left, and just finished the mechanisms and round out the gameplay while just letting the story die. And I am SOOOO done with this shit. ANother game that sold a bunch of false promises. UGH.

My main issue was the sense of dread I felt playing DL1 at the start never presented in DL2. In DL1 I think I spent a solid amount of time before even considering going out for a night adventure. In DL2 the night somehow got made into the “safe time” to explore and my major gripe all the way through was the difficulty. I saw they patched it a few times so maybe I should try again, but yeah sometimes the delivery of the “power fantasy” requires building you up from being that weakling first.

The series went from depressing atmosphere of a dangerous infection ravaging a beautiful city to Parkour talking simulator,

People always give breath of the wild credit for everything. The didn’t get the weapon breaking system from breath of the wild, they been doin that since dead island.

"It's a welcome addition, that doesn't really add anything." That is one impressive sentence xD

Having the climb/jump button be RB/R1 is actually genius. Allows you to be in full control of where you’re looking and climbing without having to take your thumb off the stick

Gameplay is Dying Light 2’s strongest point (specially parkour).

While I do have my issues with the narrative, gameplay realism, and bugs, I can’t deny that I had fun with this game. Even if I did burn out on it around the 35-40 hour mark

build and release is a concept used not only in story writing but also in music, crazy how many parallels there are in these different mediums of art!

A fair assessment. I thought dying light 2 had a brilliant first act, OK second act, and terrible final act with possibly the worst boss fight in any game I've played.

No shame in complaining about control schemes. Playing things on PlayStation, it really bothers me when the “jump” button isn’t X. It bothers me when aiming a weapon isn’t on the trigger. And I’m starting to get annoyed when open-world games don’t use the touchpad to open the map, although I understand that’s not a great option for multi platform games since Xbox controllers don’t have a touchpad.

Dying Light and The Following were the epitomy of night time nightmare horror. If you wanted to be scared shitless, just avoid claiming safezones to make sure nowhere is safe. In DL2, everywhere is safe because the rules are so clear and exploring isn't as rewarding compared to previous iterations. Parkour in the original game felt realistic, but in DL2 you can wallride and do a lot of unnatural moves that break the supposed immersion created by DL1. I would have loved DL2 to be actually a DLC to say for DL1, like Following. Same engine, same mechanics, but completely new narrative. Maintaining the pace and skill of DL1 into DL2 would've made it million times more fun. Everything is amazing otherwise, the story is worth the money alone. But for one like me who liked to parkour in the night, it fell flat for me.

I was just waiting for something fun to watch before sleeping. Nice.

I adored the first game , flaws and all. I was really looking forward to 2 but was ultimately let down. I didn't feel any fear about the zombies like I did in the first, other than going into the first hospital. From how the game was marketed I was expecting alot from the choices but found myself rejecting to help the settlement at the church but then was forced into the mission regardless. Also to me the city in 2 doesn't feel as well put together as the first game. I often found myself having to ditch the rooftops or gliding (which I didn't like) more often than I would have liked. I enjoyed the first few hours but then got bored and disappointed , and just pushed through to finish it and sell it

Note to self for when I make my post apocalypse idea for a game: Do *NOT* forget to make the environment look as old as its logically supposed to be. The magic based ideas and such are conpletely fine but make *SURE* the furniture is as moth eaten as it's supposed to be IRL

For me personally I really love dying light 2 better than the first. And I really don't understand the hate personally for me it's my 2nd favorite game of the year so far.

I made a way too long comment on a dl channel community post which covered every aspect thats been downgraded or unnecessarily changed from dl1, that’s the crux of my dl2 issues. If I hadn’t had experience with the first game I would probably have enjoyed this game a bit more. But seeing the unique aspects of the first game be changed into the ubisoft-esque approach to game design absolutely hurt the experience. It feels like they took one look at other popular games and crammed whatever they could into it, some aspects worked and some didn’t. All games have gliders now right? Lets stick one in. Thankfully this aspect is alright but basically lets you skip all parkour. Gear systems and leveled enemies in assassins creed? Lets make dying light a complete rpg. Fuck it, add a billion things to do on the map, doesn’t matter if it’s all the same shit over and over. Hell, let’s make the game a choices matter game, the story was shit in the first so we can do better here right? Nope. Make the map bigger, who cares if it all looks the same. We need 500hrs of content for advertising. It feels like a game from years ago at times with how average some areas of the game are. Back when every open world game had to be a tower climbing ubsioft experience. The complete focus has been quantity over quality.

Can we address this 'Release, then Patch' mentality with games? It's almost become the new norm, and I *hate* that.

I agree with most of your points. One I disagree with was your criticism of the glider and the controls. The controls were easy to learn and get used to. I found the glider rather easy to use as well. Must just be me...

Took me 62 hrs to beat story mode. Hopefully they bring back Be The Zombie Mode. Was my main entertainment in the first one

Nearly anything pre 2018 is better than anything that's released in years. Hell even games from 2014 that I thought was mid... I now consider almost masterpieces

This video is like 60 mins of nitpicks and 30 mins of reasonable criticism

There's some notes in the final compound written by the children towards Walt, painting him in a better light that encourages the realisation to dawn on you that he's not entirely evil. However, this is more to entise the players realisation before pressing on. I agree with your view that to turn one's opinion takes much more time. While I felt somewhat more conflicted in fighting him after reading the notes, defeating him did remain the primary objective

The biggest problem is that DL2 is simply nowhere near as scary as DL1. I remember reading an article around 2018/19 that said, and I paraphrase, that Techland were aware "that no one played DL1 during its night hours because it was too scary and they were looking to make it less scary". That's when I started to fear for DL2, because the terror of the night was the number one thing that I remember fondly about DL1, and I most definitely played the nights. In fact, they had such a profound impact on me that I started doing all the missions at night because the day became too easy -- and it led to some of the most tension-filled and downright terrifying moments I've ever experienced in a game. DL2 in comparison did not have a single moment, not in the story or free roam, that even CAME CLOSE to the same unmitigated terror of roaming DL1's world at night. Not one. Going out at night in DL2 is a piece of absolute piss. There's no danger, no terror, nothing. Occasionally, you might trigger a chase and it raises your heartbeat for ten seconds until you run far enough away and all the threats that just spawned immediately despawn. That didn't happen in DL1. Sure, you can end a chase by getting far enough away or getting to a safe zone, but the volatiles were still out there, constantly hunting for you. In comparison, nothing in DL2 actively hunts for you by default. You have to trigger it. It's so bad that by about 20 hours in, I forgot there were any zombies in the game at all. They became not a threat, not a danger, but an inconvenience. I saw a volatile once outside of the story, on the hardest difficulty. I never saw a banshee again after the first meeting. I saw one goon and zero demolishers outside the story. I never saw a bomber outside the VNC. Compare this to DL1 which has toads and bombers spawing DURING THE DAY! DL2 has none of that. You will 99% of the time during daylight never see anything more than a zombie or a viral. And at night it doesn't get much better. Volatiles are this franchise's main night enemy! Where the hell are they? I understand making the game more accessible to people, but why wasn't it an option? I don't like DL1's night time -- I'll take DL2's. I like DL1's nightime -- please give me more. It would have been so simple to do that. But it just feels like everything that made DL1 so great was discarded because some people complained it was too scary. DL is supposed to be scary! I'm supposed to dread going out at night! And the irony is you have all this talk about how great and brave nightrunners were. What?! Why wouldn't they be brave -- there's nothing scary about night!

All they had to do was make the game about humans vs sentient volatiles and this game would’ve been 8/10 on narrative alone.

Dying Light 1 is a zombies game with parkour. Dying Light 2 is a parkour game with zombies.

I grabbed the flying broomstick, and it's fun to just zoom around and enjoy chilling in the open sky

I'm glad you're continuing the 'It isn't as good as I remember it' series.

Seen a trend in reviews towards this game, hence why I am waiting for more content and fixes before I buy it.

Tech land said they're working on an open world rpg. This game felt like a test in some ways for those kind of mechanics

It's like Techland/everyone knew we wanted a sequel and once they finally got around to it they were just blinded by the success of DL1 and felt like the ideas would just fall in their lap and that they could just release anything in an unfinished empty state knowing they had loyal fan base.

Its not just cause, hakon saved you because he was sent by waltz to retrieve the key you have, waltz has super natural abilities due to the inhibitors that he made, i feel some points you made yoh weren't really paying attention to the story Edit: also you need to upgrade the paraglider and it will feel amazing,plus you had like no stamina when you first got it

Love your content man, keep up the good work!

I avoided playing the first Dying Light because I knew it was made by the same ppl that made Dead Island and was severely burned by that game at launch. Needless to say I eventually did pick it up for the switch and am currently having the best time with it. I can wait for DL2 for a while.

I agree. What's worse is if you're a trophy collector! Some trophies bugged on me. And the missible quests and collectables, when you need all of them, really dampened my experience. I tried to get them along the way and gave up after it was getting in the way of my enjoyment. Getting everything makes you really see how repetitive things were

Hey Luke, love your content man. Been watching you for a while now and I love seeing new videos from you! I love your videos where you back to one you've previously covered to see if your original views still stand and I'd love to see one of The Last of Us Part II if you'd like and want to! Again much love and you're awesome 🤙

Nothing makes me drop a game faster than the moment I realize my choices don't matter and only later will I give it a second go with the acceptance that this is what the game is, my choices don't matter and this is where I need to just come along for the ride, that's what I did with cyberpunk, I will probably do that with this game eventually.

well, in Fallout 4, your house-robot kept tending to the houses of your neighbourhood for 200 years until you came back. don't be too harsh, Codsworth did his best to keep things together!

I put in a bunch of time in this game and I swear there was like 4 different types of zombies that I literally only saw once each. And the Volatile’s are so overpowered. No matter what you do, they always 1 touch you. It feels really janky. I’m also not a big fan of how many game systems and traversal options you unlock that you have to actively go out of your way to make a use of. They feel like they’re just thrown in haphazardly and aren’t something that actually benefits and expands your gameplay.

I also agree with most things you say. I tried to do a new game + but just honestly can't be bother going through the shitty story again just to choose a different faction for not much of a different outcome.

23:56 The look on your face here was priceless! Also, great critique old man.

I believe the gameplay got worse If you consider the zombies and the nighttime part of the game to be part of the gameplay Making the funnest part of nighttime from dying light 1 (the volatile) locked behind a Chase level that you have to build up that most people won't even try to get to because they will get the safety before it even happens, is bad

What was that second mic you started using before the gameplay kicked in? Trying to get an idea of what mic I should go for as an improvement over my blue yeti.

Personally I keep playing to improve my Parkour and find new weapons in NG+. Also the paraglider can be upgraded to be way faster. Great content!

The unilinear story is what destroyed this game, it cuts main quest number in half, you can skip some great missions, there is way too many people, safe zone and hubs, the game becomes way too safe when you walk from one npc to another unlocking a new safe zone for one of the faction every 5 steps. Also yeah, the romance subplot makes no sense, since not only it works only if you give frank the radio, if not then Rawan dosnt show up in your story till end of game, shes also just toooooo old for the protagonist, its creepy and disgusting and nothing less than grooming. A woman in her 40ties hitting on a teenager is fucking weird, not to mention it makes no story sense. Her recasting was so stupid, she was supposed to be similar age as Aiden around 18-20, but the recasting her to a 40 year old actress breaks the idea they were both Waltz experiment subjects, now shes so old she could be his mom and just couldnt have been picked up by Frank and would be old enough to be a nightrunner. Nothing make sense when she 40. One point, houses get destroyed only when exposed to elements, i work in construction and i have seen plenty of 100 year old houses in decent condition, as long as the roof stands and all windows arent broken it will last couple decades without any real damage.

I'll say this. Regardless of the story, right now in the year of our dog 2023, DL2 is easily the best zombie sandbox game on the market. Especially with the slew of upcoming fall winter updates coming soon including firearms, raids & ongoing missions.

The right bumper is jump so you can maneuver the world without ever having to take your thumb off the looking stick. It's the same thing as having space bar for jump in one hand and looking with your mouse in another

I will say, the second I noticed Aiden starting to wheeze like a viral after collecting a bunch of inhibitors was a nice touch

Most of these bugs you refer to are likely due to poor os config, or actual hardware misconfigurations. A game hard locking means it accessed the GPU or memory to do something and the hardware/os layer failed. That is NOT the games fault. A trigger in a game not working though is an actual game bug.

I think the gameplay disappointed me more than anything the way they changed how the zombies interacted in the world the chase levels at night are way worse than the ones on the first one which every single chase at night on the first one was intense

Literally got 45 hours in and was enjoying it but the only thing that kept me was the fact that I’m actually playing dying light 2 and nostalgia. But I realized it’s just boring the same fetch missions and characters I just couldn’t attach too. The parkour also kept me around the parasailing is enjoyable but the parkour just feels floaty and off I can’t explain it. Don’t get me started on the co op I think that was the icing on the cake for me to give it up …. Also Elden Ring dropped. I didn’t realize I wasn’t having fun until elden ring came out and I really felt how it feels to play a fun RPG. Never played any souls games before so it just hit different. And I think Dying Light was probably the best zombie game to be made.

I don't even have to watch the video. the title and thumbnail summarized it perfectly.

Fun game. But a story that’s all over the place and a poor ending kinda left a bad taste in my mouth tbh. And they said further story dlc won’t continue the main plot, unlike the following. So idk how I feel overall

The reason the jump button is the bumper bc if it was A(if xbox) or X (if you on PlayStation) it would not feel right and you would not be able to look around while doing parkour.

Another great review. Thanks Luke.

HARDCORE PARKOUR -Andy 😂😂

How would you parkour smoothly with the jump on A while you also have to aim for ledges with the right stick, without the Elite Series 2 controller and its paddles? It's like saying trash for the sake of saying trash.

It would have been brilliant if Fallout 4 changed things up if you picked the lawyer. Instead of gunning people down, you're establishing common law between settlements and auditing raiders.

What are yalls thoughts on replacing the stash system for a dismantling system, that will break down excess or rare weapons, which gain you crafting materials that you can use to craft stronger items? So you can gain blueprints for new weapons, and can add mods to weapons, adding status effects (fire, ice, stun, shock, viral, etc) or change individual parts on it, for example take a rusted iron blade, for a more stronger steel one? That can have bleed, or weighs less, improving mobility.

And here I thought the video was never coming….welp this should be good

Atmosphere was everything

This game really impressed me beyond belief. There's this moment in the waltz boss fight where, after the latest patch, there is this audio bug that was so overpowered that I actually experienced temporary hearing damage for like 30 minutes after the boss fight. Talk about a game that really sticks with you. 😂😂 imagine paying $60 for a video game only to have a physically damaging game bug being the ultimate result of the money you spend how precious is that? Talk about breaking the fourth wall. Bahahahaha..yeah..I'm not playing techland games anymore.

Love to see the good ol critique! Great video. But in regards to the endings, i hate that Aiden leaves, but he did so because he was convinced he's too dangerous for the people in the city (his mutation and all that), I hate it, but at least it's sort of justified/understandable. Also there is an option for Lawan leaving with Aiden, if they 'fall in love' throughout the story which is possible through some choices and if course, if you save Hakon and then the city.

Button layout is so you can look around and jump at the same time. If it’s A, that takes your thumb off the joystick and it’s hard to make adjustments in the air

the ELDERLY thing got me deceased LOOOL

Another also also, Higher elevation is more dry. So food can last longer. OBVIOUSLY not 10 years long, all the normal non can food would be gone from animals bugs and just rot. UNLESS it was preserved super well like maybe in a fridge that was still sealed. Then it might be more just a rotted mush. Plus the house was picked apart for food it looks like, literally all the cabnits are empty or almost all, opened and stuff. So there was at least some human traffic, but then again deers could open it or bears. As animals like that are known to open things that are not latched, heck a bear can open a latched door.

As you said, it's dumb that there is a choice between Survivor's and peacekeepers option when you miss out on very useful items by not choosing a specific team to side with. I wanted o go with survivor's but couldn't pass up on the crossbow that comes with continually siding with peacekeepers. it's infuriating that such a valuable weapon is at all tied to a faction system, when it should just be a story unlocked item period, regardless of your preferred faction.

As a dying light fan you’ll enjoy it the first time around but after that you’ll start seeing all its flaws.

FYI, Jump is right bumper so you can use both thumb sticks to better utilize and excel at parkour. The developers answered for this choice after the first game too.

I don't really care what people say. I absolutely loved this game and Techland as a whole.

Thank you for saving me a lot of time :)

Imagine if lawan never shot watlz with the crossbow probably would of saved us hours of a mediocre fetch quest, I mean sure waltz did try to kill us UP until he found out we were adien and his entire tone changed. Most likely once he realized we were adien he probably would of just brought us down to his secret lab and Aiden would of met his sister wayyyy earlier and probably helped waltz and understood his pov once he explained what he was doing

So extremely pissed with the way this game turned out. Scrap this version of the game and give us E3 2019 dying light please

The simple fact that there is a timer at night and that you get a game over and turn into a zombie completely takes out your ability to relax and enjoy yourself

Question: Is it best to delete the previous save file and start anew (which I prefer not to) after all these updates or is the same if I just play the game on the same save (which I have it sience the game release) but converted to current update ? Does it happens that the old save files enheritage some bugs and issues even with the converted version ?

Thank you. I played them both and agree with almost everything, just not with your view of the paraglider. From what I can see here, you just weren't using it the right way, using the boost to gain back speed at the cost of stamina, while holding back the stick to gain elevation. What I enjoyed the most, just before finishing the game, was doing all the parkour challenges; I managed to do some that didn't require the paraglider, with it, breaking in 2 the record. Just that, thank you again for your efforts 😁

I knew it was doomed from the start when they mention a much better zombie game in the first 10 minutes

someone please tell me the name of the soundtrack he uses ath the start

The glider sucks at first but once you upgrade it, it becomes OP. You can gain altitude without vents and the longer your stamina bar the further you can fly.

Brother. The last of us part 2 didn't work. Abby seemed less human the longer we stayed with her.

I had to new game because my missions disappeared But I still play this game everyday I love it

Thanks!

yeah i fully agree. DL2 is lacking in many ways, but the worst is the lack of direction. I honestly don't know what the fuck this game is trying to be but it doesn't do any of the things better than just "alright"

Heard that most of the story writing team got fired or left for some reason maybe that's why the quality changes from one part to another.That's why some of choices/dialog lead nowhere or end up as dead-ends with no payoff.

this game was definitely a buggy, broken mess when it launched and even long after launch the PS4/Xbone versions are entirely broken. such as enemy animations not properly playing, or the environment not rendering, causing you to fall through the world infinitely, and of course crashing almost every hour. and one of the much more annoying bugs that happened on the game's launch was one where dialogue wouldn't play during conversations, so you would miss huge swathes of important dialogue. there was plenty of stuff i missed simply because nobody in the game was speaking. It is so hard for me to believe the devs didn't catch these issues before the game launched. so many games like Dying Light 2, seemingly launch in entirely broken and unacceptable states that it completely tarnishes the reputation of developers who made the game.