![]() ![]() These activities aren’t really optional it’s impossible to beat the game without completing most of them since Aiden needs a certain level of stamina to climb Villedor’s tallest structures and activate its more challenging Faction Facilities. It’s a trope that a developer as talented as Techland should be doing more to beat back rather than include by default. It’s the typical, generic open-world quest loop that many acclaimed games are equally guilty of, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Too many times was I presented with a character who had a problem and needed my help, which then led me to another character who, say, needed something found or collected. The same issue could be said of the main quests, too, which are again well written and feature some great back and forth dialog between interesting characters but are too often underwhelming in design and too predictable in nature. There is a lot of fetch questing in Dying Light 2, an issue that has and continues to plague many open-world games today but still a problem I had hoped to experience less of - especially with such a heavy emphasis put on questing and storytelling this time around. Narratively, the writing and the dialog itself are decent, but the design of the quests themselves aren’t of the same standard. Unfortunately, the nature of those additional stories that are unlocked in the process isn’t especially interesting. Typically, one is tasked with dragging electrical cables between power outlets and generators, which aren’t too obtuse in nature but do offer sufficient challenge to keep them interesting - as someone who doesn’t normally enjoy puzzle-solving, I actually found them quite fun in combination with the game’s parkour mechanics. These are spread throughout the city in the form of electrical stations and water towers, and restoring them involves puzzle-solving of one kind or another. ![]() The Survivors, meanwhile, construct zip lines, air cushions, and other apparatus that make quick escapes and general traversal easier.Ĭity alignment decisions are offered for every Faction Facility Aiden powers up. Peacekeepers, for example, build offensive weaponry to help Aiden beat back the infected, and it’s fun to see them in action during intense chase sequences at nighttime when things get really chaotic. ![]() Beyond the story, the control of a city territory also has a tangible impact on the gameplay experience as handing control over to one or the other sees different structures built to aid with traversal and combat encounters. Tying into the narrative decision-making is a city alignment system that governs which territories are controlled by who, and ultimately, which faction Aiden spends more time engaging with throughout the game. Dying Light 2’s open-world is still every bit the exciting playground of the original, but there’s a greater context to its existence and a much larger degree of interaction with the story and characters that bring it to life. ![]() There are a host of other fine-tunings and gameplay improvements, too, of course, but it’s these two features that are at the core of what makes the sequel grander and more ambitious than its predecessor. Its solution, as has been the case for so many large-scale open-world games these days, is a dialing up of the role-playing mechanics and the introduction of branching dialog story elements. For its anticipated sequel, though, which has been many years in the making, the developer has sought to add new layers to the formula for something deeper, more engaging, and more complete in nature. It shined as a true gameplay-driven sandbox experience, one that felt clunky, awkward, and slightly unpolished at times but uniquely satisfying and immensely entertaining to control. Following on from the whimsical chaos of its Dead Island IP, Techland’s original Dying Light stood apart from its open-world counterparts for its pleasing combination of parkour traversal and melee combat. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |