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[Drizzlehell]

I'm considering buying this while it's still on sale. I played the trial for a couple of hours until it ran out and really dug the premise and visuals. The game certainly looks much more appealing than the first DL and whatever locations I managed to explore in the prologue looked really great, it felt like each location had a story to it that you could kinda piece together by exploring those dilapidated, half-overgrown ruins. It's exactly the kind of thing that makes post-apocalyptic games so interesting to explore.

Unfortunately, however, 2 hours flies by super fast and I was barely able to progress anywhere and I spent most of that time talking with NPCs and watching cutscenes anwyay. I never got to the part where the game would finally open up and let you go wild so I'm still pretty much in the dark about whether this game is yet another hollow Ubisoft open world game where everything is static as fuck, or does the open world actually serve a purpose here. I would happily dive balls-deep into this game if there was a certain level of randomness to the open world, eg. some random encounters, like an unexpected zombie horde or a bandit patrol, something that would put me in a major pickle and I would have to figure out a way to get myself un-pickled. Stuff like that, you know.

Also, is there anything else that's tedious or annoying about the game that I should be wary of? The reason why I never bothered to finish the first game was because I eventually got tired of curb-stomping crowds of single brain cell enemies who couldn't even get over the ultimate obstacle of that game - the roof of a car - which basically meant that I had to waste 30 minutes at a time to clear out the immediate vicinity of whatever lock that I wanted to pick. That shit was incredibly tedious, although there were some elements to that game that I thought were really cool, especially the night time sneaking around those freaky-looking mutant bastards, whatever they were called.

 

[Spyxos]

If you didn't like the first one i don't think this one is for you. It is way worse. There is no good story. It has a boring world. Nothing what you do really matters. Combat is not very good. Yeah i would say skip it.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Zombies? Project Zomboid.

Need pew pew Zombies? COD Cold War Zombie mode.

Both are great.

 

[Gojiira]

Its really disappointing. Back when Chris Avellone was involved and in many of the early interviews/previews they spoke about how the world changed based on your actions, that camps and settlements could pop up over time or be taken over by different factions, and that you would have choices to make in how you dealt with it all. None of this is in the game. There is also no emergent aspects whatsoever, you'll find the same repeating encounters.
The only thing that is actually good is the parkour itself WHEN it opens up but honestly even that gets boring after a while. Truly think most of the game got scrapped when they removed everything Avellone worked on and its a huge shame.

 

[ANDS]

There is nothing emergent whatsoever about DL2 beyond the randomly generated encounters which will not rise to the level that you are describing. It is, for better or worst, a more polished and confident version of the first.

If you want "emergent gameplay" you are going to need to play something like PZ as mentioned where the world is as much a tool for use as are your. . .tools for use.

 

[Josemayuste]

Hmmm.. I played Dying Light 1, and I liked it so much that I double dipped and bought the Switch version, that said, I'd rather Dying Light 2, and I consider it better in every way over its predecessor, I don't get why people keep repeating that DL1 is better honestly.

Dying Light 2 has a much better parkour system, to the point that it puts DL1 parkour to shame

When you get to the central loop.. and you get THAT thing.. oh my god

People seriously should give the game a chance, it's georgeous.

PD: The first expansion pack, Bloody Ties is awesome too, and adds loads of new content.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

You want emergent gameplay with zombies?

7 Days to Die.

Find some friends to play with and you'll have more fun with emergent systems than any other game (if you're me). Also gotta be okay with a good amount of jank. But no other game pulls off the in-depth systems interactions that one has...barring Minecraft, maybe.

Also, I love Dying Light 1. Great game. Impactful combat and the graphics hold up imo. Dying Light 2 was a step back in everything but graphics, and even those are disappointing because they went for a less-realistic artstyle. Combat goes from weighty and hit-area-specific animations in DL1 to third-rate MMORPG swing-into-a-crowd until the enemies fly backwards cheese. Super disappointing game.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Its really disappointing. Back when Chris Avellone was involved and in many of the early interviews/previews they spoke about how the world changed based on your actions, that camps and settlements could pop up over time or be taken over by different factions, and that you would have choices to make in how you dealt with it all. None of this is in the game. There is also no emergent aspects whatsoever, you'll find the same repeating encounters.
The only thing that is actually good is the parkour itself WHEN it opens up but honestly even that gets boring after a while. Truly think most of the game got scrapped when they removed everything Avellone worked on and its a huge shame.

Really? Fuck, that sucks. You just reminded me that I read about his involvement once and what they intended to do with the game sounded very promising.

Was that shit that he was being accused of ever for real? Seems like you can get cancelled over anything these days and no one would even bother to provide a shred of evidence before cutting ties with you. Sigh...

 

[GHG]

If you want emergent gameplay with zombies then project zomboid.

 

[Drizzlehell]

There is nothing emergent whatsoever about DL2 beyond the randomly generated encounters which will not rise to the level that you are describing. It is, for better or worst, a more polished and confident version of the first.

If you want "emergent gameplay" you are going to need to play something like PZ as mentioned where the world is as much a tool for use as are your. . .tools for use.

Too bad that game looks like a mobile game.

And yeah, I know that it makes me sound like a tool when I say that I'm not interested in a game because it has simplistic visuals but what can I say. It's an important part for me in terms of immersion.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Too bad that game looks like a mobile game.

And yeah, I know that it makes me sound like a tool when I say that I'm not interested in a game because it has simplistic visuals but what can I say. It's an important part for me in terms of immersion.

Then, good luck on your quest. The best part of gaming is being able to suspend disbelief on more than one occasion.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Then, good luck on your quest. The best part of gaming is being able to suspend disbelief on more than one occasion.

I'm not completely against that kind of stuff. I like some games with stylized pixel art, and I play a lot of boomer shooters, but when the game looks like the devs clearly had an ambition to do something bigger than what they were capable of then it's a bit of a turn off.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I'm in the camp that enjoyed the first Dying Light more than the sequel. It felt like a Romero movie, the sequel totally lost that vibe.

There's a little zombie roguelike called Aftermath, The Last Stand, and I really enjoyed it. It was janky as hell, tons of graphical anomalies, but it had a certain charm. I would recommend it to fans of roguelikes, otherwise steer clear.

 

[oji-san]

Played about 10 hours of DL2, I had fun maybe for the first 5 hours, then it all got very repetitive, and for the rest of my time with it i struggled to find a reason to keep playing, night time was the worst to me, with the new mechanic that i can't remember the name but you must go to light source in a set amount of time or you'll die, great way to let you enjoy exploring the world. But i didn't enjoy the first game as well so it was a long shot i'll like this one, still for me the first game at least had an interesting world to see.

 

[Arsic]

I have fun with it. It’s mindless to be honest. The enemies are morons and easy to cheese. The game looks good on max settings with ray tracing, some fun weapons to obtain , and getting around is cool with parkour.

The biggest issue to me is the combat AI, lack of enemies, and combat itself . The parkour combat stuff just isn’t cohesive and intuitive so I just stick to melee whacks and dodged. What you CAN do is cool but it isn’t worth the effort. The AI is just moronic, or grabs you too often. Human AI fights are more interesting than zombies but not by much.

Overall game is a 7/10. You’ll get your moneys worth IMO, but it clearly is still a year off to getting to a better state where it’ll be worth recommending. They plan to redo combat this year and more.

 

[peter42O]

I loved Dying Light 2. I thought the story was good and enjoyable. Melee combat is by far the best that I have ever played in a first person game. It's brutal, visceral, feels great, is fluid and responsive. I loved the open world. If it wasn't for God of War Ragnarok, Dying Light 2 would have been my 2022 game of the year. I enjoyed the first game too but the sequel was far better for me personally.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Damn. That bad, huh?

Oh well, maybe it's time for me to dig into that backlog of games with fat anime titties that I've been putting off for a while...

 

[Grildon Tundy]

They plan to redo combat this year and more.

I looked this up, since I didn't know they were still doing updates. Disappointingly, it sounds like they're adding new enemies and weapons. What would be great is a total overhaul of their combat system to be more like DL1.

 

[LegendOfKage]

Also, is there anything else that's tedious or annoying about the game that I should be wary of?

The developers lied? about cross gen co-op play coming after launch. I'm guessing they have their money, so "working to make it possible after launch" doesn't seem to be a big priority anymore. To quote from an article that was written shortly before launch:

Another question was posed on whether or not co-op would feature cross-gen, allowing PS4 players to play with friends who are on PS5. Smektala stated that it won’t be possible at launch, but Techland is “working to make it possible after launch.” A specific timeline of when players could expect this after launch wasn’t provided, but more details about this may come in closer to Dying Light 2's launch.

It was unacceptable that they even programed the game to not allow this in the first place.

 

[Kacho]

I didn’t care for Dying Light 1. It was way better than Dead Island but still too jank for my liking. It also had weird euro style mechanics that I can’t quantify but I know it when I see it.

Dying Light 2 on the other hand was awesome. Felt much more polished than their previous efforts and I finished it with 40 hours played. I don’t know if I’d call the game emergent, but it’s certainly a good time.

 

[nemiroff]

I don't agree with the people who make it seem like this is a crap game, because it isn't, at all. The problem is that it isn't much like the first game, it fell short in many disappointimg aspects. But it does have its good moments, and the parkour is great.

 

[lh032]

its repetitive.
im serious here.

Always encounter the same "npc" conversation in the open world

Once you got a certain weapon, the game becomes a joke.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Its really disappointing. Back when Chris Avellone was involved and in many of the early interviews/previews they spoke about how the world changed based on your actions, that camps and settlements could pop up over time or be taken over by different factions, and that you would have choices to make in how you dealt with it all. None of this is in the game. There is also no emergent aspects whatsoever, you'll find the same repeating encounters.
The only thing that is actually good is the parkour itself WHEN it opens up but honestly even that gets boring after a while. Truly think most of the game got scrapped when they removed everything Avellone worked on and its a huge shame.

False flicking advertising just like Cyberpunk. Everything about this game was fake, at least that's how I feel having this on console. This was one of the big disappointments of '22 for me. The graphics were heavily downgraded too. On PC it looks great with RT gi but these jerkoff developers couldn't even give us something higher than 1080p/60 on next gen consoles. Even now since they patched it to be 1440p/60 (actually on ps5 it's not even 1440p its like 1260p) it looks unimpressive. Devs only care about the PC it seems.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

The developers lied? about cross gen co-op play coming after launch. I'm guessing they have their money, so "working to make it possible after launch" doesn't seem to be a big priority anymore. To quote from an article that was written shortly before launch:



It was unacceptable that they even programed the game to not allow this in the first place.

I have noticed a trend with a lot of Euro devs with lying and with having performance issues that rarely get fixed post launch as well as shady business practices. Cd Project, dying light devs, Io Interactive (hitman series), darksiders devs, the surge 2 devs, Warhammer inquisitor devs, pathfinder kingmaker etc

Not all of them are liars, but they're all responsible from some form of not making good on what their game promised, whether it be not fixing major bugs or delivering on features advertised or charging for next gen "upgrades" that perform badly and then never fixing these issues.

It probably comes down to bad management and publishers setting unreasonable deadlines but its all very unacceptable when we're paying $60-$80 for a product.

 

[GenericUser]

I'd say wait for dead island 2. That comes out on April.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I have noticed a trend with a lot of Euro devs with lying and with having performance issues that rarely get fixed post launch as well as shady business practices. Cd Project, dying light devs, Io Interactive (hitman series), darksiders devs, the surge 2 devs, Warhammer inquisitor devs, pathfinder kingmaker etc

Not all of them are liars, but they're all responsible from some form of not making good on what their game promised, whether it be not fixing major bugs or delivering on features advertised or charging for next gen "upgrades" that perform badly and then never fixing these issues.

It probably comes down to bad management and publishers setting unreasonable deadlines but its all very unacceptable when we're paying $60-$80 for a product.

Uh-uh, because devs from other regions of the world never ever released a shitty game that didn't ship with promised features... what the hell kind of a logic is that?

Also, Darksiders was made by an American studio, just FYI.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I'd say wait for dead island 2. That comes out on April.

That thing was in development hell for like a decade. I'd be amazed if it turns out to be any good.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I got this as one of the first ps5 games I got (along with GT7) and it was very disappointing. At first I was digging it as you are in the wilderness and exploring a abandoned building. The graphics were sharp and unique and felt like dying light.

Then you get to city and it just seemed so cartoony. Not realistic like the first game. The sense of horror is gone, any grounding in the real world dis not there. They also took away how crafting works in favor of upgrades. No more sticking to a cool weapon like and repairing it as repair got the axe from what i remember.

I traded it in. Was very disappointed as I loved dead island and dying light. Although I didn't like the pushing l3 to run and jump they did get rid of that thankfully as dying light 1 killed my ps4 controller sticks.

Guess my looter zombie game will have to wait for dead island 2 and hope it's good.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Its really disappointing. Back when Chris Avellone was involved and in many of the early interviews/previews they spoke about how the world changed based on your actions, that camps and settlements could pop up over time or be taken over by different factions, and that you would have choices to make in how you dealt with it all. None of this is in the game. There is also no emergent aspects whatsoever, you'll find the same repeating encounters.
The only thing that is actually good is the parkour itself WHEN it opens up but honestly even that gets boring after a while. Truly think most of the game got scrapped when they removed everything Avellone worked on and its a huge shame.

Don't tell me... Mee tooooooo bs rumor from the usual suspects and the devs bent the knee? Why would they scrap his work? I hope I am wrong. If not though that would explain why this game went to shit. Sad.

 

[Philfrag]

If you enjoyed what you played, I would say get it. The game really opens up, especially in the second area. There's a lot of verticality to the world and once you get the paraglider and the hook shot thing its really fun to manoeuvre in that world. A lot of people have some really strong opinions about the Dying Light 2. Mostly because it's not like the first. Yes it's different in many ways, but I never felt the experience to be lacking in the context to itself. As for emergent gameplay, yes there is some of it in this game. A lot more than most. This is mostly tied to the night time sections if you're willing to put yourself in danger. There is a lot of freedom in how you traverse the world so the emergent gameplay comes from how you escape zombies and tackle higher concentrations of them when they're in between you and where you need to be.

If you don't want to pay full price for it then wait for a sale, just try not to take the opinions of those who call it objectively trash too seriously. Its real fashionable these days to say Dying Light 1 was this underrated gem that broke new ground, Believe me when I say that a lot of these people were not saying this when it first released. If you're into open world games with an atmosphere then both games are definitely worth a try. Dying Light 2 may stray from some of the design philosophies of Dying Light 1 but its still a great game that has obviously has a lot of love and thought put into it.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Don't tell me... Mee tooooooo bs rumor from the usual suspects and the devs bent the knee? Why would they scrap his work? I hope I am wrong. If not though that would explain why this game went to shit. Sad.

Yeah, this is true. Some chick accused him of sexual harassment or whatever and his entire career came to a screeching halt for like the last 2 years or so, and Techland cut all ties and scrapped his work.

Out of curiosity I googled what's been going on with that situation recently and apparently he's suing her into oblivion with pretty solid evidence that it was all a sham. Oh well, I hope he'll get back on track eventually.

Welcome to modern society, lol.

 

[Drizzlehell]

If you enjoyed what you played, I would say get it. The game really opens up, especially in the second area. There's a lot of verticality to the world and once you get the paraglider and the hook shot thing its really fun to manoeuvre in that world. A lot of people have some really strong opinions about the Dying Light 2. Mostly because it's not like the first. Yes it's different in many ways, but I never felt the experience to be lacking in the context to itself. As for emergent gameplay, yes there is some of it in this game. A lot more than most. This is mostly tied to the night time sections if you're willing to put yourself in danger. There is a lot of freedom in how you traverse the world so the emergent gameplay comes from how you escape zombies and tackle higher concentrations of them when they're in between you and where you need to be.

If you don't want to pay full price for it then wait for a sale, just try not to take the opinions of those who call it objectively trash too seriously. Its real fashionable these days to say Dying Light 1 was this underrated gem that broke new ground, Believe me when I say that a lot of these people were not saying this when it first released. If you're into open world games with an atmosphere then both games are definitely worth a try. Dying Light 2 may stray from some of the design philosophies of Dying Light 1 but its still a great game that has obviously has a lot of love and thought put into it.

I actually just remembered that when I was playing Dying Light waaaay back when it came out, some of my favorite moments in that game were situations when I got stuck somewhere scavenging for supplies or chasing after an air drop, and I wasn't quick enough to make it into a safehouse before it got dark. And then I had to creep around in complete darkness trying not to end up as late supper for those dangerous monsters. It was some nerve-wracking shit and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

But as I said in the OP, the vast majority of that experience it was just me standing on roofs of random cars and curb stomping regular zombies and it was really tedious, so I eventually stopped playing.

So I guess I was just wondering if this is basically more of the same or if perhaps they put bigger emphasis on the good bits, like those night-time encounters.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I have noticed a trend with a lot of Euro devs with lying and with having performance issues that rarely get fixed post launch as well as shady business practices. Cd Project, dying light devs, Io Interactive (hitman series), darksiders devs, the surge 2 devs, Warhammer inquisitor devs, pathfinder kingmaker etc

Not all of them are liars, but they're all responsible from some form of not making good on what their game promised, whether it be not fixing major bugs or delivering on features advertised or charging for next gen "upgrades" that perform badly and then never fixing these issues.

It probably comes down to bad management and publishers setting unreasonable deadlines but its all very unacceptable when we're paying $60-$80 for a product.

Better than woke US games. Gothic was super jank but was one of the most impressive games of its time. Same with stalker and metro. Kingdom come deliverance is a super unique rpg unlike anything else and spiders has made some great old school bioware like hidden gems.

Dying light 2 sucks but I don't think it's because of euro dev (by the way I'm American so it's not some bias), as most of those studios you mention have had amazing releases. Maybe just a case by case thing.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Yeah, this is true. Some chick accused him of sexual harassment or whatever and his entire career came to a screeching halt for like the last 2 years or so, and Techland cut all ties and scrapped his work.

Out of curiosity I googled what's been going on with that situation recently and apparently he's suing her into oblivion with pretty solid evidence that it was all a sham. Oh well, I hope he'll get back on track eventually.

Welcome to modern society, lol.

That's so sad. I hope he wins the case. It's the only way this stops. What is even worse is devs not waiting for trail and just firing someone based on rumor. I guess no innocent before proven guilty, what a travesty.

I know vampire bloodlines 2 is going to have the same fate and be super woke too, Avellone was preventing that, probably why they hated him.

 

[Philfrag]

I actually just remembered that when I was playing Dying Light waaaay back when it came out, some of my favorite moments in that game were situations when I got stuck somewhere scavenging for supplies or chasing after an air drop, and I wasn't quick enough to make it into a safehouse before it got dark. And then I had to creep around in complete darkness trying not to end up as late supper for those dangerous monsters. It was some nerve-wracking shit and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

But as I said in the OP, the vast majority of that experience it was just me standing on roofs of random cars and curb stomping regular zombies and it was really tedious, so I eventually stopped playing.

So I guess I was just wondering if this is basically more of the same or if perhaps they put bigger emphasis on the good bits, like those night-time encounters.

As someone who loves the franchise as a whole, it pretty much is how you described. If you don't enjoy standing on roofs and killing zombies then you may not like DL2. That said, Dying Light 2 enhances the parkour stuff so there's a bit more there to work with. Some of the traversal stuff is really fun to play around with, plus there's now more of an emphasis on merging interior areas with exteriors which makes this traversal more fun. The daytime/nightime stuff has had a lot more thought put into it with DL2. During daytime most of the zombies are in buildings sleeping, You can go in them if you want but those encounters are going to be difficult, So you're encouraged to do interior looting at nightime when all of those zombies (and other monsters) are on the street. This obviously makes outside more difficult at nightime. Dying Light 2 forces you to think about these challenges more than DL1 in my opinion.

Hearing your thoughts on Dying Light 1, I would say to get DL2 when its on sale. Maybe watch some streams. Definitely do your best to see a lot of this for yourself and make your own judgement.

 

[Northeastmonk]

The parkour stuff was fun and the city is fun to explore. Some of the missions were fun and seeing big events happen in the game was cool. I got to a point where I got bored turning the power on by stretching a cable. Actually where I dropped off was 3/4 the way in. I cared about the plot and then it felt like it kept dragging. One objective after another just to stretch out area missions.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

I'm not completely against that kind of stuff. I like some games with stylized pixel art, and I play a lot of boomer shooters, but when the game looks like the devs clearly had an ambition to do something bigger than what they were capable of then it's a bit of a turn off.

I thought that, I bought it years ago when it was still in very early development, for years I was waiting for them to pull their finger out and make it better. Truth be told I forgot about it in the end. Bought a deck, saw it was compatible and give it a re try..

It's got a hell of a lot better. It just looks a bit pants, but even that has an odd charm.

I say give it a go, you may be surprised. There is a lot of game there if you're willing

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

That's so sad. I hope he wins the case. It's the only way this stops. What is even worse is devs not waiting for trail and just firing someone based on rumor. I guess no innocent before proven guilty, what a travesty.

I know vampire bloodlines 2 is going to have the same fate and be super woke too, Avellone was preventing that, probably why they hated him.

At what point can we blame Techland for canceling him and his work and not doing their due diligence to look into the accusations? Pisses me off and look how much worse off the game is for it.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Better than woke US games. Gothic was super jank but was one of the most impressive games of its time. Same with stalker and metro. Kingdom come deliverance is a super unique rpg unlike anything else and spiders has made some great old school bioware like hidden gems.

Dying light 2 sucks but I don't think it's because of euro dev (by the way I'm American so it's not some bias), as most of those studios you mention have had amazing releases. Maybe just a case by case thing.

I'm not talking about the games themselves. Most of them are great, but rather the lack of integrity, honesty, and business ethics from them.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Game is pretty with all its RT effects but holly shit it's boring. Not worth your time.

 

[GenericUser]

That thing was in development hell for like a decade. I'd be amazed if it turns out to be any good.

Watch the trailers. It looks very promising in my opinion.

 

[Gojiira]

Don't tell me... Mee tooooooo bs rumor from the usual suspects and the devs bent the knee? Why would they scrap his work? I hope I am wrong. If not though that would explain why this game went to shit. Sad.

They outright said they scrapped everything Avellone worked on after the metoo crap surrounding him. He was always vocal about choice, branching narratives, emergent gameplay and since none of that is in DL2, its safe to say it really got gutted.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I’m waiting for it to hit either Game Pass or PS+ Extra.

 

[Flabagast]

Personnaly I would better describe this game's open world and gameplay as "worthless shit"

 

[Drizzlehell]

During daytime most of the zombies are in buildings sleeping, You can go in them if you want but those encounters are going to be difficult, So you're encouraged to do interior looting at nightime when all of those zombies (and other monsters) are on the street. This obviously makes outside more difficult at nightime. Dying Light 2 forces you to think about these challenges more than DL1 in my opinion.

This part kinda sold me on the game. This sounds like an awesome feature.

So yeah, I got the game and I'm gonna keep playing, see what else is in store for me. I'm really digging the atmosphere and detailed environments. Kinda evokes those moments of exploration from The Last of Us or Days Gone. It's also cool that I don't need to finish the first game to be able to follow the story.

 

[Freeman76]

I would describe it as annoying personally. Even with the parachute I prefer the traversal in the first one.

 

[midasmulligan]

Unexpected events that are subject to change at non-static intervals with varying content presented. Seems organic and non-scripted, appears to "emerge" naturally.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Personnaly I would better describe this game's open world and gameplay as "worthless shit"

Can't be as bad as [insert Ubisoft game name here]

 

[Arsic]

I looked this up, since I didn't know they were still doing updates. Disappointingly, it sounds like they're adding new enemies and weapons. What would be great is a total overhaul of their combat system to be more like DL1.

?

I went off this video they posted :

 

[Grildon Tundy]

?

I went off this video they posted :

I wasn't trying to correct you or anything; I had just looked up what you meant by "redo combat", and the article I found said they ARE redoing combat, but that that meant they were adding new enemies and weapons--not necessarily doing a melee system/physics overhaul that I was hoping for, if that makes sense.

Having said that, bro-dog in the video says, "more impactful, brutal, varied, and physical combat" which gives me hope.