After a hefty number of delays, Dying Light 2: Stay Human is finally releasing in just a few weeks' time, and the buzz around the game is starting to pick up significantly. Along with sharing feelings of trepidation, some fans have taken to Twitter to ask the developer, Techland, some questions about the upcoming release.
In a response to a Tweet regarding the game's length, Techland confirmed that the game's story will take a fairly lengthy 80 hours to finish, and that if a player wanted to reach 100% completion, then they'll have to strap in for a whopping 500 hour experience. While some fans are expressing excitement over this, a lot of the industry is wondering if that's a smart move on Techland's part, as building a compelling 500 hour game is pretty difficult. Both sides of the fence are yet to be proven wrong, and each have some interesting takes on how Dying Light 2's length will affect the experience.
Dying Light 2 Has A Lot Of Competition
The first key point to note is that Dying Light 2 has a lot of competition upon release. Just a week before Dying Light 2 releases, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, one of the most anticipated Nintendo Switch games of the year, hits shelves. Just after its release, Sifu, a highly anticipated Indie brawler, Horizon: Forbidden West, the next in a long line of excellent PlayStation exclusives, and Elden Ring, the next entry from the Dark Souls developer, all hit their respective platforms.
Put simply, Dying Light 2 is fighting its own battle for survival. Both the Nintendo Switch, and the PlayStation have first-party titles releasing, which many console owners will likely want to purchase over a third-party sequel to a game that, while recognized, doesn't nearly have the same appeal as Pokemon or even Horizon.
Throw Sifu and Elden Ring into the mix, third-party releases that haven't left the popular discussion for a few years now, and Dying Light 2 gets pushed to the bottom of the pile for a lot of people. For those with limited funds, who are only able to drop the cash for one expensive game this release window, the odds of Dying Light 2 being that one aren't all that high, especially with recent Steam statistics stating that Elden Ring is Steam's most wishlisted game.
On top of all this, most of Dying Light 2's target audience (based on the age rating of the game) likely don't have a lot of time to sink into video games. For those types of players, hearing that the game takes 80 hours to finish, and that 500 hours' worth of content is in the game isn't a selling point, it just cements the idea that the game can't be feasibly beaten with their current schedule, and instead acts as a reason to choose one of the other games releasing in these next few months.
While Elden Ring and Pokemon Legends: Arceus are both open-ended games, with a lot to explore and do in each, their main stories will likely be more reasonable than 80 hours, with Elden Ring having a confirmed main story length of around 30 hours. For many players with more limiting schedules, a 30-hour campaign is much more appealing than an 80-hour one.
Good 80-Hour Campaigns Are Hard To Come By
The real root of the problem isn't the great amount of competition Dying Light 2 is about to face, it's whether or not its campaign will actually be compelling. It's all good and well saying that there's around 80 hours of main story content in the game, but if the narrative isn't interesting, the characters aren't relatable, or the missions aren't varied and engaging, then there really isn't much appeal in having it be that long.
For reference, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes around 40 hours to beat its main story, Fallout: New Vegas takes about 35 hours, and The Witcher 3 should take a player around 55 hours to get through its main story. These are all often considered some of the best narratives in video games, and even The Witcher 3, with all of its extra content and compelling side quests, still comes nowhere near 500 hours worth of content.
For many contemporary narrative-heavy video games, length isn't really an important factor, it's what's done in that time that's truly important. Take Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales; while it might only take around five hours to finish its story, the narrative it weaves during that time is incredibly memorable, with some heartfelt voice acting and a cast of relatable characters that help to make those five hours feel compelling.
That's not to say that an incredibly long campaign can't be compelling, though. Persona 5 is widely considered to be one of the best narrative RPGs of the last decade, and the core campaign in that game often takes around 90 hours to beat, even more when playing Persona 5 Royal. However, Persona 5's success comes from its host of complex and engrossing characters, each with their own unique and distinct personality. The gameplay loop of Persona 5 also keeps it engaging for its entire runtime as well, as the mechanics are consistently being changed and varied between missions to keep the player involved in the action and story.
Dying Light 2's remarkably long length might not be a sign for panic, but until it releases in just three weeks, some fans are surely going to remain skeptical; skeptical that the 80-hour campaign is actually worth seeing to the end. Then again, if Techland can pull it off and give a genuinely compelling narrative, with a core gameplay loop that keeps the player hooked for the long-haul, then Dying Light 2 may just be one of the biggest surprises of the year.
Dying Light 2 releases on February 4, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.