In 2015, Techland released a survival horror game that immediately broke the record for first-month sales for the genre. Dying Light told the story of an undercover agent named Kyle Crane, who was sent into the zombie-infested quarantine zone of the Middle Eastern city of Harran. This February, Dying Light 2: Stay Human will launch on current and last-gen consoles and PC.
Dying Light 2 introduces a new protagonist, Aiden Caldwell, and the game takes place in a massive European urban setting called simply The City. The open-world map will be approximately four times larger than that of Dying Light and, while the main story of the sequel can be completed in around 20 hours, Dying Light 2 offers about 500 total hours of gameplay. There will be numerous side quests, a range of story and dialogue options, collectibles, and different endings to keep players busy for a very long time.
Since May 2021, Techland has been sharing a video series called Dying 2 Know that revealed a wealth of information about Dying Light 2’s skills and abilities, enemies, combat, equipment, and general gameplay, while also featuring interviews with members of the development team. The final video in the series released on Thursday and detailed the game’s co-op mode. Simultaneously, a new gameplay trailer called “The Reason” uncovered one of Aiden Caldwell’s motivations for coming to The City.
In the trailer, viewers catch glimpses of Aiden’s sister Mia, from whom he was separated as a child when a man named Waltz Herder, possibly a member of Dying Light 2’s Peacekeeper faction, kidnapped her. Aiden has come to The City to get Waltz to tell him where she is, but the man is of course not just going to give up the information. He has a price, though it’s not clear from the trailer what it is. The video then proceeds to show some of Aiden’s experiences in The City as he presumably goes about reuniting with his sister.
One moment in the new trailer that got many viewers excited was a brief mention of the original game’s protagonist, Kyle Crane. A voice says, “Who would’ve thought the end of the world could be so peaceful? I wish Crane could’ve seen this.” Many of the comments on the video expressed nostalgia at hearing his name and said that it made them even more excited for the upcoming sequel. Other comments mentioned that the quality of the voice acting in this single trailer, along with the incredible graphics, have convinced them that Dying Light 2 is going to be an amazing game that may already be in the running for many awards.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human will be released on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 4, 2022.