Fans of games in the zombie genre have been waiting for updates on Dying Light 2 ever since it was delayed last year. When Techland gave the title a finalized release date earlier this year, the game received a handful of first looks and trailers that detailed exactly what fans can expect from the zombie-infested sequel. One thing quickly became clear when watching pre-release game footage: parkour is going to play a much bigger part in Dying Light 2 than it did in the original.

The first Dying Light game promised enhanced mobility when compared to other first-person zombie titles like Dead Island and, while it did deliver on that front, the range of movements available to the player wasn't as fleshed out as many fans had hoped. With the way it was described by Techland before its release, Dying Light seemed like it was going to be Mirror's Edge, but with zombies. When the game finally launched but lacked the level of parkour depth found in Mirror's Edge, some fans were disappointed. It seems like Dying Light 2, on the other hand, is making good on those promises and, hopefully, providing a much deeper parkour system that fans have been asking for.

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Making Parkour Essential for Getting Around

So far, the pre-release footage of Dying Light 2 has given fans a lot of hope that Techland will be delivering deeper, more meaningful parkour options to the game. While the original Dying Light definitely had plenty of climbing, sprinting, and jumping in it, much of the game felt like it wasn't designed with parkour in mind. Overall, it felt a little bit too flat when compared to something like Mirror's Edge. Unfortunately, there seems to be conflicting evidence about how integral parkour will be to the overall gameplay loop for Dying Light 2.

In a non-playable demo trailer from E3 2019, the player was following an armored car and attempting to catch up to them by jumping from building to building parkouring over and around various obstacles. The footage appeared to be exactly what fans wishing for better parkour were looking for, however, one of the most recent gameplay trailers paid far more attention to the game's combat and the environments seemed to be less built to support interesting parkour decisions. It's possible that some areas feature many more parkour elements than others, but it was a noticeable difference between the footage. It's also worth pointing out that the video's narrator spoke about how parkour is still essential for moving around, however, it wasn't shown in the same way that it was in the 2019 trailer.

Expanding the List of Dying Light's Parkour Moves

The player jumps off a roof, using a zombie to soften the landing in front

One thing that instills plenty of hope in fans looking forward to Dying Light 2, is that the studio has spoken out about how many parkour moves will be included in the game. Based on the 2019 E3 trailer, it seemed like the Mirror's Edge/Dead Island crossover of many people's dreams, which has since been corroborated by Piotr Pawlaczyk, the Lead Level Designer for the game. He said that the number of parkour moves available to the player has doubled in Dying Light 2. This has instilled a lot of confidence in fans that parkouring through the city might just be as deep as it's been promised to be. With the addition of a glider, it's looking like Dying Light 2 is going to be improving on the parkour system that's in the first game in just about every way. Although the game isn't out yet, it might just end up being one of the best freerunning titles in all of gaming, right next to the Mirror's Edge series.

Dying Light 2 releases on December 7th, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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