Dying Light was appealing beyond the simple zombie genre because it also introduced a new way to get around the game world. While also taking the best parts of all the zombie games that came before it, Dying Light was best when players were bouncing off of each zombie and across rooftops to reach the safe house before night falls. To help players get used to this new in-game traversal system, Dying Light put players in the worn-out shoes of protagonist Kyle Crane. Kyle is most likely able to parkour across the city because of his history as a track star in high school and his experience in the Army.

With the upcoming Dying Light 2, a new protagonist Aiden Caldwell will find himself in The City, based in Europe. By comparison, even given how little is known about Caldwell so far, he appears to be a much more interesting character than his predecessor. Like Crane, Caldwell will be an infected survivor trying to make it in the new zombie infested city by using his exceptional skills in combat and agility. Aiden, unlike Kyle, seems like he's been living in the infected City for some time, and has learned to survive in Dying Light 2's world.

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Dying Light 2: Aiden's Backstory

As previously stated, Kyle Crane from Dying Light didn't have much of an interesting story before he parachuted into Harran. Just your average all-American athlete turned soldier who entered a quarantined city in the hopes of retrieving a lost file for a big payday. Once in Harran, he is bitten and has to take constant medication in order to fight off the zombie infection. The rest of the game sees Crane managing resources and making sure he has enough Antizin to keep from turning, all while trying to complete his primary objective and help the people still alive in Harran.

Not much has been released about Dying Light 2's protagonist Aiden Caldwell. The trailer released at E3 2019 was narrated by Aiden and mentions how he is an infected survivor living in an infected city, his bracelet that acts like a virus Geiger counter lighting up into the danger region. In the trailer, Aiden mentions his father, having saved his life, telling him to never forget who we was or where he came from. This already sets him up for a more dynamic backstory than Crane before we even learn how his father saved him.

Like Crane, Caldwell will have to balance his relationships with different factions around the city. That being said, seeing as Dying Light 2's open world setting takes place 15 years after the original, Caldwell has likely spent a large part of his recent life around these different groups. Crane literally dropped into the zombie apocalypse brand new, in a completely new setting. Aiden still sounds relatively young in the trailer, which might mean he spent part of adolescence or early adulthood learning how to cope in the new world. This would also easily explain why he has become adept at parkour after years of training, whereas Crane seemed to be a born natural climber.

Aiden is Already Infected By Dying Light 2's Beginning

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In Dying Light, the survivors have quickly found a way to stave off the infection and keep themselves from turning, but only if they can get a dose of a medicine quickly and then repeatedly after that. Crane is infected shortly after he lands inside Harran and must learn how to deal with the infection quickly. However, in a world that has evolved 15 years past the zombie-preventing tech in the first Dying Light, the characters have bracelets that mark how at risk they are of turning into a member of the hungry hordes.

There is no telling how this affects Aiden's infection and whether he still needs a constant stream of Antizin, but at least he has some form of a warning system. Anything is better than the blurred vision and pounding headache that Kyle Crane received every time he needed a new dose of the medicine. If the technology has evolved to the point where the zombie infection is as detectable as blood sugar, then hopefully Aiden has that much more of a leg up in Dying Light 2.

Aiden Doesn't Seem Overtly Selfish

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At the end of the day, Kyle Crane was motivated primarily by his own goals of financial gain at the retrieval of the report, even if he ultimately decided to save Harran by giving the research to Camden. Crane never entered into Harran looking to save or befriend anyone, he just wanted to get the report and get out. He lied to the people who took him in and tried to save him for no good reason. It isn't until he gets infected that he becomes attached to the survivors in the Tower and has to negotiate Antizin for the others as well as himself, and then the events of Dying Light unfold quickly after.

On the other hand, it seems as if Aiden seeks more out of this post apocalyptic world than just the survival that Crane and the members of the Tower were happy to have. In the E3 2019 Square Enix show, Aiden talks about how he seeks more than just surviving in the world around them, emphasized in some form with a post-apocalyptic speakeasy where a blonde woman is performing. Maybe 15 years after the apocalypse was enough time for humanity to learn to cope with the beasts outside their walls and form some semblance of a society.

This new Dying Light will likely be exciting for fans of the first game, as it will carry over and improve on many of the mechanics that made the original special, including the protagonist. There are those who thoroughly enjoyed playing as Kyle Crane, as he was a relatable and smart-mouthed guy who seemingly had good intentions most of the time. However, the events of The Following are canon and Crane may be the reason that the world as a whole was infected with the virus. Nevertheless, despite concern over Dying Light 2's development, the game is still set to release in 2021, and fans will get to learn all about Aiden Caldwell soon.

Dying Light 2 is currently in development.

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