It has been a long, arduous road for Techland's Dying Light 2: Stay Human. The game was first revealed at E3 2018, but then Dying Light 2 was indefinite delayed in January 2020 - despite an anticipated September release that year. A new release date alongside the game's subhead was finally announced in May 2021, and after that the developer has slowly been trickling out more information. One particularly interesting reveal is that Dying Light 2 will include dedicated stealth missions.
An example of a Dying Light 2 stealth mission debuted during its July 1 showcase. The "Monsters Gameplay Trailer" released by Techland during the event features protagonist Aiden Caldwell sneaking around a hospital to avoid rousing the suspicions of sleeping and distracted zombies. While the stealth appears to be tense and set in a well-designed environment, the end of the clip is a reminder that Dying Light isn't a series known for slow, tense gameplay. Luckily, there are undoubtedly some good ways for the developer to get around this if it's careful.
Parkour and Stealth
The original Dying Light took the world by storm when it released in 2015, introducing players to an open-world city called Harran under quarantine due to a zombie outbreak. Much like Techland's prior venture Dead Island, Dying Light is mainly a horror game in its undead conceit alone. Protagonist Kyle Crane is able to parkour his way all over Harran while beating down Zombies with a variety of different weapons. For the game's fifth anniversary last year, Techland revealed that Dying Light players had killed 36 billion zombies and traveled over 2.2 billion miles.
Adding onto this air of action-horror is the game's extensive post-launch support. Major updates like 2016's The Following DLC and 2020's Hellraid DLC added plenty of content, and on top of that the game received magical Viking-themed weapons as well as crossovers with games like Rust and Left 4 Dead 2. Although Dying Light 2 seems to be veering into a more somber, dark tone with a setting 20 years in the future that sees humanity on its last legs, it will still maintain the action and parkour the series is known for.
Zombie games tend to exist on a spectrum. On one end are games that, in many ways, are pure fantasy fulfillment, such as the aforementioned Left 4 Dead in which survivors group together and mow down hordes of zombies while searching for a place to survive. On the other end is games like The last of Us, where "zombie" encounters almost always require stealth and the atmosphere is weighed down by doom and gloom at times. Yet there tends to be a little of both in each design: Left 4 Dead has segments with players avoiding attention, and The Last of Us includes robust gunplay.
Dying Light 2 can also find this middle ground in its variety, including some stealth sections between its bombastic parkour. Yet, the game would truly stand out if it used its core mechanics to enhance both sides of the dichotomy. The July 1 trailer shows Aiden sneaking around, crouching under objects and keeping quiet, until the end when he receives a bracelet that alerts everyone around him with an obnoxious beeping. From there he does what Dying Light is known for: hopping across hospital lights, running over tables along the wall, and diving through doors.
If Techland wants to thread the needle with its stealth gameplay, parkour should be used to benefit Aiden's ability to sneak around. He should be able to climb up objects and through vents, for example, rather than just ducking under tables. There have been too many zombie games to count, from serious offerings like Telltale's The Walking Dead to outlandish games like Capcom's Dead Rising, so Dying Light 2 needs every advantage it can muster - especially after taking so long to release.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human launches December 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.