7/14/2023 0 Comments Dying light 2 review![]() Villedor is massive, not just in map size, but also in verticality. Many of the activities sprawled around the map can only be safely accessed during the night, and any attempt during the day is incredibly challenging. Unlike its predecessor, Dying Light 2: Stay Human forces you to experience its night cycle - which comes as no surprise considering the day/night cycle is one of the game’s core pillars. The sound design gives the game an open-world adventure theme during the day, and then introduces the survival-horror aspect during the night, which doesn’t really allow you time to get comfortable with one theme before being plunged into the other - especially now that the option to sleep through the night is almost pointless. So much so, that portions of the game actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. If you’re going to travel to Villedor in Dying Light 2: Stay Human, I suggest you play it with headphones, because Techland has absolutely nailed the game’s sound design. Groans from the dead can be heard no matter where you go, the screams of Villedor’s populace fills the air as they cry out for help, constant howls from mutations can be heard, and the soundtrack completely switches to a more sinister theme. ![]() While the daytime hours in Villedor have a relaxed and adventurous ambience to them, the nighttime can only be described as a nightmare. Once you get a little further into the game, you’ll also find Spitters and Bolters during the evening hours, with both acting pretty much exactly how their names suggest. Sure, a few well-timed swings with a melee weapon will cut them down to size, but having even just a couple attacking you at once can easily end with you dead on the floor. While Virals were fairly scary to come across in the first Dying Light, they’ve been given a grotesque facelift this time around they’re faster, louder, and will knock you to the floor by diving at you. No, other mutated creatures litter the city streets Howlers are a mutation that let out a horrific screech when they spot you (and there are a ridiculous number of them around), alerting nearby Virals of your position and kickstarting a ‘Chase’ from Virals - I’ll talk about these in a moment. It’s not only the shambling braindead zombies we’ve grown to love over the years, though. While the dead seem to hibernate indoors during the day and make it deadly to venture into buildings, the night sees them swarm onto the streets in search of a human-sized bite to eat. Much like its predecessor, once the nighttime cycle begins, you’re alerted by the howls of Villedor’s creatures, but Dying Light 2: Stay Human turns it up a notch by adding the ringing of bells and whistles from the human settlements. ![]() Of course, this is Dying Light, so the peaceful moments are more of a reprieve than a constant, and that isn’t more noticeable than when the city is plunged into darkness during the night. ![]() Hell, even a quick button in the menu that removes the UI would have been a perfect addition, I think. ![]() I was extremely disappointed to see that there isn’t a photo mode included with the game because there are many picturesque moments. Villedor is beautiful to look at, with its mix of decaying human architecture and natural foliage that seems to capture the city’s return to Mother Nature’s bosom in a way that’s reminiscent of Will Smith’s I Am Legend film. It’s a pretty safe time to travel around the city, and aside from the odd encounter you experience with bandits - or the game’s anarchy-loving faction, the Renegades - it’s almost relaxing, and offered me the perfect time to take in the sights and practice my parkour skills. The dead are still walking during the bright sun-lit daytime hours, but they’re much fewer in number and are relatively quiet as they shamble along in their pursuit of a snack. During the game’s daytime cycle, life within the fictional city of Villedor is pretty quiet the city is almost silent, aside from a little noise from some of the few human settlements that are spread throughout it, which echoes through the desolate streets. Dying Light 2: Stay Human’s ability to allow you to feel at ease one moment, and then fill you with dread the next, is one of the game’s most gripping features. ![]()
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