June 19, 2018 by Paul Curtin
Techland’s Dying Light was one of the best zombie games ever made when it released in 2015, and now years later it’s still one of the best open world co-op games ever made with a healthy population still playing on Steam.
And at this year’s E3, while many were hoping for the re-reveal of Dead Island 2, the publishers at Deep Silver made the surprise announcement that Dying Light 2 is instead on the way with some big changes.
While the first game featured some of the best first-person parkour and fluid combat mechanics we’ve ever seen in a game, it wasn’t perfect. Despite being technically impressive, the original Dying Light fell somewhat short in the storytelling department.
Lead designer, Tymon Smektala, explained at E3 this year that he feels the same way and has made it clear that the story is getting a radical overhaul in the sequel. Not just by giving the player more narrative, but by allowing the player’s own decisions to change the narrative path and even the world around them.
As you’ll see in the world premier of gameplay revealed at Microsoft’s E3 2018 Media Briefing, hundreds of different choices as the player in Dying Light 2 will trigger a Butterfly Effect chain of events that will help make each player’s story feel unique, changing interactions with NPCs, and even various structures on the map.
From what little was shown in the first trailer, the saturation seems to have been increased compared to the previous game’s more drab tone and the parkour system has been improved to allow the player even more freedom in how they traverse zombie-infested cities. We just hope the devs haven’t decided to change of the previous game’s superb ’80s action/horror-style soundtrack.
Dying Light 2 still doesn’t have a date for when it will be launching on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
