Dying Light 2 Thoughts

Years ago, I played the first Dying Light with a friend. The game followed a man named Crane who was seeking a biological weapon hidden in a city filled with zombies. Or something like that. The plot escapes me. Plot was never developer Techland's strong suit. Going back a few further years, I played their first zombie game, Dead Island. I remember seeing the ads for the game. It was a reverse play of a scene of a little girl being thrown out window as a couple try to barricade themselves against the zombie hoard approaching their little slice of paradise. Unfortunately, the little girl is infected and bites the couple, leading to them being attacked by the zombies and her being thrown out the ten story building. A powerful scene, but something that never happened in game. Instead, Dead Island starts with a party with the "hit" song "Who do you voodoo, bitch" playing in the background. You wake up to find out that an infection has caused most of the residents to turn into zombies. The only real draw of the game was the fact that the game was co-op meaning you could suffer with your friends. It's been so long that I don't remember much of Dead Island besides the beautiful scenery in the game mixed with the frustrating gameplay. With no guns, until the middle of the game, you have to make due with whatever planks or table legs you can grab. My friend and I had a choice of four characters and we both picked the Chinese chick in the red dress. Even though each character has their strengths and weaknesses, we figured if we were going to play someone, it was going to be someone attractive. It's not a bad game but it's very basic and strange. For example, you need blueprints to upgrade whatever weapon you use to blugeon zombies, but if you have the wrong one, say, the "heavy" pipe blueprint instaed of the "regular" pipe blueprint, you can only upgrade the "heavy" pipe. I know it doesn't sound like it makes sense but to me and my friend, a pipe's a pipe. What do we care if it's bigger or smaller? After struggling through the first game, mostly by using our character's high kick, we decided to skip the sequel, "Riptide" and focus on the spiritual successor named Dying Light. I remember the ads for Riptide, they had the same corny tragedy scene. A man and a woman bid farewell to each other in a boat covered in gasoline. Together they light a spark that kills them and the multitude of zombies attacking them. Ironically, the series has continued. Despite being in game development hell and overseen by three different studios, Dead Island 2 was eventually released over a decade later. 

What is Dying Light? It's a game focused on parkour. You have to jump, climb, swing, and use a hook shot to navigate a town which I always thought was somewhere in the Middle East (given the strange names) and find a cure for the zombie outbreak affecting the civilians. It was a fun game for sure with my friend by my side. Since he had already beaten the game and leveled up his character, he got to dance around me and climb walls faster while I struggled. There's an interesting mechanic to the game in which the zombies are extremely aggressive at night hinting at the name of the game. If you're doing missions out at night you'll be attacked by monsters much stronger than the daily ones wandering the streets. Many will alert the others and give chase making you have to run to a safe house or find a place to hide. This night and day tactic gives an interesting dynamic to the game. On the other hand, there's better loot to be found at night. But if you die at night, you lose all your experience points that you gained from running and fighting. It's this neat risk/reward mechanic that made the series popular. 

Now we jump to when I started playing the sequel. Now that I'm finished, I know that I've sunk more than 215 hours into the game. It's so satisfying finding loot and slashing up zombies and jumping like you're Mario in an FPS view. I'd say I've gotten my money's worth with this game. Part of me wished I had spent more time putting together pages rather than playing the game. But I can only look forward. Many people hated 2 due to the lack of thrills during the night gameplay. The enemies were easier to defeat and escape.. I remember that before the patch I would go hunting at night for enemies that dropped rarer items. I could destroy whole armies by myself which did make the game a little too easy. But I didn't care, I was having fun. Since the third game "The Beast" is coming out in a week, I thought it would be good to wrap up the game. I spent most of my time doing sidequests and these weekly events that earned me points to spend on different factions and unlock special tools and weapons. Somehow I think I become a collectaholic when it comes to these type of games. Give me something I enjoy and I'll stick with it for the whole game. Dying Light 2 was supposed to be a fourty hour game so I'm surprised at the milage I got out of it. Maybe I just enjoyed swinging on that grapple hook a bit too much. I look forward to the next game but whether or not I'll buy it day one depends on the reviews that come out. The new one boasts plenty of firepower to deal with the zombies which is something I'm not looking forward to. Since 2 was set after the zombie outbreak, most of the guns are gone meaning you had to use melee weapons. Anything from sharpened signposts to engine parts. There's also this strange morality system where no one is the bad guy. Whoever you choose to help is the good guy, regardless of their choices or actions. So, anyone you vote for to help, is where the story progresses and is seen as the "good" faction. You can choose freedom or control, life or death for many people you meet in the city. Since your weapons are pieces of scrap, you have to use throwables to compensate for your lack of ammunition. Lots of DIY bombs, knives and molotov cocktails are at your disposal. There's a huge variety of throwables you can craft which makes looking for loot in the dead town more rewarding. You can find parts to make mines or even shurkien if you so desire. 

I think that's it. I'm tired now. I'm going to bed. I had a lot of fun playing Dying Light 2 even if the story was a bit mediocre. But I've never been one to look down on something just because one part is out of place.