During the Dying Light 2 Gamescom 2021, Techland took the opportunity to talk about Dying Light 2 and provided a lot of information on the upcoming title.
Right from the start, Techland dived into the parkour, an important element in Dying Light 2. Everything learned from parkour in Dying Light 1 and rebuilt the system from the ground up. Techland wanted to improve characters’ perspective when they were doing parkour, and thanks to hundreds of new animations, players will physically feel like they’re the ones doing the parkour. To enhance this, the team even worked with professional stuntmen to get the animations and reactions just right.
The city will allow players to parkour as soon as they start the game and they’ll feel like they’re floating through the environment. It’s not just for travel, as parkour will also be incorporated into combat and allow skillful players to do lots of aerial parkour moves while doing combat and never touch the ground.
Melee combat was a challenge, and it took the team multiple attempts before they got to where it felt just right. While melee combat has many aspects, the team feels that players will be most excited by this new combat system. This includes what is being called “progressive hit-reactions,” which are consecutive hits on enemies’ targets that enhance their reactions. By hitting enemies with specific weapon types and targetting a specific body part, you can stun them, trip them up or even cut off a limb. Even the direction of your swings will determine your melee combat actions. This sounds visceral and reminds me of the melee combat from The Surge, an action RPG that I happen to enjoy.
It goes further than that as you can also use enemies by vaulting onto them, reaching higher heights, or even using them for meaty aerial attacks.
While this stream was all about Dying Light 2, the developers have provided a present for everyone who’s just started out in the Dying Light universe by playing the first game. A weapon from Dying Light 2, the Brilliant Hammer, is now available for the first game. TO gain access to this, head to Techland.gg, for free. The website also has several other items, such as posters and images to download to get you hyped for Dying Light 2. I’m going to give the Brillant Hammer a try, once the game is downloaded again that is.
After all, was said and done, the new gameplay trailer for Dying Light 2 was shown. Instead of describing it, you can check it out below.
However, the event wasn’t over yet, as Dying Light 2 weapons team was brought on to talk about the different weapon types available in the game and where they drew their inspiration. We’re talking about thousands of weapons, and for many of them, they got their ideas from the middle ages, where you had to be imaginative. As there was no technology back then, weapons were creative and brutal, and this is the type of world that Dying Light 2 is similar to.
The weapons in Dying Light 2 will be able to be modded. Once you find a specific weapon type, you’ll be able to mod it to increase its combat ability. We didn’t get to see how that works as the weapons team was asked to stop, as they were about to spill the beans, and I’m assuming Techland didn’t want that just yet.
Next, the team that is responsible for designing the world and cities was brought out. They talked about how the different factions’ gameplay will vary, depending on which one you work with. For example, certain factions will stick to the roofs, avoiding the ground and use parkour. While other factions, such a the Peacekeepers, will stick to the ground and utilize items like car bombs, traps, and an unknown ranged weapon.
Monsters and humans will also attack in different ways. Monsters will travel in packs, using their numbers to surround and overwhelm you. At the same time, humans use more complex behaviors, and while it wasn’t stated, I’m assuming that the human AI will analyze your tactics and figure out how to defeat you.
Closing out the stream, Dying Light has been officially confirmed for the Nintendo Switch. The Dying Light Platinum Edition and all of the DLC will arrive on the platform and include a co-op mode. How co-op would work wasn’t announced, and the release date hasn’t been released yet.
I was already excited for Dying Light 2 even though I didn’t play the first game until recently, and this event has me even more excited. Just hearing just how passionate the team is about the game, makes me feel better than it’s been delayed. I’ll be playing this day one, for sure. Dying Light 2 releases for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on December 7th, 2021.
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