Ambition works a bit like any weapon in Dying Light 2: Stay Human : using it well leads to victory, but abusing it, perhaps without criteria or care, you find yourself in a handful of dust.
It is a somewhat poetic way to anticipate that, inevitably, something has gone wrong with the majestic work of Techland, a Polish studio now one with the Dying Light brand, full of ideas and good intentions, but a victim of increasingly common problems. in the modern gaming industry.
Very high costs, radio silence, postponements, complications in the management of the project (to which 1500 people worked, a crazy number), then clear, even the pandemic which certainly did not help. And the dismissal of Chris Avellone after accusations of a certain weight, the spearhead of the team given the promises and promises on a great story influenced in a concrete way by the choices and actions of the player, was the proverbial icing on a cake left out. out of the fridge a little too long.
It seems the introduction to a disaster of biblical proportions, but no : no repentance on the tens and tens of hours spent among the streets teeming with the infected of Villedor. They entertained us, gave us emotions and twists, gave crazy jumps and blows in the teeth not bad. However, net of many small, big problems that plague the work, and that prevent it from shining in the gaming firmament. A bit like the first chapter, which despite everything, still maintains a large and dedicated fanbase, which has turned a blind eye to its defects, and which will do so even now with the sequel.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human tries to be loved, tries in every way. It does so with its simply irresistible DNA, made of action and survival, of zombies and parkour, but also of RPG; it does so with sections full of atmosphere, in the dark, with the gurgling of unclean beasts ready to tear us apart after having awakened them from the uncomfortable position in which they sleep in abandoned buildings, during the day, when the sunlight corrodes what remains of their skin; it does so with a larger and more vertical city than ever, full of alleys, green corners, corners of peace where you can catch your breath after passing unscathed puddles of yellowish poison and hordes of hungry beasts or Forsaken ready to fight.
He also tries with a long, twisted plot, which when it is broken down into small stories of life (above) also gives some breathtaking moments, between the writing, the convincing animations of the characters’ faces, or the acting (strictly in English tending al British), also of high-level actors (such as the timeless Rosario Dawson ), but which on the whole frays, especially at its peak, and which loses its meaning to the umpteenth, abrupt change of course, or to the umpteenth phony choice of the player who will always and in any case lead to what the developers have decided.
Initially one has the feeling, the suspicion that what one says or does has some impact. An excellent example of this is the allocation of crucial structures for survival in Villedor, both in the old and in the central part, i.e. the two macro-areas into which the world is divided: power plants and water towers, in one world post-apocalyptic (chronologically placed 15 years after the first chapter) as much as similar to the Middle Ages, where there are no firearms and one is forced to fight with rudimentary clubs and crossbows, they are worth more than gold, more than coins- of-the-world-that-was. And after completing dedicated missions, you can decide who between two of the three factions involved in the main plot, namely the Survivors, ordinary citizens, and the Peacekeepers, more like soldiers in their dress and approach, entrust the structure, and consequently, also the entire neighborhood that hosts it, in addition to the mills, which act as both lookout towers and shelters in to rest and make time go by faster.
This translates into a partial change of the area: by giving it to the former, the exploration tools increase, such as trampolines and ropes that facilitate our parkour sessions; at the latter, traps of all kinds begin to appear, with which to better keep the infected or the Renegade patrols at bay, straight out of a random Mad Max, crazy splinters immune to any attempt at truce. The problem is that with each new structure, the relationship with the faction increases in level by unlocking new gadgets, but the opposing one, despite the disadvantage and the economic and strategic damage, will still quietly ask us to help it fight the bad guy on duty or carry out this or that task, as if nothing had happened.
It’s really a shame, because as mentioned, in some moments the game touches not bad drama peaks, both in the main missions and in the micro-stories of the secondary ones (where instead the authors have taken some more creative freedom). Also in terms of mechanics: the protagonist, Aiden Caldwell, is a Pilgrim, a sort of rogue who has come to the City in search of his sister Mia, and because of his infection he cannot bear the absence of light for prolonged periods of time, thus preventing him staying too long in the dark and / or in closed, underground areas. A gimmick that puts a feeling of impending doom on the player’s shouldersperennial, which also makes missions or activities that are not timed, when they are at night at the precise request of the developers, or simply because the player wanted to do it at that moment, and which gives even more coherence and tension to the use of Aiden.
But when every narrative junction is accompanied by doubts and hesitations, there is clearly something wrong.
Obvious hesitation also pad in the hand. Not because the game isn’t fun : exploration is more fluid and engaging than ever, thanks to the granite 60 fps (at least on PS5 and in Performance mode, our favorite during the test) and more vertical and complex structures than those seen in Harran (in the first Dying Light), complete with a paraglider useful for moving more quickly using jets of air, at least until the subways are released to move more comfortably.
Ditto the fights, physical and brutal due to the presence of only white weapons (clubs, axes, pipes), with a fair number of types of enemies, both among the infected and among humans, and a minimum of study of the surrounding environment to find spears to be planted in the head of an enemy or gas cylinders ready to explode. Two crucial components, both equipped with ad hoc skill trees to be developed organically, simply by climbing or clapping your hands, the fastest way to accumulate experience and unlock useful skills with which to become faster and / or lethal.
It is that even the technical component of Dying Light 2: Stay Human, even on next-gen, presents much more than a compromise, unfortunately. The physics is not stellar, ditto the Artificial Intelligence, which dampens the enthusiasm of a stealth component even more present but thwarted by the lack of acumen of humans, and between collisions that are not always precise and glitches of various kinds, even after a few patches and hotfixes, there is always a bit of bitterness in seeing a climb more difficult than it should be, or an enemy planting himself somewhere.
In general then, both at 1080p and in 4K, some elements do not shine either for cleanliness or for polygonal count, creating a dissonance between crazy views and clearly visible distortions. A shame, however, given the team’s ability to offer a huge world (but strategically divided into two), full of details (even if in many cases copy-pasted), and to run it at 60 fps granite, a sign that in any case the capabilities they are there, but it is the cleaning phase that has failed. A pity all the more when you realize that even if at times the fights are a bit confusing (especially in certain boss fights), in general the gaming experience is pleasant, among a lot of extra activities to do (including parkour challenges, of course, or hordes of undead to escape from) and a sensational sound sector. All to be experienced, if desired, also in co-op with 3 other friends online, in the 40 and more hours of the main campaign (ready to double and beyond by carrying out every single activity on the map).
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