Dying Light 2 Stay Human - zombie survival with choice & consequence

[Nifft Batuff]

Can you complete the game without joining any faction?

 

[TwoEdge]

So got this. Playing it while high is yielding some strange results. Gameplay seems somewhat improved from the previous game.

My main complaints so far is the lengthy dialogue sessions that hold very little value (generic as it gets) and the graphics appear to be very downgraded from the trailers (and in-game cutscenes). Changing the video settings and upscaling doesn't appear to make it better.

The downgrade is real but the real problem is the story.

So what's the issue with the story?

So far the story is just generic zombie shlock that outstays its welcome. Not the worst thing in the world, I would go so far as to say it's serviceable, but long winded (especially the first few hours).

It's not just the substance of the story, though, is its often poor and always inconsistent delivery. For instance, you eventually meet a character voiced by Rosario Dawson (love or hate her, she's an award-winning Hollywood actress), while most everyone else seems lifted straight from the jankiest of euros, poor English and bad accents included. Dialogue doesn't sound convincing at all, and most performances are very grating (the little sister the game tries to endear you through flashbacks is a prime example), and a lot of the facial animations and lip-syncing fall straight into the uncanny valley.

That's a relief, I was super disappointed when I heard Pawel Blaszczak wasn't returning for DL2's soundtrack. His 80s horror-inspired darksynth work for the original Dying Light was subtle and beautiful and terrifying, and quietly (hah) one of the original game's strongest aspects.

You might still be a bit disappointed, because while I dig the new OST, it's not as oppressive and ominous as in the first game. I'd say it's a matter of taste, though. Someone has already ripped it to youtube, so you may peruse it at your leisure:

 

[typical user]

Pretty balanced review from Skillup. Won't be playing it myself for a week or two; hopefully by then the patches, alongside DLSS and a 3090, will make it run okay despite ray-tracing being enabled.



Also, reminder it's more like a AA game than AAA. Techland are self-publishing, and that means outlets like IGN don't have to worry about the consequences of pissing them off. Would've figured more people would be sceptical when it comes to the games equivalent of CNN, especially when it comes to a technically indie title like this. At the very least they've no cause to pull their punches like they usually do for games with a serious budget. I'm a huge storyfag and I still loved the original Dying Light for the gameplay alone. Can't imagine it being that bad with how big an improvement the parkour and combat are reported to be. ^^

SkillUp? That shill who said Cyberpunk 2077 was "fucking awesome" and lied on his review on the release version?

 

[Smerlus]

The first 90 minutes or so are all tutorial/intro to the game and it's pretty boring. Probably can cut that time almost in half if you skip the cutscenes and skip over searching the early locations for the garbage items they give you.

The feel of the game is different as most of the zombies are on the ground level now and the park out is pretty much uninterrupted. There's some other changes like an infection meter, the behavior of the zombies during night/day and things like that I still have to see more of before I comment on it.

I pretty much just got to the open world part, scanned around with the binoculars (it takes a state of decay approach rather than Assassins Creed) and cleared out a windmill which the survivors quickly turned it into a little clubhouse area.

I'm on a 3070 so everything looks pretty good but there's some framerate issues. Haven't noticed any bugs besides some floaty animations when they tell you to follow an NPC. It's okay so far. More of the same with some hits and misses.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Some people have already finished the game, ending's out on youtube

 

[Smerlus]

They explained that 500 hours were to do everything in the world. The story is only about 20 hours or so.

 

[Salvo]

They explained that 500 hours were to do everything in the world. The story is only about 20 hours or so.

Cope

 

[Fargus]

Only a complete autistic vegetable can stomach 500 hours of repetitive zombie killing and loot hassle. I've finished Dying Light 1 twice and played many hours in coop with my friends and only have like 130 hours of total playtime since 2015.

 

[Stavrophore]

It's like they touted that Watch Dogs had like 80-100 hours of content, but the story was easily beaten in 20h. The rest was filler side tasks which were super repetitive.

 

[ADL]

They explained that 500 hours were to do everything in the world. The story is only about 20 hours or so.

From what I've heard, the 20 hour playthrough applies to speedrunners only. 30-35 hours is more accurate if they're doing any side quests or looting for upgrades.

 

[Smerlus]

From what I've heard, the 20 hour playthrough applies to speedrunners only. 30-35 hours is more accurate if they're doing any side quests or looting for upgrades.

Does speed running count as skipping the trashy dialog? I think there's going to be a lot of speed runners in that case.

 

[Joyvankek]

Raytracing does provide a darker looking game plus optimized settings if anyone is interested in them.

Otherwise a regular Codex thread with autistic screeching and self-induced amnesia (oh noes, a huge game is ridden with bugs, it's not like that isn't the norm since like forever). Didn't really play anything from Techland (Gunslinger aside), but it seems that despite the expectedly underwhelming story, MCA counseling did rub off at least somewhat (actual branching between and within factions instead of differently colored scenes). The scores are probably deserved when looked objectively, but overcritical when compared to the competition (you can bet your ass on it would have received higher scores if Bethesda or BioWare released them).

Can't wait to play it as soon as the DRM gets hacked.

I'm thinking about doing just that, I want this game without denuvo(and I don't care for co-op) so if I will get the game without it for free? All the better.

 

[toro]

It's like they touted that Watch Dogs had like 80-100 hours of content, but the story was easily beaten in 20h. The rest was filler side tasks which were super repetitive.

imagine 480 hours of filler

 

[Daedalos]

So how good is this? compared to what?

 

[Yosharian]

Still downloading, fucking shit internet

 

[Belegarsson]

I'm scared

 

[Theodora]

From what I've heard, the 20 hour playthrough applies to speedrunners only. 30-35 hours is more accurate if they're doing any side quests or looting for upgrades.

Yeah, same. Still strange their own PR would downplay it like that. (Maybe that's what happens when you don't have big corporate backing you?)

 

[TwoEdge]

From what I've heard, the 20 hour playthrough applies to speedrunners only. 30-35 hours is more accurate if they're doing any side quests or looting for upgrades.

Yeah, same. Still strange their own PR would downplay it like that. (Maybe that's what happens when you don't have big corporate backing you?)

When they published Dead Island through Deep Silver there was that whole bloody bust fiasco, so I guess not. Maybe market perception differs in Eastern Europe?

 

[Alienman]

Next quest:

Find an exorcist.

 

[Alienman]

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/skehps/the_denuvo_drm_implementation_in_dying_light_2_is/

As you may know, Denuvo has always required a first time online connection in order to activate a game. After that process has been successful, a key file gets put in your Steam userdata folder so that for future game runs the Denuvo servers do not need to be contacted. Typically this activation key lasts for a good time or much longer if you are on LTSC for example. Keep in mind that you can re-activate your game only 5 times a day.

Here comes the problem with the DRM which is specific to Dying Light 2. The activation key becomes void after every computer restart so the user must go through the re-activation process again every time. This process also slows down your game boot times by a considerable amount. Combined with the fact that only 5 activations a day are possible, it shouldn't be too soon before we start seeing cases of players being locked out of the game.

This restriction becomes more apparent on the GeForce Now game streaming platform. You can only launch the game 5 times a day and then you will have to wait a day before being able to play again. Here a player says they cannot access the game through GeForce Now due to having launched it too many times. Another case here.

Another glaring problem I noticed is that it takes about 10 minutes to get to the Title Screen every time you decide to launch the game. The sequence is as follows: company logo videos > cinematic video > long black screen #1 > Press Any Key to Start > long black screen #2 -> Title Screen. This is not how you should make us waste time.

Edit: an example of another user having the same loading problem on the Steam forum. There are countless threads reporting the same issue.

Got to love DRM on top of DRM.

Stuff like this that makes we wonder why you would buy any game.

 

[Tyranicon]

The sad part is you can clearly tell where they made a HUGE effort to put c&c and a good narrative in the game. It's basically stamped all over the game that WE HAVE CHOICES and a COOL STORY BRO.

But then they removed Avellone for like no fucking reason, and replaced his stuff with some cringe-tier zombie fanfic writing. It feels like a giant hole in the game, tbh.

Then again, maybe good writing will be wasted on a zombie dropkicking simulator anyways.

 

[Alienman]

Then again, maybe good writing will be wasted on a zombie dropkicking simulator anyways.

A good story elevates any game.

But I'm a bit of a storyfag, so if the story is dogshit I just can't motivate myself to play through it even if the gameplay is good.

 

[Haba]

I like how the game starts with someone getting vaccinated against their will. Very 2022.

 

[ADL]

Apparently my seven hour session last night was without the day one "1000+ bug fixes" patch which released after I had already started the game without pause. Worked on my machine just fine so either I'm the luckiest person on Earth or the complaints in the reviews were blown extremely out of proportion. I'm downloading it now.

Also for what it's worth I'm playing the game maxed out without ray tracing and at no point did I stop to notice the 'downgrade' which you would only notice in a side-by-side comparison. It's a really good looking game at high resolutions. The only downgrade of significance to me is Avellone's story.

 

[Cassar]