Couchpotato spotted that Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition is free to play this weekend.

Learn more about Dying Light 2 - Reloaded Edition at Wccftech:

Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition Q&A – Franchise Director Talks Firearms, 10 New Hours of Gameplay, and More

A few days ago, Techland announced the upcoming launch of Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition. This version of the game features all content released post-launch, including the premium Bloody Ties DLC, and debuts today alongside the big (and free) Firearms update, considered the largest to date by the Polish studio.

They're probably right. Here's an overview of everything you can expect to find in the patch:

• The introduction of firearms: pistols, SMGs, rifles, and shotguns
• 50 additional Legend Levels, with players now able to reach the Platinum tier and unlock new upgrades geared toward firearms
• Around 10 hours of new gameplay between the firearms introductory quest, board quests (including the return of Tolga and Fatin from the first Dying Light), and repayable Survivor missions meant for co-op that also have an optional Elite difficulty
• Graphics overhaul: updated lighting, weather states, improved skyboxes, upgraded foliage, improved water reaction, improvement of interiors, cars, looted objects, and zombie faces
• A new enemy variant (the Renegrade Grenadier) and 11 new nocturnal weapons
• Fixes for bugs such as those that affected Crystal Cores

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted a new trailer for Dying Light 2 at IGN:

Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition - Exclusive Trailer

Trueachievements interviewed Tymon Smektała about Dying Light 2:

Dying Light 2 interview: Next DLC focuses on "core zombie survival fantasy"

Dying Light 2 received its first full year of post-launch support in 2023, and we sat down with Techland to discuss the first expansion, lessons learned, and the year ahead.

Dying Light 2 launched in February 2022 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and other platforms, and Techland spent the majority of that year tailoring the base game to the community's preference — although the team still launched the first expansion, many events, and the first two Chapters before the year ended.

With that in mind, 2023 was the first full year Techland had to begin growing the game, unleashing a plethora of content updates, crossover events with a multitude of franchises, and more. We sat down with Tymon Smektała, Techland's Dying Light franchise director, to talk about the busy year, lessons learned, and touched on the team's goals for 2024.

"We managed to release quite a few quite chunky updates, which changed the game a lot, hopefully for the better," Smektała said. "I think this is for the players to say, but actually if you look at the sentiment on Steam, you can clearly see a huge increase and improvement in that area. So, it probably means that we are doing things right."

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted a new roadmap for Dying Light 2 on IGN:

Dying Light 2 Stay Human - Exclusive Roadmap Trailer

Shacknews interviewed franchise director Tymon Smektala about Dying Light 2:

Dying Light 2 Studio on Post Launch Support & Community Feedback

It's been a year since Techland crossed the finish line and released Dying Light 2: Stay Human. It was an ambitious effort from the studio, one in which they looked to take the tried-and-true premise of the zombie apocalypse and craft a fleshed out (no pun intended), fully realized world. The team's efforts continue, even as the game hits its first anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, Shacknews reached out to Franchise Director Tymon Smektala to talk about it.

Smektala talks about the first year of Dying Light 2, some of the challenges of the game's development, and what the future holds for the game and for Techland as a whole.

Couchpotato spotted a trailer for the Walking Dead Event:

Dying Light 2 Stay Human - Official The Walking Dead Event Trailer

Watch the latest trailer for Dying Light 2 to see what to expect with The Walking Dead collaboration event. During this week-long event in Dying Light 2, you can complete daily personal goals to unlock different Comic Covers inspired by Dying Light 2 Stay Human and The Walking Dead, reach a collection goal to unlock The Walking Dead memento weapon charm, complete the weekly goal of killing 850 enemies to unlock Negan's Lucille bat blueprint, and unlock Rick's hat as a prize for fulfilling the global goal of killing 160 million enemies. 

Couchpotato spotted a trailer for new Dying Light 2 update:

Exclusive 'Good Night, Good Luck' Update Trailer

Here's the terrifying trailer for the upcoming Dying Light 2 update: Good Night, Good Luck. Arriving as part of the game's Summer of Horrors, the update overhauls the night experience - ushering in darker nights by significantly reducing visibility and having the infected, like Volatiles, show up in more locations. The Good Night, Good Luck update introduces more parkour improvements including new animations, increased control while airborne, and the ability to maintain momentum. There's also a new parkour style so players can decide whether they want more control over their movement (Physical mode) or whether they prefer assisted gameplay. Explore Dying Light 2's Community Maps, which are coming to PC as part of the update and will be coming to consoles and Steam Deck soon.

The story DLC Bloody Ties for Dying Light 2 will be released on November 10:

Dying Light 2 Stay Human — Dying 2 Know Bloody Ties Special

The second chapter of Dying Light 2 Stay Human will be released with the upcoming patch 1.5:

The second Chapter of Dying Light 2 Stay Human is coming in a couple of weeks

Techland unveils the first details about the upcoming second Chapter by introducing Shen Xiu - the newest Chapter Agent!

The second Chapter, entitled “A Huntress and a Hag”
will debut in a couple of weeks along with the upcoming patch 1.5. As previously mentioned, the Chapters are an essential part of the post-launch support plan for Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Moreover, a new “At The Fish Eye” episode is coming to better explain these content drops!

NEW CHAPTER AGENT - Shen Xiu
Meet Shen Xiu, AKA The Huntress - our newest Chapter Agent! Who is she? Where does she come from? What is her business in the City? For now, all you need to know is that this highly skilled tracker and archery expert has a very special task for you. Will you become the hunter… or the prey? Stay tuned as in the upcoming weeks; Techland will reveal more information about new missions, bounties, enemies, and weapons that the second Chapter will introduce!

NEW AT THE FISH EYE EPISODE
Check out the newest episode of our “At the Fish Eye” series, where Techland’s Game Designer responsible for the vision behind the Chapters - Karol Langier - and the Senior Brand Manager - Anna Kubica - explain the philosophy behind this new in-game content. Who knows… they might even give you some additional insight into the upcoming second Chapter!

Dying Light 2 got a series of free DLCs: The Ronin Pack 1-3

Mortismal made a review after 100% of Dying Light 2.

Dying Light 2 - Review After 100%

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Mortismal Gaming gives his first impressions on Dying Light 2.

Dying Light 2 - First Impressions

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The zombie apocalypse game Dying Light 2: Stay Human is now available:

Dying Light 2 - Stay Human Accolades Trailer

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Wccf Tech reviewed Dying Light 2 Stay Human, which releases in 2 days. Other reviews have appeared as well: COG, PC Invasion, PC Gamer, Shacknews, IGN, Ars Technica, ...

Dying Light 2 Stay Human Review – An Apocalypse Divided

Trying to follow the development of Dying Light 2 Stay Human over the past several years has been a bit of a rollercoaster. The game was announced with much fanfare at E3 2018 and showed off a very impressive demo at E3 2019, but then creative director Chris Avellone left the project amid accusations of personal misbehavior at previous studios, the game was delayed multiple times, and reports of behind-the-scenes turmoil at Techland emerged. Ultimately, when Dying Light 2 staggered back into the light last year, it looked rather different than what was originally promised and demoed.

These facts would usually be red flags, but Techland has shown an impressive ability to adapt over the seven years they supported the original Dying Light. Have they managed to make the best of a bad hand and delivered another zombie-slashing cult hit? Or has the shambling specter of development issues terminally infected the game? Grab some good shoes; it’s time to give this one a thorough run-through.

[...]

Overall Score: 8

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is another exhilarating parkour and zombie-pummeling playground from Techland, although at times, the seams holding it all together are a bit obvious. Given the game’s glitches, minor gameplay annoyances, and crudely bisected story and world, reports of behind-the-scenes issues feel all-too-plausible. That said, the foundation here is rock solid, and Techland has proven they’re capable long-term builders, so I’m confident Dying Light 2’s embers can be stoked to a full flame in time.

Pros

• Parkour is more satisfying than ever
• The City is packed and exciting to explore
• Lots of interesting characters and missions
• Some genuinely tricky decisions
• Offers some impressive sights
• Lots of content
• Looks stunning on PC with ray tracing enabled

Cons

• Story and world jarringly split in two
• Overall plot is fairly straightforward
• Plenty of glitches
• Co-op appears to be an afterthought

And here are the interviews, thanks @Farflame!

DualShockers interviewed Lead Programmer Bartosz “Glova” Kulon:

Dying Light 2 Interview - "The Best Weapon is Your Creativity"

Ahead of the game’s launch, I was lucky enough to chat with Bartosz “Glova” Kulon, the mastermind and lead programmer behind Dying Light 2’s combat and parkour mechanics. Here’s what he had to say:

Dying Light felt revolutionary with its combination of Parkour and inventive monster-killing abilities – how have you built on this to ensure Dying Light 2 has that same wow factor?

Bartosz “Glova” Kulon: Our approach to it was – make combat and parkour as much integrated together and with the world as possible. We analyzed every move from combat, and every move from parkour and thought of how we can use them in the other. In example, vaulting over a low obstacle is something that happens a lot. We added a kick to that so the player can kick enemies when vaulting, but then in combat if the enemy is hit really hard he can bend and the player can vault over him and use it to kick the enemy behind him. Sounds complicated, but we made it simple and satisfying.

In combat players can run and use enemies to jump in the air and can either use that to perform a strong attack or to run away from danger. We tried to create as open ended situations as possible and give the player the freedom to mix the moves and solution. This sandbox approach is something that we believe was the goal of success in the first game, and will be as well for Dying Light 2.

[...]

The Escapist interviewed Lead Gameplay Designer Tymon Smektała:

Dying Light 2 Interview: Techland Has a ‘Very Detailed Plan’ for Many Years of Content

Dying Light 2 Stay Human comes seven years after the launch of Techland’s original 2015 parkour zombie hit — and it just might be its magnum opus. We sat down with Lead Gameplay Designer Tymon SmektaÅ‚a for an interview during a recent Dying Light 2 preview event to find out about the work put into this ambitious sequel. Our time with the Techland lead clued us into Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s four gameplay pillars, its difficulty, where it’s going next, and so much more.

The Escapist: Tell us about Dying Light 2‘s four gameplay pillars.

Tymon SmektaÅ‚a: Dying Light, as the first game, was built on the parkour, combat, and day-and-night cycle. People liked it, media liked it, but gamers liked it, especially. A lot of people were recommending the game to their friends. So, we said, “Okay, so it makes sense. It works. It’s something that we can develop on, that we can build on.”

So, we started with a huge list of things we wanted to improve. And looking at them, there were three things I wanted to focus on. The first one was that, in the first game, parkour and combat were kind of separated. So, first of all, we wanted to connect, combine those two together. That’s why there are a lot of skills (in Dying Light 2) that allow you to use your enemies as a starting point for parkour combinations or combat skills that require you to stay mobile, stay agile, jump along, and basically be the parkour guy that we are creating, that the fantasy is centered around.

Then, the other thing was, with the day-and-night cycle, we wanted the game to offer two significantly different experiences that … almost feel like it’s two games in one. But I think we went too far with the night in the first game.

[...]

@Farflame sent news and interviews on the game to catch up with the game, thanks! Here is the video part:

Dying Light 2 - NOVÝ boss, základna, úkol, schopnosti (CZ titulky)

(translation: new boss battle, faction base and few scenes)

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Dying Light 2 Stay Human — Dying 2 Know: Episode 4

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Wccf Tech reports that Dying Light 2 had 40,000 lines of dialogues.

Dying Light 2 Has as Many Dialogue Lines as Mass Effect 3 or Fallout 3

After touting 500 hours for the game's full completion (through multiple playthroughs, of course), Dying Light 2 developer Techland has once again shared with its fans an estimate of how many lines of dialogues the game is going to have. The figure is 40K, which is around the same amount as BioWare's Mass Effect 3 or Bethesda's Fallout 3. Dying Light 2 also features 350K written words (the same amount as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina novel).

"350,000 words, 40,000 lines of dialogues - that’s the world we’ve built for you in Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Are you ready to explore it?"

We've looked into other comparisons ourselves. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had 47K lines of dialogues, while Oblivion stopped short at 30K. This figure highlights the shift towards roleplaying games made by Techland with Dying Light 2.

While the first game was definitely an action/adventure title, this one was designed around the idea that players would be able to influence the story, much like in an RPG, through a choice & consequence system. The Polish studio even hired Chris Avellone, one of the most experienced writers and designers on this kind of game, as the Narrative Designer of Dying Light 2, even though Techland eventually ended its cooperation with Avellone after the sexual harassment allegations made against him.

[...]

TechRaptor reports that a next-gen patch for Dying Light is being developed.

Techland has revealed that a Dying Light next-gen patch is in development. Hopefully, that means that you'll be able to play Dying Light 1 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sooner rather than later.

We're roughly four months away from the launch of Dying Light 2, a game that has frustrated some players due to the lack of communication from Techland. Techland made an effort to better communicate with its fans since then, and that's not the only good move it's recently made -- Techland has recently announced that a Dying Light next-gen patch is in development.

[...]

"We're currently working on a next-gen patch for Dying Light 1 - more details coming in the future[,]" read a tweet from the franchise's official account (via PlayStation Lifestyle).

Techland bringing a nearly seven-year-old game to next-gen shows just how committed it is to ensuring that its games have a long shelf life. This isn't the only cool thing it did for Dying Light, either: a patch with a bunch of brand-new content for Dying Light: Hellraid launched yesterday and added a new weapon, new potions, and new challenges for players to overcome.

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Wccf Tech saw an interview of Tymon Smektala, lead designer at Techland, explaning why the game was delayed.

Dying Light 2 Delay Explained; Dev Says Every Skill Will Be a Game-Changer, the Hook Is More Physical

Dying Light 2 recently suffered yet another delay as Techland moved the game from the previous December 7th, 2021 date to February 4th, 2022.

In an interview published in the latest issue of EDGE magazine, Techland Lead Designer Tymon Smektala explained the reasons behind the delay.

"We're double-checking everything in the game. Dying Light 2 is full of complex, intersecting systems created by hundreds of people – at some point in the production they all really click and start working together, but you also start discovering various edge cases where maybe they don’t, and you want to fix that. Those are usually simple fixes, but you want to make sure you test and catch as many of those as possible. Those extra two months will be spent exactly on this. And maybe we’ll also squeeze in an Easter egg or two…

It’s a case of needing a little bit more runway, or maybe even the control tower suggesting another approach to make the landing more clean. You have to think about the crew the same way you think about the passengers, you know."

Smektala then discussed the improved character progression systems, stating that all skills will be meaningful additions to the player's arsenal in Dying Light 2.

"It’s very difficult to create a sequel to a game with this kind of power curve. You’ve already
spent 50, 100, 200 hours on increasing powers, and now you have to do the same thing from scratch.

In the original some skills were filler, just tweaking attributes. In Dying Light 2, every skill is a game-changer. Almost every one gives you a new ability you can instantly try on enemies."

The grappling hook is also different than the original one, which according to Smektala was bending the laws of physics a lot, a bit like Spider-Man's web-shooting capabilities.

"In Dying Light 2, it’s more like Tarzan’s rope. You use it to swing on things, and it’s more physical. You get the most satisfaction when you do parkour, and you see a huge gap in front of you, but maybe there’s something you can attach your grappling hook to, so you swing to the other side of the gap and then you continue the parkour.

We understood the tool from the start of the project, and were trying to find a formula that would allow us to keep it, but also make it more supportive of the gameplay rather than overwriting it."

[...]

DSOGaming reports on a delay into February 2022 for Dying Light 2.

Techland has just announced that Dying Light 2 has been delayed until February 2022. The game was originally targeting a December 7th release date. According to the team, the game is complete, and it’s currently polishing and optimizing it. Thus, Techland will need some extra time in order to deliver a more polished product.

[...]

Wccftech interviewed Techland about Dying Light 2 and covered a wide variety of topics such as C-Engine tech, delays, game length and more.

A recent report mentioned that the C-Engine's complexity of use was partly to blame for the game's delays. Can you comment on this?

Łukasz: The transition to C-Engine overlapped with the pre-production stage of Dying Light 2. These changes were unavoidable in order to create the detailed world of Dying Light 2. Our developers needed time to adapt to the technology, and our Engine department needed time to improve the user experience of the new editor. The early stage of C-Engine’s deployment was a difficult period for our production, but it was necessary to fulfill the ambitions of Dying Light 2.

Dying Light 2's map was said to be four times bigger than that of the original game. Is that still true? Has there been any downsizing at all from a technical standpoint?

Łukasz: C-Engine does a great job supporting large-scale open worlds. Thanks to the World Streaming technology, it’s not the technology that limits the map's size. Tools such as CityBuilder allow us to quickly cover huge areas with a realistic urban environment that can be rendered efficiently in the game.

What actually limits the map's size is the time needed to fill the city with unique gameplay challenges, memorable stories, and interesting exploration possibilities. There was no downsizing due to technical reasons. The estimate that the map in Dying Light 2 is four times bigger than that of the original game is the most precise estimate that we can provide. The map of Dying Light 2 is much more vertical and gives many more exploration opportunities, so the city feels even bigger than it is.

[...]

Overall, how many gameplay hours can players expect to find in the game between the main campaign and side content?

Tymon: If you rush it, you should be able to finish the story in roughly 20 hours. But to see it all, you’d have to spend 2-3 times more time than that. Our opening area alone can last for over 7-8 hours if you want to explore every nook and cranny, so there’s absolutely a lot to play here.

Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming repots on a new video for Dying Light 2 showing in-engine footage.

At the end of this update video, the team shared some new in-engine footage. This is a teaser of a future gameplay video/trailer that will most likely come out in a few months.

Seriously, this dev update was a bit meaningless. The team did not address the game’s development hell rumors. Or the fact that during the game’s development, its writer, Pawel Selinger, left Techland. We’ve seen such dev updates from numerous studios without hyping them so yeah, get ready to be disappointed.

[...]

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The Escapist reports that Dying Light 2 is in the final stages of development in an interview with the developer. This is contrary to reports of development troubles from anonymous sources.

• The WrocÅ‚aw studio has fallen behind on the production and the project is currently being saved by the Warsaw office, which has stopped work on the new title.

This is not true. Techland’s main office is in WrocÅ‚aw, and it is there that the team developing Dying Light 2 is working (about 200 people). The Warsaw studio is currently conducting work on our new, yet unannounced, production. Of course, we constitute one company and support each other. For example, despite the team in Warsaw being focused on their own project, a few people from the studio are partially supporting the production of Dying Light 2.

• Cooperation with Chris Avellone is not smooth. Techland redesigned and/or changed a lot of his ideas because of poor quality. There are a lot of issues between him and Adrian Ciszewski.

The game’s vision was created collectively with the cooperation of Adrian Ciszewski, PaweÅ‚ Selinger, and later Chris Avellone even before we started any production work and has remained unchanged since then. Of course, iterations took place in individual aspects, which is absolutely natural in the production cycle of a video game.

Here’s Chris’ comment on the matter:

“I enjoy working on Dying Light 2, and I enjoy working with Techland. Design elements do get discussed and iterated on, and that’s a normal part of any game development process. In the end, you do the best work you can to support the gameplay and vision for the title; that’s a designer’s job.

“While Adrian Ciszewski and I discussed story, I never felt like there was any conflict. It’s normal for all design elements to be iterated on, not just narrative. Story is a key element for Dying Light 2, and it’s important to the team and I to get it right.”

[...]

Thanks Farflame!