“Stay Human” in Dying Light 2’s tagline indicates Techland’s goal to find and expose the humanity hidden at the heart of the plot. Dying Light 2’s development team has been promising fans many story paths since 2018. This branching out was like falling from a tree and striking my face on every branch on the way down; a lot is going on.
Even though Dying Light 2 is bigger in scope, it doesn’t quite match the first-person parkour thrill of the original. To be fair, the game has a weird style that mixes serious end-of-the-world themes with some goofy characters and minigames, but somehow it still manages to be fun. It’s an odd combination, but still, it delivers. With its massive open world, awesome parkour action, and many good characters, this post-apocalyptic shooter stands out as one of the best around.
Bugs and a dull main protagonist don’t go hand in hand, that’s the reason the game doesn’t work as smoothly as it could. The developers probably didn’t expect to drop a game about a global pandemic right when we’re all living through one, and honestly, trying to pull off a big project like this, under these circumstances, didn’t help things.
Undead forces have been roaming the earth for decades, getting stronger, smarter, and nastier with every passing night. It’s full-on apocalypse mode. But humanity isn’t going down without a fight. Thanks to some advanced technology being cooked up in fortified areas of the city, we’re finally starting to turn the tide. Even the deadly monsters can’t handle the insane firepower we’ve got now, and it’s all thanks to the electronic wristband. But there’s something way darker lurking beneath the surface. There are weapons to keep zombies in check, but our real threat might be good old human nature—greed, betrayal, shady politics, and all that.
If you liked the first Dying Light, be ready because Dying Light 2 Stay Human takes everything you loved and cranks it up to eleven. Sure, with a game like this, there’s always room for a few hiccups, questionable design choices, or random bugs. But after spending way too many hours playing it on the PS5, I didn’t find much to complain about. In fact, I’m itching to go back in and explore story paths and side quests I missed the first time around.
Let me say that Dying Light 2 might be one of the most fun RPGs I’ve played. It blends the terror of the undead with the very relatable human struggle of getting through the day—except, you know, your “day” involves drop-kicking zombies off skyscrapers. If that’s not the dream, what is? The game does exactly what a sequel should do: it takes the core of what worked in the first one and cranks it up, making zombie-smashing mayhem an absolute blast.
Sure, it sticks to a similar formula as the 2015 original, but this time around, the city looks even more alive—and ironically, it’s teeming with more undead. Some quirky survivors turned parkour into an art form, hopping across rooftops in search of supplies while hacking at zombies with whatever random sports equipment they could find. By day, they’re raiding buildings for gear, and by night? That’s when things get dicey as they hit the streets, dodging zombies and hoping the sun comes up before things get too hairy.
And here’s the kicker: your character, Aiden, is infected with the zombie virus. The only thing keeping you from turning into a mindless flesh-eater is staying close to UV light. You have a meter that slowly ticks down, reminding you that you’re always only minutes away from turning into a brain muncher. That constant need to top off your UV exposure adds a nice layer of stress to every move you make. Even if you’re out in the open during the day, that meter can start draining fast if you’re not paying attention.
To protect yourself from turning into a zombie, you’ll have to stay the night in abandoned metro stations and energy plants to obtain new weapons and construction equipment. But when the sun is up, that’s prime time for exploring the city and knocking out story missions—until, you know, you’ve got to scramble back to safety before nightfall.
The parkour system is where things get fun. It has been upgraded from the first game, so now you can swing from a grappling hook, and leap across rooftops with ease. You’ll find yourself playing a literal game of “The Floor is Lava,” bouncing from one building to the next while avoiding the streets, which are just crawling with zombies and the occasional not-yet-dead robber. AThe whole time you’re sprinting from point A to point B, you won’t be bored for a second.
Even though Dying Light 2 offers more scale and depth than its predecessor, at its core, it’s still a straight-up zombie action-thriller. The world is more fragmented now, with scattered settlements rather than one big interconnected map. Aiden’s journey revolves around “The City,” which is humanity’s last major stronghold. Instead of hopping from one town to the next like the Pilgrim he is, he has a personal mission: to find his long-lost sister, who might be hiding somewhere in The City’s fortified walls.
Along the way, you are stuck into a story of friendship, betrayal, and plenty of twists that’ll have you questioning everyone’s motives. And you’ll be piecing together your past through flashbacks. To focus on the main story, you can speed through in around 20 hours. But if you skip distracted by every side quest, scavenger hunt, and random event, you can easily double or triple that playtime.
Of course, with all the fun Dying Light 2 brings, there are a few lows along the way. The graphics are one of them, Dying Light 2: Stay Human suffers from cross-generational evolution. The PS5 version looks good, but I thought I was playing on PS4 with a little extra polish. The character models are solid, especially when the camera zooms in during dialogue or mission briefings, but you can’t help but wish for the next-gen oomph that’s not there. It’s not bad by any means, but not quite the jaw-dropping leap you’d hope for on the latest Sony console.
But things seem to be right on PC, you’re in for a better visual experience overall. As for the PlayStation release, it’s clear they had to dial things back to avoid a Cyberpunk 2077-level disaster on the older consoles. You know what I’m talking about. This becomes especially noticeable in the PS5’s top-quality graphics settings. You get three modes to choose from—Resolution, Quality, and Performance—each gives a slightly different flavor, but none of them completely scream “next-generation.”
One of the real highlights, though, is the co-op mode. If you have a solid crew, this is where the game offers you the real excitement. Running around with friends, dealing with military convoys, bandit camps, and the odd GRE facility, all while parkouring across rooftops—it’s a blast. However, my co-op sessions have had a frustrating tendency to disconnect. Nothing kills the vibe faster than being mid-mission and—boom—server crash. Luckily, the game has the habit of frequent auto-saves, so when I came back again after reconnecting, nothing major happened other than only a few minutes of progress lost.
Another minor gripe with co-op is that you can only make progress on objectives, side quests, and even achievements if you’re the host or playing in the host’s world. So, to get in and out of your buddies’ matches, your map might still show unfinished tasks even though you’ve already completed them. It’s like a messy to-do list that never gets fully crossed off. It is interesting to dabble in co-op, for sure, but because of these limitations, I wouldn’t recommend playing the whole game this way—even though it does get very exciting towards the end.
Verdict
Dying Light 2 Stay Human has good potential but is also weighed down by a few noticeable issues. Underneath the rough patches, though, there’s the making of an amazing zombie survival game. If you’re not in a rush, it might be worth waiting for a few more updates and patches in the hope that the developers take full notice of the issues and release fixes. But, if you can’t resist the call of rooftop parkour and zombie-kicking action, it’s a journey worth taking right now.
The post-apocalyptic city is insanely amazing, and the bizarre, colorful characters you meet along the way bring a lot of flavor to the experience. And sure, some people might get distracted by the Far Cry vibes, but personally, I think it levels up the whole thing. It’s a win-win for me. By thinking that Techland pulled this off while being an independent developer and publisher is really impressive. Although it’s not at its best for the time being, I’d say Dying Light 2 is still a solid bet—simply keep in mind that there’s room for it to grow even more into the zombie masterpiece it’s aiming to be.