After a long period of silence, Techland's highly anticipated Dying Light 2 is back in the spotlight. Techland's "Dying 2 Know" presentation offered a vertical slice that showed off the upcoming sequel's gameplay, world, and story elements, but also had one more interesting reveal: The game now has a new subtitle.

From this point forward, the long-awaited sequel to 2015's open-world survival game is now known as Dying Light 2: Stay Human. It may look like a seemingly insignificant update, but coupled with what was also revealed recently, and Dying Light 2's new subtitle seems to communicate some rather important and subtle ideas about the game's story and setting.

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Without reading into it too much, the simplest interpretation of Dying Light 2: Stay Human is that of the core objective of the game: survive, to stay human. The sequel is set 15 years following the events of the first Dying Light. As such, the virus has mutated out of control, resulting in all manner of dangerous infected. Suffice to say, "staying human" will certainly be a challenge considering the amount of infected roaming the streets.

For Dying Light 2 protagonist Aiden Caldwell, that challenge will likely be even greater considering his ailment. It's been established that Aiden, himself, is infected, and part of his rationale for starring in Dying Light 2 is to find a cure. As such, it appears Aiden's struggle will encompass trying to keep his literal dying light alive, lest he lose his humanity. The end of Dying Light 2's most recent gameplay trailer appears to show a possible outcome of Aiden's struggle. Aiden is told he's "turning" by an ally of his; before long, his vision blurs as he collapses to the ground, presumably failing in his goal.

During Dying Light 2's Dying 2 Know presentation, director Adrian Ciszewski briefly discussed an alternative, deeper interpretation of Dying Light 2's subtitle. He explained that the Harran Virus has shaped the world into a callous, brutal environment where humankind's capacity for feelings like compassion and selflessness constantly clash with the fear of losing one's physical humanity.

What's been shown of Dying Light 2 demonstrates the high stakes that every survivor is facing. Not only are rabid infected scattered throughout the city, but humans pose a sizeable threat, too. Thanks to a scarcity of essential resources, infighting is common amongst humans, a factor that presumably led to the formation of the several factions featured within Dying Light 2.  The Dying 2 Know presentation also highlights bandits and outlaws that have wholly turned their back on humanity, caring only for their own well-being.

Humankind's disdain for itself has also been highlighted in various gameplay clips from Dying Light 2. The in-depth looks at melee combat against human opponents have been incredibly gory and the tempered responses of those characters involved in it tell a sad story of how normalized humans brutalizing each other has become.

It's obvious that society is fractured, but since Dying Light 2 will feature various factions that players can either help or hurt, it's possible that players could help facilitate the rebuilding of society, as well as determine what values could define a new age of humanity.

Each faction appears to have its own defining ideology that each demonstrates a potential way to lead humankind into a new era. For instance, Dying Light 2's Peacekeepers have more of an authoritarian stance, while Survivors adopt more of a community-oriented approach to survival. If possible, aiding a particular faction and putting them in power would perhaps be the largest-scale way for players to help society reach their respective standards of what makes one humane, but it remains to be seen if the game's ambitions will run that high.

Dying Light 2 was already highly anticipated for several reasons: Dying Light 1 has a large following, the original game was well-received, and what's been shown of Dying Light 2 is, frankly, quite impressive. Of all the information shown recently, the name change may seem small, but those two words communicate a multifaceted idea central to the game, and it'll be interesting to see how the full release continues to develop on it.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is launching December 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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