First announced almost three years ago during Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference, Dying Light 2 was delayed indefinitely in January 2020 and there have been few further updates on the game's development since. The announcement came as a major shock to many fans given how promising the game's E3 2019 demo looked, as well as the ongoing post-launch support Dying Light that is still happening to this day. Dying Light 2's delay also came before the real impact of Covid-19 was felt, meaning something else was going on behind the scenes.
In recent months, TheGamer released a report detailing a hostile working environment at Dying Light 2 developer Techland: Key issues stemmed from the lack of any real production pipeline and suppressed creativity, as Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka allegedly won't try something that he hasn't seen working in another game. Whatever is going on behind the scenes at Techland, one thing is clear. Dying Light 2 has gone through its fair share of development issues, and it's possible the highly-ambitious game won't be able to live up to its many promises.
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One of the biggest criticisms of the original Dying Light was the game's story, which critics described as generic, predictable, and full of cliches. From the announcement of Dying Light 2, Techland has consistently emphasized that the sequel will have a much larger focus on narrative: Taking place a full fifteen years after the original and starring a brand new protagonist - Aiden Caldwell.
Nearly three years after it's announcement, Dying Light 2 has lost two Narrative Designer's in Chris Avellone and Paweł Selinger. Given the original game's story was re-written entirely before launch, it's possible Dying Light 2's story has already seen significant changes since the last time the game was shown.
In-line with the larger focus on narrative and the introduction of branching player choices, Dying Light 2 also promised that there would be multiple factions and settlements, and real consequences for decisions made in the game. During the E3 gameplay demo, it was revealed that entire areas of the game can be discovered or blocked off depending on how the player interacts with different factions. For example, in the gameplay demo, the player takes out the leader of an opposing faction, gaining control of the cities water pumps at the dam. By turning on the water pumps, an entire section of the city that was covered in water is now available for exploration and a new type of enemy is revealed.
During an interview with Dying Light 2 Lead Designer Tymon Smektała, it was revealed that the upcoming game would be approximately four times bigger than all of the first game's maps combined. Considering all of the DLC for Dying Light already made the map roughly four times larger, that would mean Dying Light 2's map is close to sixteen times larger than Dying Light.
At a base level, all of these elements (narrative focus, branching player choices, and a sprawling open world) suggest that Dying Light 2 is far more ambitious than the first game, and one sequel that no player should miss out on. However, with reports of troubling development, a toxic work environment, and multiple major staff members leaving the studio, at best it's likely that some of these promises will need to scaled back and expectations kept in check.
A major part of the reason why players are anticipating the release of Dying Light 2 comes down to the reputation Techland built off the first game. Originally released in 2015, Dying Light has been consistently supported and updated with new content to this day including a full-sized expansion, new story content, multiplayer modes, cosmetic items, crossover events, and more.
For better or worse, Techland has actually already promised the same thing for the unreleased Dying Light 2, with at least four years of planned DLC support. Considering the developers past, it's absolutely something they're capable of and willing to do. However, given the sequel is still currently delayed indefinitely, players shouldn't look too far ahead into the future if the base game has seen significant delays.
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The final problem that Techland faces with the release of Dying Light 2 comes down to the state of several in-development video games in 2021. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are available worldwide, meaning the upcoming sequel will not only need to release on multiple platforms, but across multiple generations of consoles too.
Techland has already confirmed Dying Light 2 will be cross-generational all the way back in 2019, so it's something the team has been aware of for a long time. However, developing for that many SKU's can be very difficult and takes up resources, so its possible players could see a delayed release on next-gen. Just look at Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel's Avengers, two games that also had significant problems throughout development and subsequent launch.
Earlier this week, developer Techland took to Twitter to let fans know that it would be releasing an update on Dying Light 2 in the coming days. "We've got a few words to share with you about the Dying Light 2 development process," the post said. While it's currently unclear whether the post will finally announce the game's release date, or instead, potentially address recent reports of a toxic work environment at the studio, a long-awaited update on Dying Light 2 will be dropping on Wednesday, March 17.
Dying Light 2 is currently in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.