Aidens Assemble!

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is a vast improvement of the original in many ways but it’s not perfect. There are plenty of bugs and even when the devs claim to be fixing them in a patch, they seem to introduce as many as they remove. That said the game is beautiful and the parkour is mostly intuitive and smooth and only gets better and more fluid as you unlock additional skills.
You play the part of Aiden, a Pilgrim searching for his missing sister, Mia. It explains very early on that Pilgrims roam the wastelands between the cities and you arrive in Old Villador on the trail of Mia. The tutorial is embedded into the start of the story so you are learning to play while making your way through the beginning of the game. Personally I find this far more rewarding than running an assault course to prove you got the moves.
As you progress there are some defining story decisions to make and those moments restrict the time you have to make the decision. Different choices produce different outcomes in the game and while, you mostly get to the same point no matter your choice there are some fun differences and you can explore these differences by playing cooperatively with friends.
When playing Co-op, the host has the final decision on all options, but other players can suggest what they would like to see chosen which is fair. Playing with others, as with so many other games, is fun in Dying Light 2 where you can help a friend up when they fall too far or get brought down by a horde. There is no friendly fire, which is just as well with everyone flailing around with melee weapons, though explosions caused and fire will hurt your friends.
As with the first game, you can mod weapons to make them stronger or add effects that suit your play style… Fire, electric or acid maybe. There are a variety of fun combinations to try and almost everything can be upgraded using in game currency and zombie trophies taken from the slain undead. What you upgrade is up to you, although the First Aid kit is a popular upgrade.
The skills tree is only restrictive in that you have to be a certain power level to unlock the higher end skills but that’s good; it means you have to make choices on how to build your Aiden.
Bugs aside my biggest grip with the game is that in so many cut scenes you, as a character wait for or just allow your opponent to hit you before it returns to player control and allows you to end the fight in your favour. That and the requirement for all players to be there to speak to a quest giver or open a quest door, hence the quote “Aidens Assemble!”
This game is huge. There is fighting and parkour which differs at night and by day but I did not find the night time to be quite as terrifying as the original game. In this game you can hold your own at night and fight all the zombies that come at you, use the combat to harvest the parts you need for upgrades but be warned, once your Chase level goes up to 3 of 4 or 4 of 4 the volatiles will decimate you; but they too, drop parts you need so maybe it’s worth the risk?
I’ve played though the story now and with playing a fair number of the side quests I have spent 65 hours in the game; I am happy that I got my monies worth. It’s been an entertaining experience and watching how various decisions play out differently when in co-op with friends has been very interesting.

Originally published on 28 February 2022.