One of the biggest changes in Dying Light 2 is the way it handles the day/night cycle. Rather than driving you out of the darkness and into the closest safe house where you can sleep until morning, Dying Light 2 provides you with the means and incentives to stay out at night and continue exploring the City. This new approach has made me realize how oppressive the original’s night sequences were, and now I don’t think I could ever go back.
In the first hour of the original, you’re taught that you should never be out at night. The thin, shambling hordes of infected are weak during the day, sapped of their energy by the sun’s ultraviolet light. These are the weakest zombies that weren’t able to make their way to the safety of darkness indoors. At night, the strong flood the streets, ready to hunt. Among them are the Volatiles, which are the fast and agile infected that can climb buildings and kill you in a single blow. Aside from earning double experience, there’s no reason to be out at night. If you get spotted by a Volatile, they’ll chase you to the closest safe zone you’ve unlocked.
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Nighttime isn’t off limits in Dying Light 2, you merely have to adapt to the way the world changes at night. The powerful infected still hide away indoors during the day, but now when they spill out onto the streets at night, those indoor spaces become explorable areas for you to loot. That means there are two distinct phases of exploration in Dying Light 2: the day is traveling long distances and exploring the city from the streets, while the night is reserved for exploring all the indoor locations where you’ll find the best gear and crafting resources.
Volatiles still exist in Dying Light 2, but their role has been greatly diminished. They no longer patrol the streets, and as long as you don’t go into any Dark Hallows during the day, you may never actually see them outside of story sequences. A new type of infected called Screamers now populate the streets at night. If you get close enough to these zombies or make noise around them, they’ll scream and start the traditional Dying Light chase sequence. Dying Light 2 uses a GTA-like wanted system, so the more Screamers you alert and the more noise you make, the more intense the chase will become. If you max out that wanted level, you’ll find yourself hunted by Volatiles.
Early on, you have to carefully avoid Screamers to avoid getting chased. By the time you make it to the Central Loop – a section of the city full of highrise buildings – it’s easy to avoid Screamers completely. At a certain point you have to purposely alert Screamers if you want to experience the thrill of running through the dark from a horde of super zombies, which can make you feel a little bit like a puppy that wants to play chase.
You also have to contend with the Immunity Meter at night. You only have so long you can stay in the dark before your timer runs out and you turn, so you have to leap frog from safe zone to safe zone to soak up to UV light and recharge your Immunity Meter, or otherwise craft and consume Immunity Boosters to give yourself more time. Like the Screamers, this is a huge concern early on before you’re able to upgrade your Stamina and improve your immunity. Before long though, you’ll have found a pile of immunity boosters and upgraded your Immunity Meter so much that staying out late for long stretches isn’t a concern at all.
I loved how dangerous nighttime was in the first Dying Light, but how much it interrupted the flow of the game. When night fell, you pretty much had to drop whatever you were doing and make your way to a safe house, avoiding Volatiles along the way. Thematically, it worked great, and led to some thrilling and memorable chase sequences. But once you survived the night a few times, the need to constantly retreat to a safe house did become frustrating.
Dying Light 2 does a much better job of balancing daytime and nighttime, to the point where they feel like two distinct phases of the game or two versions of the city. It only takes a few upgrades before night is no more dangerous than the day, but the exploration opportunities it creates still manage to make the night meaningful and rewarding. Every time the sun starts to set, I find myself pausing to evaluate my next move. Am I close enough to the next quest marker that I can make it there before night falls? Are there nearby side quests or POIs I can check out once it gets dark? Am I even safe where I am now, or should I head to higher ground? The transition from day to night makes the world feel like a living (or undead) world and keeps me on my toes, especially when the monotony of checking off map markers starts to wear me down. It’s a great new direction for the series, and by far my favorite improvement over the original.
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