Dying Light 2: Stay Human, has had a rocky road, but seems now like it’s getting closer and closer to being finished. Now, in a recent PC Gamer issue, the developers gave us a bit more detail on the game’s story, particularly the double-meaning behind the Dying Light 2 full name, according to Tymon Smektala, the lead game designer.
“As you can imagine, in an apocalypse, society becomes brutal and all its elements are reevaluated.”
Like most zombie apocalypse fiction, one of the most pressing issues alongside the zombies is preventing people from becoming just as monstrous as they are. Whether you’re in Dying Light, The Walking Dead, or some other zombie fiction, people losing their minds from the shock of civilization’s collapse, or becoming power-hungry monsters in the absence of greater authority, is always a risk alongside infection and turning into a zombie yourself. Smektala elaborated further on both.
“The title covers two issues, physical and mental. On the physical side, this is of course avoiding transformation due to infection…The second layer, humanity, is about remaining human according to the norms and principles we know.”
The Dying Light 2 full name has already been shown to be relevant in a number of ways in Dying Light 2’s narrative. Various choices that the player makes throughout its story shape the world around them, with multiple factions gaining or losing influence depending on the player’s decisions. Will you allow safety at the expense of freedom, or work with bad people to ensure survival? Smektala says these decisions will affect more than the story as well.
“Your decisions can shape the appearance of locations and affect the factions living in the City, and you will see the impact of this outcome on the environment. Some choices you may even regret when your actions inadvertently make the lives of other residents of the City more difficult.”
Whether the Dying Light 2 full name lives up to the hype of the story remains to be seen, but we can find out when Dying Light 2 comes out on December 7 for the Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Xbox Series X, and Playstation 5.