Techland, the developers of Dying Light 2, recently released a second AMA video that covers quite a lot of ground for the game. They answer a series of questions that give us insight into what sort of game this is going to end up being. In this article, I want to look at the main character Aiden, and how players get to sort of control who he becomes over the course of the game. Whilst this guy starts the game as a pre-defined character, he’ll change over the course of the time you spend with him. The end product is someone that’s been shaped by your actions.
There is a hint that Aiden is actually out to uncover a secret from his past in Dying Light 2. Whether that’s directly linked to him being in the middle of a city that’s so plagued by infected and political issues, we won’t know until the game is out. What we do know is that this game poses decisions to you. You’re able to choose to side with certain factions or make actions that inadvertently allow one faction to do something. This irrevocably changes the city around you, and that’s a huge part of what makes Dying Light so intriguing.
On top of this system though, you have Aiden. He’s a guy who will be going through changes over the course of the game. He’s never had to make a decision that affects an entire city before. By making certain decisions, you’ll change who Aiden is by the endgame. We don’t know what this will look like in the final hours though, unfortunately. It would be nice to see some specific dialogue options that are locked behind making certain decisions and choosing Aiden’s morality to one extreme or the other.
One thing I think would be truly powerful is making it possible for Aiden to remain completely neutral throughout the game. I’d love to see him stay true to himself and never be swayed by the characters around him. That way, we get to see the final version of Aiden that hasn’t been tainted by the horrors of the decisions he’s made. We’ll just have to wait until the game is with us to see what happens.