Dying Light 2 Stay Human finally has a release date, and a subtitle! For years this game has been called Dying Light 2, and that’s what I’ve been calling it all year. Now though, we have a subtitle that adds to the flavour if this entry in the Dying Light series, and we can play it on December 7, 2021. That’s right, it’s out this year, and it’ll be with us just in time to play all Christmas long. I can’t wait to get stuck into an open-world zombie game and ignore my family for a couple of weeks, but I do wonder about that subtitle.
In the first Dying Light, your protagonist was afflicted with the infection turning everyone into zombies pretty quickly. It was so bad that it became a core part of it, forcing you to find drops and pick up the cure for both them and everyone else in the world. I think that something similar must be going on in the sequel. There’s a short clip in the above video that shows someone about to turn, falling over on the ground. It feels like this is the thing we’re being set up to expect, and the subtitle adds to that.
Stay Human implies that we’re battling against becoming undead. I think this is definitely the case because it’s a core mechanic of the original. However, I think this also refers to you as a player needing to retain your humanity. This is a game about choices, and the ones you make will define who your character is. If you choose to sacrifice people for your own goals, you’re barely human, and you’re not a nice one with what humanity you have left. If you choose to help others, then you’re much more human, and that’s a core part of this world.
I think that there’s going to be a larger emphasis on helping people in this game than we saw in the first. It’ll push players to their limits, and force us to address complex situations. Will we save those people being attacked by the undead and sacrifice our weapons? Or will we move on and never lift a finger to help anyone unless it’s ourselves. I don’t like what I might choose, but I think it’s really interesting to see in action.