The narrative design also prompts players to care about the non-playable characters and encourages players to be more sensitive about their presence and needs. Therefore, the team recruited Avellone as well as writers who worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game widely praised for its writing and story. The team was confident about the game's gameplay, though they felt that they needed additional help when designing the game's narrative. The story focuses on a new, modern " Dark Ages" for humanity, which enables the story to convey themes such as betrayal, infidelity, and intrigue. Ciszewski added that in each playthrough, players will "lose at least 25 percent of the content". To make the world feel believable and authentic, the team also took inspiration from real-world issues and political ideologies and had to drop gameplay ideas that were deemed too unrealistic. The game's story features a more serious tone when compared with the first game. After players make certain choices, the game space will also change. The game was described as a "narrative sandbox" in which every choice has "genuine" consequences according to Avellone. The team felt that they had developed an open city, but they wanted the narrative to share the same level of agency. The team approached Chris Avellone to help write the game's story which is reactive to players' choices. The game placed a significantly larger emphasis on narrative when compared with its predecessor. The team also created a new engine named C-Engine to power the game.
The technology enabled the team to create and change the city design quickly.
When creating the City, the team utilized an internal technology named CityBuilder, which can assemble different building parts like ledges and windows with minimal input from the level designers. To show the fragility of humanity, the team introduced several layers to the City, in which the temporary structures are built on top of the ruins of the old buildings to accommodate humans, whereas permanent structures and concrete ground are occupied by massive hordes of zombies. They also show that humanity was on the edge of extinction. The team intended to invoke a sense of loss and dread. Development ĭying Light 2 Stay Human is developed and published by Techland. Like its predecessor, the game features four-player cooperative multiplayer. Making certain decisions will open up or seal-off areas in the city, encouraging players to complete multiple playthroughs. The consequences are far-reaching, with the player being able to bring prosperity to a faction while completely destroying another settlement. In the game, players meet different factions and settlements and have to make different decisions that would fundamentally change the state of the game's world and how non-playable characters view Aiden. When exploring the city, players can scavenge different scraps and resources for crafting new items and weapons. The map, which is four times bigger than the original game, is broken into seven distinct regions and each has its own landmarks and locations. The game is set in the City, a massive urban open world set in Europe that players can explore freely. Like the first game, the zombies are slow when exposed to sunlight, but they become more aggressive and hostile at night. Aiden can also utilize superhuman skills due to the infection.
Weapons can be upgraded with different blueprints and components which can be found by breaking down weapons for craft parts. Long-range weapons such as crossbows, shotguns, and spears can be used as well.
The melee weapons have a limited lifespan and will degrade as the player uses them in combat. The game is mostly melee-based with the majority of fighting using melee weapons. Aiden can also use the undead to break his fall. Tools such as a grappling hook and a paraglider also aid traversal in the city.
It was confirmed that there are over 3000 parkour animations to give a more fluid free running experience. Players can perform actions such as climbing ledges, sliding, leaping off from edges, and wall running to quickly navigate the city. Set 20 years after Dying Light, starring a new protagonist named Aiden Caldwell (voiced by Jonah Scott), who is equipped with various parkour skills. Dying Light 2 Stay Human is an action role-playing survival horror video game, featuring a zombie apocalyptic-themed open world.