Digital Foundry - Dying Light 2 First Look + Developer Interview

60 fps for consoles? Hell yes

60fps on base consoles? Good luck with that...

First game was incredible and such a step up from Dead Island.

Hope this one doesn't have a MP focus.

Box said:

A bit of Techland history
Some engine talk
World looks incredible. John notes the similarity to HL2.. .
Ai drive vehicles now?
AI improvements sound really good.
Aiming for 60 fps on console. Caveats from John about the pre-release of the original.
Animation system reworked. Hired talent from Assassin's Creed.
Going for TLOU 2 type motion matching. More info needed.
Narrative focus requires more nuanced animation.
Chris Avallone involved from the outset. Helped build and define the world.

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They created a new engine for this game. Was it called the C Engine(?).

Nice video but it still is the biggest disappointment of E3... no daylight zombies and high focus on narrative and multiple/moral choices, which I couldn't care less... :'(

SixelAlexiS said:

Nice video but it still is the biggest disappointment of E3... no daylight zombies and high focus on narrative and multiple/moral choices, which I couldn't care less... :'(

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No daylight zombies confirmed?

GIMME

Random complaint: You [DigitalFoundry] really need to think a little bit harder about the footage you chose. Fictional violence, developer interview, victional violence, real world nazi iconography in a fictional but not contextualised setting, developer interview, fictional violence. I get that you need a point of comparison but either chose a different game or at least a different scene.

On-topic: I'm looking forward to see how this game develops, the first was great and this one seems like that with a whole bunch of additional depth story wise and mechanically (and indeed interleaved between the two). Can't wait to see the finished thing.

Nintendo said:

They created a new engine for this game. Was it called the C Engine(?).

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Yep it's a new engine.

shadowsdarknes said:

60 fps for consoles? Hell yes

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I'm assuming this is for premium consoles only?

Anything about co-op? My favorite thing about the first one was playing all the way through with my wife.

Nintendo said:

No daylight zombies confirmed?

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Nhaaa that cannot be... it was a forte of the first game :( easy fun in the daylight...
I see there are vehicles now from the listing of OP... i hate vehicles in FPS/FPAA/etc... traversal is traversal on foot for me.
(i only played vanilla Daylight by the way, never wanted to play the expansion, which diverged from what i liked upon reading impressions/reviews)

Ted said:

Random complaint: You [DigitalFoundry] really need to think a little bit harder about the footage you chose. Fictional violence, developer interview, victional violence, real world nazi iconography in a fictional but not contextualised setting, developer interview, fictional violence. I get that you need a point of comparison but either chose a different game or at least a different scene.

On-topic: I'm looking forward to see how this game develops, the first was great and this one seems like that with a whole bunch of additional depth story wise and mechanically (and indeed interleaved between the two). Can't wait to see the finished thing.

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That was the only clip I had handy. What was the issue?

Playing through the first one again now. Runs so much better on the Xbox X than it did on the base PS4 when I last played it.

In my top three favorites of the gen. So stoked for the sequel, even if no daylight zombs. :/

MikeNeko said:

Nhaaa that cannot be... it was a forte of the first game :( easy fun in the daylight...
I see there are vehicles now from the listing of OP... i hate vehicles in FPS/FPAA/etc... traversal is traversal on foot for me.
(i only played vanilla Daylight by the way, never wanted to play the expansion, which diverged from what i liked upon reading impressions/reviews)

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Yeah I couldn't enjoy the expansion because it focused on vehicle driving instead of parkour.

Great video. This game is now on my radar.

Nintendo said:

No daylight zombies confirmed?

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Essentially yes, look for the Angry Joe interview with the developers.
There are daytime zombies but not like Dying Light 1. It's minimal in like caves or smaller areas. For some blooming reason.
So yeah human combat seem to take priority here.

Ted said:

Random complaint: You [DigitalFoundry] really need to think a little bit harder about the footage you chose. Fictional violence, developer interview, victional violence, real world nazi iconography in a fictional but not contextualised setting, developer interview, fictional violence. I get that you need a point of comparison but either chose a different game or at least a different scene.

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Fuckin' what?

Dark1x said:

That was the only clip I had handy. What was the issue?

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Randomly watching a video about something unrelated you simply don't expect to suddenly see nazi imagery. For some of us that symbol still holds an incredible amount of shock value. It being used without context (i.e. unrelated content, unrelated content, swastika, unrelated content etc.) elicits the same gut response as seeing it casually graffitied on a car park wall next to "Shazza luvs Jason" or whatever.

Surprised really that it's a question you have to ask but I guess we're expected to be somehow desensitised to a freaking swastika up in your face on a Sunday morning while you watch a video about a game not at all about nazis.

EDIT:

Heckler456 said:

Fuckin' what?

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See above. Since I know DF post here, easy to bring it to there attention here. Given the tone of your response, I now wish I had simply messaged them privately!

Looks pretty slick if they can get the 60fps. Have to see what the game play is like never played the original as took it for a zombie game.

Ted said:

Randomly watching a video about something unrelated you simply don't expect to suddenly see nazi imagery. For some of us that symbol still holds an incredible amount of shock value. It being used without context (i.e. unrelated content, unrelated content, swastika, unrelated content etc.) elicits the same gut response as seeing it casually graffitied on a car park wall next to "Shazza luvs Jason" or whatever.

Surprised really that it's a question you have to ask but I guess we're expected to be somehow desensitised to a freaking swastika up in your face on a Sunday morning while you watch a video about a game not at all about nazis.

EDIT:



See above. Since I know DF post here, easy to bring it to there attention here. Given the tone of your response, I now wish I had simply messaged them privately!

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What do you mean it's unrelated? It's literally the footage of the game the video is about.

Nintendo said:

What do you mean it's unrelated? It's literally the footage of the game the video is about.

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He's talking about Wolfenstein footage in the video. Considering Wolfenstein is one of the most technically advanced 60FPS console titles out there, and Dying Light 2 is aiming for 60FPS, it makes sense to talk about Wolfenstein and subsequently it makes sense to use footage of it while talking about it. It's not unrelated nor is it out of context.

Additionally the footage with violence....uh that's like the only footage we have from Dying Light apart from random moments of free running which was used in the video as well.

Nintendo said:

What do you mean it's unrelated? It's literally the footage of the game the video is about.

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No, it's Wolfenstein 2 footage used a 60FPS comparison. There are more than one 60FPS non-open world, graphically competent, first person shooters out there. Most don't feature that imagery. In fact even big chunks of that game don't. For the sake of ten seconds of footage it's not hard to chose a different clip.

Anyway, I'm in danger of dragging the thread off topic though now for what seemed like a fairly simple editorial comment so please just ignore and Dark1x, apologies for diverting a thread about your content, please feel free to PM if you need further perspective. Mods feel free to remove my posts if you feel they will detract from on-topic conversation.

Ted said:

No, it's Wolfenstein 2 footage used a 60FPS comparison. There are more than one 60FPS non-open world, graphically competent, first person shooters out there. Most don't feature that imagery. In fact even big chunks of that game don't. For the sake of ten seconds of footage it's not hard to chose a different clip.

Anyway, I'm in danger of dragging the thread off topic though now for what seemed like a fairly simple editorial comment so please just ignore and Dark1x, apologies for diverting a thread about your content, please feel free to PM if you need further perspective. Mods feel free to remove my posts if you feel they will detract from on-topic conversation.

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But none of them are as recent and as advanced.

I think it's just that Dark recently did the Switch video about Wolfenstein and the courtroom scene is a key scene in the game in terms of engine stress. He probably had videos of that scene from console versions there for comparison's sake.

Ted said:

Randomly watching a video about something unrelated you simply don't expect to suddenly see nazi imagery. For some of us that symbol still holds an incredible amount of shock value. It being used without context (i.e. unrelated content, unrelated content, swastika, unrelated content etc.) elicits the same gut response as seeing it casually graffitied on a car park wall next to "Shazza luvs Jason" or whatever.

Surprised really that it's a question you have to ask but I guess we're expected to be somehow desensitised to a freaking swastika up in your face on a Sunday morning while you watch a video about a game not at all about nazis.

EDIT:



See above. Since I know DF post here, easy to bring it to there attention here. Given the tone of your response, I now wish I had simply messaged them privately!

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Nazi flags as shock value? wtf?

Ted said:

No, it's Wolfenstein 2 footage used a 60FPS comparison. There are more than one 60FPS non-open world, graphically competent, first person shooters out there. Most don't feature that imagery. In fact even big chunks of that game don't. For the sake of ten seconds of footage it's not hard to chose a different clip.

Anyway, I'm in danger of dragging the thread off topic though now for what seemed like a fairly simple editorial comment so please just ignore and Dark1x, apologies for diverting a thread about your content, please feel free to PM if you need further perspective. Mods feel free to remove my posts if you feel they will detract from on-topic conversation.

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Oh I totally missed that.

Nooblet said:

But none of them are as recent and as advanced.

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For brevity:

Ted said:

There are more than one 60FPS non-open world, graphically competent, first person shooters out there. Most don't feature that imagery. In fact even big chunks of that game don't. For the sake of ten seconds of footage it's not hard to chose a different clip.

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ItsBobbyDarin said:

Nazi flags as shock value? wtf?

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I would posit the opposite, "nazi imagery holds no shock value? wtf?".

Box said:

Given we've now dedicated two thirds of the topic to soothe your pain. Any chance we can move on?

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You can do whatever you please OP. If you read my posts you'd see I have already asked others not to respond and mods to remove content if they see fit.

As the OP though, I thought it best to reply to you but I shan't any further. Have a great day OP and apologies again.

60fps on base consoles? I find it hard to believe, but we'll see.

Dezzy said:

Anything about co-op? My favorite thing about the first one was playing all the way through with my wife.

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Four-player co-op is confirmed to be back.

I have my doubts all consoles are even going to make that 60fps target. At what resolution do they hope to achieve it too? Probably bog standard 1440p on Pro. 900p/720p elsewhere. Le sigh.

I feel like they should probably take it to 30 on consoles just to be safe. It's either going to be pretty ugly to get a stable 60 or it'll be a wildly unlocked framerate. Also while I'm excited to see what Avellone does with the game's writing I can't help but be worried about the no daylight zombies thing. The fights against armed humans in 1 was probably the worst part of the game whereas messing with the dumb zombies was half of the fun.

Great video, Dark1x .

I really like how you guys have started to involve developers in your content, it's great insight.

Also, showing swastikas in the context of nazi trash being violently killed is never wrong.

Will wait for the inevitable port to next gen. This video really made me more interested in the game, hopefully they can do something great or unique with ai. Also, the opening needs to be more streamlined as DL1 is horrible to restart with all the unskipable cutscenes and slow pace.

The Last Wizard said:

Will wait for the inevitable port to next gen.

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That version is out day 1 on PC.

Truant said:

That version is out day 1 on PC.

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Sadly I don't pc game:/

Less zombies, less interesting

release date?

Dezzy said:

Anything about co-op? My favorite thing about the first one was playing all the way through with my wife.

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Was wondering the same so I looked it up.

According to articles there will still be 4-player coop. Though due to the narrative-focus, one person has to host since the city can be radically different.

Ted said:

No, it's Wolfenstein 2 footage used a 60FPS comparison. There are more than one 60FPS non-open world, graphically competent, first person shooters out there. Most don't feature that imagery. In fact even big chunks of that game don't. For the sake of ten seconds of footage it's not hard to chose a different clip.

Anyway, I'm in danger of dragging the thread off topic though now for what seemed like a fairly simple editorial comment so please just ignore and Dark1x, apologies for diverting a thread about your content, please feel free to PM if you need further perspective. Mods feel free to remove my posts if you feel they will detract from on-topic conversation.

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The reason for using it was simply that I had just made a Wolf 2 video and had that clip handy. That was the only XOX clip I had at my disposal and it's an advanced 60fps game. That's the only reason! I'm sorry I didn't even think about it from another perspective

Lukemia SL said:

Essentially yes, look for the Angry Joe interview with the developers.
There are daytime zombies but not like Dying Light 1. It's minimal in like caves or smaller areas. For some blooming reason.
So yeah human combat seem to take priority here.

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This can't be true, taking the Zombies out of daylight seems like a Massive step in the wrong direction, my most hated part of the first game was the night sections, I avoided them like the plague, I only ventured out at night when a mission needed me to.

If this is true then I'll seriously question buying this game.

I had no idea they were polish. I'm not a fan of Dying Light, but it definitely didn't have any "eurojank" feel at all. Really high quality game with smooth controls.

TheDave545 said:

This can't be true, taking the Zombies out of daylight seems like a Massive step in the wrong direction, my most hated part of the first game was the night sections, I avoided them like the plague, I only ventured out at night when a mission needed me to.

If this is true then I'll seriously question buying this game.

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I did the same as you, kept to the daytime, night gameplay was not fun for me. Human combat was unenjoyable too especially when the story demanded you to get through them to progress.
It seems like they're focusing on the opposite of what was good about the first.

Lukemia SL said:

I did the same as you, kept to the daytime, night gameplay was not fun for me. Human combat was unenjoyable too especially when the story demanded you to get through them to progress.
It seems like they're focusing on the opposite of what was good about the first.

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I gotta agree here. It does seem like they're doubling down on stuff that people didn't like, and neglecting the things people did like. It's one thing to improve upon critisized aspects, but toning down the good ones and betting it all on improving said bad aspects is a hell of a risk to take.

I understand wanting to do better story. But not at the expense of the praised multiplayer. Multiplayer in Dying Light was so good because quest progression came to the whole party. This branching story/unique world stuff means almost definitely that only host gets progress like in other games like Far Cry 5. Big step back to take. People will get done with the story stuff and at that point would just like to play with friends as seamlessly as possible. Having to repeat quests so veryone gets the progress is very counter-intuitive to that.

Also, people liked to toy with daytime slow zombies. It was the game's draw for me. It was so fun. Please don't fucking relegate zombie stuff to mostly nighttime super zombies and have daytime consist of mainly human enemies.Fighting against humans sucked. You can improve that. Then it can suck a bit less. You get my point here? Have they just cracked the code on that so hard that all feedback they're getting is saying that this is the bees knees? I just wanted better parkour (which we're getting) and better visuals (which we're getting) and new gameplay mechanics. This new other stuff seems to replace or minimize so many of the things I most enjoyed in the first one that I'm very concerned.

Shredderi said:

I gotta agree here. It does seem like they're doubling down on stuff that people didn't like, and neglecting the things people did like. It's one thing to improve upon critisized aspects, but toning down the good ones and betting it all on improving said bad aspects is a hell of a risk to take.

I understand wanting to do better story. But not at the expense of the praised multiplayer. Multiplayer in Dying Light was so good because quest progression came to the whole party. This branching story/unique world stuff means almost definitely that only host gets progress like in other games like Far Cry 5. Big step back to take. People will get done with the story stuff and at that point would just like to play with friends as seamlessly as possible. Having to repeat quests so veryone gets the progress is very counter-intuitive to that.

Also, people liked to toy with daytime slow zombies. It was the game's draw for me. It was so fun. Please don't fucking relegate zombie stuff to mostly nighttime super zombies and have daytime consist of mainly human enemies.Fighting against humans sucked. You can improve that. Then it can suck a bit less. You get my point here? Have they just cracked the code on that so hard that all feedback they're getting is saying that this is the bees knees? I just wanted better parkour (which we're getting) and better visuals (which we're getting) and new gameplay mechanics. This new other stuff seems to replace or minimize so many of the things I most enjoyed in the first one that I'm very concerned.

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Oh right yeah you don't progress with your friends and have to repeat missions which was a downer. I hope they address this part too.
It's nice that they're putting effort into the story but it wasn't the reason I wanted to play the first game.

I get your point absolutely, fix the weaker parts of the game while keeping and improving upon what made the original worth coming back to. We'll just have to wait and see more of this.

Lukemia SL said:

Oh right yeah you don't progress with your friends and have to repeat missions which was a downer. I hope they address this part too.
It's nice that they're putting effort into the story but it wasn't the reason I wanted to play the first game.

I get your point absolutely, fix the weaker parts of the game while keeping and improving upon what made the original worth coming back to. We'll just have to wait and see more of this.

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Yep. It just feels weird to feel concerned about this game in particular lol. I was sure this one would be a kind of surefire thing.