Dying Light 2 has been one of the many E3 2018 game reveals, and indeed was one of the most interesting of the entire event. This is mainly because it is expanding on the good base of the original while introducing multiple elements of novelty.
When we say it is expanding we really mean it because, as revealed by developer Techland, the game is going to be four times bigger than the original plus the additional content that was released after the launch.
Also, it is going to offer you the chance to take decisions which will determine the survival of an NPC and your relationship with their factions, stuff that will have an impact on the shape of the world as you play.
In order to do so, Techland had to build a narrative team that could help them improve the quality of the story and dialogue in the sequel, and this is why they announced a partnership with former Obsidian Entertainment’s Chris Avellone.
But that doesn’t end with Avellone, though. The Polish studio has also hired the creators of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Bloody Baron, the best questline in the game and one of the most compelling ever created for a role-playing title.
“This is very ambitious, so we knew we needed some help,” Techland told VG247 at E3 this week. “So we asked Chris Avellone, the master of non-linear storytelling to help us with this challenge.
“We also got some additional help in the form of the former The Witcher 3 writing team. Those guys were responsible for some of the best quests from that game including the Bloody Baron quest line. All of those guys are working very hard to create a narrative – it’s like a puzzle to play with.”
To increase the quality of the narrative, Dying Light 2 had to ditch any possible correlation with the original game’s story, which wasn’t that bad but was also a pretty standard and a bit anonymous zombie based tale.
“It’s not Kyle Crane. It’s the same universe, the same virus, but it’s fifteen years after the Harran outbreak, and it’s a different part of the world, different characters, different story, there is actually no narrative connection to the first game,” the developer mentioned while talking to GameSpot (video below).
Dying Light 2 is releasing in 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The original game is still being played by a community of 13 million users, thanks to the live updates and online modes that have found a rich pool of players.