When Dying Light 2 Takes Place

A significant amount of gameplay footage has finally been shown for Dying Light 2: Stay Human, offering a glimpse into where the series is heading. Amidst murmurings of development issues surrounding Dying Light 2, many were unsure whether the follow-up from developer Techland would ever see the light of day. The original Dying Light was a hit for its open world parkour take on an already very saturated genre, placing players within the Turkish-inspired quarantined city of Harran in the early weeks of a viral outbreak.

The original Dying Light was initially set to release in 2014 before being delayed to January 2015. The game’s setting was roughly contemporary, with the viral outbreak most likely occurring sometime in the year 2014. The Dying Light 2 gameplay reveal touched on some of the game’s story elements, including a mention that it has been “15 years since the apocalypse,” making the timeframe for the sequel somewhere around 2029 or 2030.

The jump forward in the timeline also brings with it a change in locale. Players will not be leaping between the roofs of Harran again in Dying Light 2. Instead, it will take place in an infected European city with – so far – no official name. Simply referred to as “the city,” the location of Dying Light 2 may very well be the last bastion of humanity, since modern civilization has collapsed.

The Modern Dark Ages of Dying Light 2: Stay Human

The quarantine of Harran was apparently unsuccessful, and now, 15 years after the events of the first game, Dying Light 2‘s branching story takes place in what the gameplay trailer refers to as the Modern Dark Ages. Invoking another term for the Medieval Period of European history, the Modern Dark Ages of Dying Light 2 seems to be an apt comparison. Due to the worldwide spread of the Harran Virus, modern society has ceased to exist, devolving into warring factions vying for the scarce resources that remain.

Survivors of the outbreak live atop the decaying buildings of the old city, out of the infected’s reach. The lack of industrialization has resulted in a shortage of modern firearms, meaning the melee combat of Dying Light will once again be front and center. Ramshackle bridges and other structures built over the infested streets will provide the parkour infrastructure for players to traverse the city. Though there aren’t many story details just yet, players will control protagonist Aiden Caldwell as they search for a cure in the city. Although the situation in Harran was dire, the setting of Dying Light 2 is about 15 years later and seems much more dire.

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