In the modern age of video games, live-service elements are seemingly inevitable. With entertainment juggernauts likeGrand Theft Auto 5andFortniteproving that constant updates are the best way to keep players invested in the product for long past its release date, the rest of the industry has taken notice. Now, players will be hard-pressed to find a game that isn’t supported with new content for at least a year after its initial release date. Even singleplayer games are no exception, withDying Light 2being the perfect example.
The firstDying Lightreleased in 2015, and received free content up until just a few months ago. The series' developer, Techland, has promised to do the same forDying Light 2, going as far as to create a general roadmap for what the next five years of content will look like. Though it seems like a lofty goal, if the last few months are anything to go by, it seems like the developer might just stick to its word. Since its release in February,Dying Light 2has received a slew of updates, each one bringing technical tweaks, bug fixes, new cosmetics, new weapons, new enemies, and even a whole new game mode.
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Every Dying Light 2 Update Added Since Launch
Dying Light 2’s first free update, the Authority Pack, released in three parts mere weeks after the game first released. This pack added a range of new gear to the game, all themed after the Peacekeeper faction of the game’s main story. Chest-pieces, coats, pants, high-tops, and evena brand new two-handed hammerwere all added to the game, completely free of charge. While most of these pieces were purely cosmetic, the update cemented Techland’s determination and immediately put the developer in good stead with the community.
About a month later, Techland added some new parkour challenges to the game. There were four parkour challenges in total, each one forcing the player to use their agility skills wisely and show off all they’d learned during the campaign. On top of the challenges, this update also added a new mission which teased an upcoming threat, the mutated infected types.
At the end of April,Dying Light 2received its biggest update yet. This update, titled “1.3.0,” added an impressive amount of content to the game, all for free. On top of the usual round of bug fixes, in particular some pretty significant co-op tweaks, the 1.3.0 update added the much-anticipated New Game Plus mode alongsidea new difficulty tier for parkour challengesand a wave of legendary-tier weapons with some accompanying missions.
Dying Light 2’s New Game Plus mode was no simple affair either. Unlike most games' New Game Plus offerings,Dying Light 2’s went all-out, tweaking enemy AI to make it smarter, shuffling enemy positions to keep the player on their toes, and adding 30 new Inhibitors to the game, each of which would allow the player to upgrade themselves even further, past the limit of the game’s original state. Through enemy level scaling,Dying Light 2’s New Game Plus modestays challenging throughout the playthrough, just as any good NG+ mode should.
It’s only been three months sinceDying Light 2released, and players have already received more content than they were expecting, let alone asked for. WhileDying Light 2’s paid story DLC has been delayeduntil the end of the year, the future is still extremely bright for the zombie/parkour slasher, with another four years of content ahead of it.
Dying Light 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A Switch version is in development.
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