Dying Light 2: Stay Human came out about eight months ago and despite flaws, it kept parkour and zombie fans happy with its post-apocalyptic open world. The title has since been entitled to numerous updates to correct the problems, but also to bring new features such as New Game +.
We remind you that Techland has promised to support the game for at least 5 years with free DLCs but also paid ones. The first of them is called bloody ties and will offer several things including a new area with arena fights. Unfortunately, this DLC has been pushed back several times. According to the latest news, it should be released on November 10th.
While waiting for its release, we invite you to learn more about this new content thanks to our interview carried out during Gamescom 2022 with Tymon Smektala, Lead Game Designer of Dying Light 2.
- Before talking about the DLC, I would like to know what surprised you the most in terms of feedback shortly after the release of Dying Light 2 ?
Players started asking us “Hey, give us more gore and more brutality”, it was quite surprising. When players ask, as a developer we have to offer them so we made some updates on this aspect during the fights and I think that bloody ties will be a further step in this direction. You can hope for a lot more beheadings and more blood on screen because bloody ties is the most intense version of the fights of Dying Light 2.
- What can we concretely expect for this DLC apart from the battles in the arena? In terms of exploration or history for example.
The starting point for the DLC was the arena format but we spent a lot of time making it better and richer. You don’t start directly in the arena, we are in an area of Villedor, the main open world city, we have made sure to integrate new places to explore on this map. You will meet new characters who will engage you in the story. You will do things for them and understand their conflicts and problems. You will thus land in the Hall of Carnage which is an old opera house transformed into a place where the bloodiest tournaments of this post-apocalyptic world take place.
It’s not just the building, it’s a small map but full of secrets. So there are the surroundings where you can do some parkour. You will also meet other characters to unlock new side quests which will sometimes be scripted. Completing the DLC story will take you around 5 or 6 hours and after that you have the side content, easter eggs, hidden things etc. As you progress, you have access to new events in the tournaments. It’s not just about battling waves of zombies, we’ve made sure the format is innovative so you can expect a lot of variety in this DLC.
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Dying Light 2: New postponement for the Bloody Ties DLC which will finally not arrive until November 10 on PC and consoles
The coolest element of all are the “Shows” which take the form of a play in which you are the main actor. Of course, you are well armed so these performances will be very bloody. To give you an example, one of the shows is called “Prince of Thieves” and you play Robin Hood having to steal gold from the Sheriff of Nottingham. There is a whole scenography around the forest and a castle in the background. You must open the blocked door, eliminate the guards, find the gold… It’s a mini-story that you will play within the arena.
It’s not Fifa of course, but there is also a crowd system that will react to what you are doing in real time. She can encourage you or boo you if you fall, for example. We really want to give a special atmosphere during these moments, also with the music which will be different according to the shows. I think we got it right and it won’t just be “another arena DLC”.
- From when can we unlock the DLC?
The DLC is available after finishing the prologue of the game. It is very important for us because we have players who have already finished the game and who are in their New Game + but we also have people who are coming or who will arrive along the way. Maybe they haven’t finished the game or they’re going to buy it for the holidays… we wanted to make sure that we didn’t need to finish the game to access the DLC . It was a challenge for us because we had to make sure the DLC was balanced for a wide range of players, but we made it challenging for all types of players.
- bloody ties will have new weapons. Do you have any cool examples to share with us?
There will be lots of new weapons, machetes, hammers, axes… One of the coolest weapons is the Manica. It is a weapon used by Roman gladiators, a kind of guard for your left hand. However, since this is our post-apocalyptic world, you will be able to do more than block attacks with it. You will be able to craft it in order to also manipulate it for offensive movements. For example, you can use an akimbo style with one hand for defense and attack using the Manica, and another with a machete. And of course, once you unlock the Manica with the DLC, you’ll be able to use it in the open world. It really changes the experience.
- I guess you can’t really talk about it now but do you hear the massive call from fans wanting a DLC along the lines of TheFollowing ?
Yes ! I think you’ve already proven to you that we’re a studio that really listens to our fans and we’re fully aware of requests like this. The only thing I can say is that a DLC like TheFollowing usually releases long after a game is released. This is something that takes time. For now, we are focused on bloody ties.
We thank Tymon Smektala for answering our questions. Dying Light 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series. The DLC bloody ties is expected for November 10 on these same platforms.
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