PlayStation Plus Just Added the Best Parkour Game Since Mirror’s Edge
Keep it moving.
Who would have thought the best defense against zombies would be a hang glider? In the parkour-filled adventure Dying Light 2, keeping the zombie hordes at bay means staying on the move, and fortunately, the game’s fast-paced traversal is the best thing about it. Developer Techland’s open-world zombie game is now on PlayStation Plus, where it makes for a great, if flawed, trek through a compelling city.
At the start of Dying Light 2, you may be tempted to think it’s a story-focused experience where you’ll have to make tough decisions to decide the fate of the city of Villedor. That’s because the game goes out of its way to present itself as such, with plenty of portentous dialogue and a few seemingly impactful choices up front to really sell the idea.
Dying Light 2 is a technical showcase with incredibly fun movement mechanics.
Over time, it becomes clear that that’s not actually what Dying Light 2 is about. The game’s focus isn’t a story of survival, or even your battle against the ever-present zombie hordes. Combat gets a good deal more care than narrative, centering tense melee to amp up the terror of the undead. But far more than putting rampaging zombies back in the ground, Dying Light 2 is about avoiding them.
Moving through game worlds is often something of an afterthought. You need to trek your way across the map to complete quests or find your next objective, but that movement itself is just a means to an end. A few games, like Death Stranding, Jusant, or Mirror’s Edge, make a meal of their traversal instead, turning the way you move into the core of their gameplay. Dying Light 2 doesn’t go quite as far as those titles in building gameplay around movement, but running, ziplining, and gliding through its ruined city setting is the game’s biggest joy.
The original Dying Light featured its own parkour system in 2015, but it’s massively improved in the sequel. This time around, you have skills ranging from using a grappling hook to swing Spider-Man style through the air, and running on walls to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Parkour is so much of a focus that Dying Light 2 has you unlock new movement abilities from a skill tree just as you do for new combat techniques. The more you level up, the more you’ll find new ways to move about, making each trip out into the world a little more satisfying than the last. Even if it’s easy to take the direct route, there’s plenty of incentive to put all your movement skills to use and take the long way to every destination just for the thrill of it.
Battling zombies isn’t even the best part of this open-world adventure.
Dying Light 2 isn’t the only game to feature parkour as a central mechanic, but its first-person view does put it in a class with very little competition. It’s easy to feel a sense of overwhelming speed as you zip through the city in first-person, and it feels genuinely dangerous to see the zombie hordes closing in on you when you miss a jump and come crashing back down to the ground.
Despite the fact it’s largely been destroyed and is now crawling with zombies, Villedor is gorgeous. Being able to see miles into the distance underscores how expansive and impressive the city is, even when you’re zooming by the scenic view on a zipline. That makes it even more rewarding to spend your time free-running through, taking in the sights as you fight for your life.
If you happen to pick up a PS5 Pro — not that it’s absolutely essential — Villedor stands to look even better. Dying Light 2 received a PS5 Pro update that adds 4K resolution at 60 FPS, plus options for ray tracing and various fancy lighting technologies. Even if, like most people, you didn’t shell out $700 for the new console, you’re not missing much when the game already looks this good.
Dying Light 2 is far from a perfect game, but it may be the perfect game for PS Plus. It’s hard to recommend buying it two years after release with so many other great games to choose from, but getting to enjoy its high-speed parkour for free is definitely worth your time.
