Six months already Dying Light 2 is available on consoles and PC... After a few small additions, Techland is about to release its first major narrative DLC with bloody ties, where we play a certain Aiden, who seeks to make a name for himself in Carnage Hall! I had the opportunity to meet one of the game developers, who was able to answer a few questions.
GG: Hello, so to be transparent with you, I haven't played Dying Light 2 yet, so this is an inexperienced player talking to you, so my first question will be: do I have to play the base game to access the experience offered by Bloody Ties or not?
Yes, you have to progress a bit to get to Carnage Hall, you have to complete the prologue first. It takes about 1 hour to complete the introduction and allow the player access to the open world. From this moment, access to the Blood Ties DLC is permitted. You have to go for that to the place where Carnage Hall is. It was actually a challenge for us to allow all players to play this additional content, whether you are a player who has already finished the game, made the new game + or a newcomer.
GG: Without context, when you see the trailer shown during the Opening Night Live, you can think that it is only content focused on the arena. Is there more than that, can we expect a story behind this place that is Carnage Hall?
There's a lot more than that, it's something that we absolutely try to make everyone understand, it's a narrative DLC as announced in the game calendar, so expect a lot more than a arena. Bloody Ties is a DLC where we meet well-known characters, with a strong emotional, almost "family" context. If you want to help these people, you have to go to Carnage Hall, where the tournament takes place. The progress you make in the tournament is linked to the story of the DLC. We will meet several new characters who will offer us secondary missions. The action is not only linked to Carnage Hall but also to its surroundings. There are many hidden things to discover, Easter eggs, secrets to discover that allow you to learn more about the history of this place. To complete the main quest, it takes 5 to 6 hours. With all the secondary content, we can count on more than 10 hours of play.
Several missions are to be accomplished, and the most interesting are those related to the Show, these are mini stories.
One of the stories that we can live for example is that of Robin Hood who has to steal gold. We embody the main character who sees a castle in the background, and who must go there to steal the treasure. We will of course have infected to kill on the way, of different kinds. The first thing to do will be to find the path allowing access to the castle, find the gold, put the treasure in a transport cart, push it... it's a mini play where you are the actor. It's quite unique in the Dying Light formula to do it this way. We absolutely wanted something new so as not to offer only combat. The places are smaller, we have a better view of the environment. We will encounter all types of infected with new variations. Spears and other types of weapons can be used now, but used differently.
GG: New types of infected to come across perhaps?
Yes, well, not quite, but new variations of already known enemies, with distinct effects, which we think are really interesting ideas.
We wanted to focus on the atmosphere of the place by offering new things. Because of the place, if we fall from a platform, we can be booed by the public watching us, the public is noisy, we have music in the background to energize the whole thing.
GG: So, we can expect more than 10 hours of play for a DLC charged 10€, right?
Yes that's it.
GG: Looking at the roadmap of the game, I was surprised to see that you plan to support the game for 5 years. How are you going to do this? More Season Passes to come?
Yes, it's something we've already done for Dying Light 1, released in 2015 and still updated today, 7 years after the release. Players want this type of support, they feel involved and appreciate what we offer. So we want to give them content in return. The first DLC is coming out soon, the second is in production but it's not time to talk about it yet. We also have seasonal updates called Chapters, the first is already available since June, the second will be in a few weeks. These chapters are completely free for players.
We already know where we want the game to be in 5 years, we have a global vision already defined. We appreciate feedback from the community to see what interests them, what tempts them less, etc. For the next 18 months, we will continue with the roadmap already established, between the planned narrative DLCs and the Chapters to come. For the rest, we have big blocks of ideas, but everything is not fixed yet, we will see based on the feedback from the community!
GG: Regarding the previous generation of consoles (PS4/Xbox One), can we expect 5 years of support as well? Isn't it too difficult to have to maintain these versions over time?
Yes. In any case, initially, support will be provided, that's for sure! Difficult to comment on too long a period of time. Maybe in 2 or 3 years, if the technical constraints become too high, we will stop these versions. A very large proportion of our players play on the current generation of consoles and on PC. In the meantime, the plan is to continue bringing the content to PS4 and Xbox One.
GG: Could a Nintendo Switch port be on the cards?
It is a project on which we cannot communicate for the moment. We'll do it as soon as we have more things to show you. In any case, I encourage all players to try the first Dying Light, which is one of the best ports existing on Nintendo Switch. We made sure to adapt the controls so that everything is optimal on a portable console and that we can kill zombies anywhere.
GG: I didn't know the first game was ported to Switch, I'll see if I can buy that when I get back! Thanks for the interview.
Thank you as well !
Dying Light 2 : Bloody Ties is scheduled for October 13, 2022 on PC, Xbox One and Series, PS4 and PS5.
