'Dying Light 2' Zombies Have Changed And Evolved From The First Game

Dying Light 2 is putting much more emphasis on story and world-building than its predecessor, but that's not the only way it's evolving.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Lead Designer on the project Tymon Smektala revealed that in the sequel, they've added the "cycle of infected life" concept, which basically adds stages of infection to the zombies.

"The infected start as a Viral, which is someone who just got bitten and just got infected, so they still show traces of humanity, and at this point they are very quick, very dangerous—they avoid the sun at all costs," said Smektala. "But after some time in that state, they turn into what we call Biters, which are your regular zombies; slowly moving infected that, if able, will try and grab you and infect you or eat you, but the sunlight is dangerous to them, and they are not as quick and as agile as the Virals."

The cycle doesn't end here though, the more sunlight Bitters get, the weaker they will become. In other words, the longer they live with the infection, the weaker they will get unless they can avoid the sun's UV rays.

"But still you have to keep an eye for [Degenerates] because Dying Light 2 is a systemic game, a lot of things happen emergently," said the lead designer. "And of course, there's a different path of evolution for the Infected where they turn into the Volatiles, which are the most dangerous, extreme night predators. If you see them, you just need to run. There's no fighting with those guys because they will just kill you."

Additionally, Techland also shared a brand-new piece of concept art from the game (which you can see above) revealing a zombie that was previously a member of the Peacekeeper faction, a populist group trying to achieve order through ruling in unforgiving fashion. According to Techland, factions will play a much bigger role in the sequel than the first game, and will directly tie into the game's story and world.

Dying Light 2 is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. At the moment of publishing, there's been no word of a release date, but we do know it's coming sometime this year.

For more coverage on the highly-anticipated open-world survival-action game, click here.

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