Dying Light 2 E3 reveal was something of a weird surprise. The zombie themed-parkour action game Dying Light had fared well with both players and critics alike. No one expected Dying Light 2 to deviate from the methodical formula.
Then the official Dying Light 2 reveal happened, and onto the stage came Chris Avellone, the legendary writer responsible for classics such as Planescape: Torment, KOTOR 2, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. It turned out that Techland decided to focus on the writing aspect of the second game, turning Dying Light 2 into an action RPG that reacts to everything you do. This is where MCA comes in.
Speaking to VG247,, “I’ve done a lot of branching storylines, branching dialogues, and a variety of reactive events and different endings in most of the titles I’ve worked on, so to be able to apply that to an open-world space like Dying Light 2 is a fun challenge,” Avellone says. “Because I’ve had a chance to work on extremely reactive games, I know some of the best techniques to organise the flow of the plot and characters to account for a wide variety of actions.”
“It’s easy to imagine a story that takes from A to B to C with a set series of events, but in an open-world game, you have to put the player agency and their ability to affect the world at the forefront. So for example, rather than A to B to C, you take a step back, assume the player starts at ‘A’, and then can do all manner of events to cause ‘B’ to come to them through the actions they do in the open-world – or, a number of different ‘B’s, not just one. Or even better, the player creates ‘B’ all on their own, and the entire world reacts to it. When a player can literally see themselves as an agent of change, it empowers them even more.”
According to VG247, “Avellone has been on the project since the planning phase. He created the lore for Dying Light 2, he co-created the storyline along with the other writers, and he developed many of the game’s critical characters. The reactivity, which Techland dubs the ‘World System’, was also co-created by Avellone, working closely with designers and programmers at Techland.”
Dying Light 2 is slated for a 2019 release date.
Credit: VG247