Some games, like Wordle and other indie titles, are trying to be smaller experiences that you play for a few minutes or hours and then leave. Dying Light 2 isn’t one of those games. Instead, the folks behind the game are excitedly advertising that it will take players over 500 hours to fully complete the open-world sequel. I feel tired already.
Dying Light 2—the sequel to the 2018 surprisingly fun parkour-zombie-killin’ original—was never going to be a tiny game. The original was a game I easily sank about 70+ hours into on PS4 and a further 30+ hours into on PC. But today, the Dying Light 2 Twitter account announced that it would take players at least 500 hours to “fully complete” the game. That’s a lotta hours!
A follow-up tweet confirmed that this isn’t how long it takes to complete the main questline and side quests, but instead how long it will take to do everything in the game’s undead urban wasteland. Most players will be able to get through it in 80 or so hours.
Still, 500 hours is a long time. Pour one out for completionists who will be forced to play Dying Light 2 for over 3 weeks (or more) before they can quit playing and not feel anxious about it. Luckily, I’m not one of those so I’ll probably only put about 100 hours or less into Dying Light 2 before I have had my fill of zombie killing and first-person platforming.
I know young Zack, who didn’t have much money and could only get a few games a year, would be very excited for a single game that offers 500+ hours of gameplay. Older Zack is just too tired.
While the 500 hours stat is a bit terrifying, I’m still excited to play more Dying Light 2 after I got a chance to play a preview build last year. I had blast with the improved combat and movement controls and the new setting looks nice. I also am very interested in all the narrative choices Dying Light 2 seems to include and how many of them will be important, with long-lasting impacts on the world or story versus how many will be more or less inconsequential.
Dying Light 2 is out February 4 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch via cloud streaming. If you are planning to play alone or with a friend, you should set aside a few uh… hundred or so hours.