Dying Light 2 Expansion Will Be Different - Techland Revealed Details

In less than two months, the first (of the three announced) story-based expansion for Dying Light 2 titled Bloody Ties will be released. You could see its trailer during the Opening Night broadcast from gamescom. In Cologne, I met Thomas Gerbaud, the director responsible for the game's world, in Cologne during the fair and asked him what awaits us in this DLC.

The title of the expansion, Bloody Ties, is an obvious reference, but since I wasn't able to find out anything more about it, we have to make assumptions for now.

If you're worried about exploration on the smaller map, I hasten to inform you that you'll also spend some time outside the arena, and you'll be returning to Villedor as part of the quest line. Techland estimates the main storyline alone for 5-6 hours. In addition to it, we will also get side missions, special types of weapons, collectibles and more significant NPCs. You'll also learn what connects the Carnage Hall, or the arena, to the core game. Enthusiasts of "platinizing" are sure to spend a lot more time here (at least that's what I heard).

The plot

Julia Dragovic: I already know that the expansion brings not only the arena, but also a whole story. Could you tell me a little more about the plot?

Thomas Gerbaud: The arena is an extremely important part of it; one could even say that it's one of the main characters. To sum up the whole thing somewhat briefly, I can say that for me, it's a story about fame and family. About what happens when you combine these two. The whole story begins in Villedor – where we meet the original character.

Our theme is "stay human" – so we have this crazy ecosystem, an opera house, and under these circumstances we want to explore what it means for our characters to be human, what they're able to do to stay human.

I'll give you an example: Astrid. She's not a contestant – she runs the whole show, promotes, announces, she's the queen of this venure. She used to work in the entertainment industry and as a journalist. As you can guess, in the new world, her skills proved completely useless. She didn't handle the situation very well, but everything changed when she started running the arena. A bit like in Rome: "bread and games" – anything to take a break from gruelling reality, the prospect of haveing your head cut off by someone at any moment, or of being eaten alive by zombies. So she set up the arena not only to build her social status, but most importantly, to survive.

Every major character in this add-on has something to do in the arena. In order to move forward with the storyline, you have to fight; we have introduced a fame system – in each fight, or rather spectacle, we will climb higher and higher as a gladiator, and our fame will grow. But there are also full-fledged story missions, with all due complexity. The whole story is more than "gather a group of people to fight" – we explore how the pursuit of fame has destroyed the family, introducing conflict and difficult situations.

When you say "family," do you mean a group of close, but unrelated people – or an actual family?

In some ways... they're related.

Inspiration

It's clear that you are inspired by history (gladiators), but also pop culture; after all, we have a reference to Carnegie Hall. Will we find any more references to pop culture in the game?

We wanted a simple story that would be easier to relate to. Anyway – if you look closely at the characters, you'll definitely see that one of them definitely refers to Rocky Balboa. "Bread and games" is a theme we also see today, for example in wrestling, UFC fights. There will be some drama.

Romance included...?

The expansion doesn't focus on romance, but there will be action, betrayal... everything that happens to families.

Did you encounter any particularly onerous obstacles while developing this add-on?

Certainly in the performances – the arena fights aren't typical combat like in, say, Far Cry 4, where just pit an elephant against a tiger and see what happens. The game's motto is "Don't just put up a fight, put up a show." These fights have their scenarios; they're re-telling classic stories, one of them is based on Robin Hood, for example. This immediately suggests the theme of what weapons we will use there. These aren't just small stories containing a single fight. They consist of three acts – beginning, expansion and ending – thematically referring to some well-known themes and tropes.

The arena is dynamic, changing with each fight. The game features a character responsible for designing the scenery. At the beginning of development, we gathered knowledge about what our players like the most in Dying League 2, we gathered our best designers and the message to them was clear: you have a clean slate, you can do anything, have fun. Prepare something that isn't in the core game. We have an open world there, and here, in Bloody Ties, the limitation of the world allows you to go really far in tweaking different aspects of the game.

The conceptual part gave us a lot of fun. Many of the scenarios were created on a "what if" basis – for example, what if we take these characters, add some explosions, a moving platform? Carte blanche. Let's take the most fun components of the main storyline offered to players in Dying League 2 and let's just put it all together. When the idea of narrative themes referring to different tales came up, it got even more interesting. We are committed to making the game interesting and, above all, diverse.

I should also add that the add-on is a big challenge to our players' skills. We know that after such a long time since the release, they need more challenging gameplay in terms of combat or parkour. There are also elements with puzzles. You will have to reach different places in the arena, get specific items.

If I spend too many hours with the expansion, what's the chance that I'll end up in the same arena?

The arenas are not generated, they are dynamic. You fight and suddenly the second act starts, the lights go out and you hear Astrid announcing through the microphone: "And now... the next event!" Your heart rate is rising, because you've just defeated a strong enemy, yet something is going to happen again right away. Everything is condensed and creates a thrill that gives this expansion an element of uniqueness.

Will there be any new mechanics in Bloody Ties?

This add-on is more focused on experimentation than getting new weapons (there will be no firearms in this DLC)... We are not introducing anything that will drastically alter the gameplay formula. We are building on what our players like in Dying League. But we have a new weapon, it's called "manica." It will affect gameplay in a way.

Plans and priorities

Let's assume you have infinite funds and zero technological limitations. What would Dying Light 2 look like under such circumstances?

Money is not everything in a project like this. First and foremost, Techland's DNA is about the relationship with our community. Endless dialogue with fans is something we care about greatly, and this is something that an infinite budget would have little impact on. Of course, we have a creative vision and we want to realize it, but even with the greatest resources and capabilities, we are making this game for our players, so we probably wouldn't change much if they didn't want us to.

I know that it is too early for talks about DL3, but do you think there's even the slightest chance of a female protagonist in the next installment?

There's a chance for sure, but yes, it's too early to talk about the plans stretching out beyond our five-year plan related to DL2.