Dying Light 2 Update 1.4 Enhances PS4 Performance

Techland announced the milestone Dying Light 2 update 1.4 on June 12, which boasted the introduction of new content, features, and fixes. Following its early-February release, Dying Light 2: Stay Human was met with a plethora of conflicting opinions with many negative reviews bubbling up regarding its performance on last-gen consoles.

PlayStation gamers found themselves dealing with a number of potentially game-breaking issues, even after the “day one” launch patch. Among the most pervasive problems plaguing Dying Light 2 included death loops, absent in-game audio, glitchy NPCs, game crashes, loading walls, and poorly rendered graphics.

However, Dying Light 2 update 1.4 proves that Techland won’t let the game fall to the wayside. Right now, last-gen gamers can expect more reliable performance and promising additional content that sets high hopes for the future of Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

Players who’ve delayed buying the game or who’ve set it aside in wait for a reason to start playing again have a pleasant surprise awaiting them on the rooftops of Villedor.

What Changes Does Dying Light 2 Update 1.4 Bring?

Techland’s official update announcement revealed a considerable list of new content and fixes. Among the most notable additions include the first “Chapter” installment and photo mode, while the patch notes detail over 1,500 major and minor fixes to the game’s world, AI systems, interfaces, and performance.

Fresh content may convince current-gen and PC players to jump back into the game, but some players with a copy of Dying Light 2 for PS4, such as myself, may not have even been able to complete the game’s story.

Until now, my experience with Dying Light 2 has been arduous at best. Audio bugs, broken enemy hit reactions, and save-file-corrupting game crashes have all made reaching the finish line seem unattainable.

Thankfully, it seems like the game’s era of utter brokenness is nearing its end. Still, you’ll want to give The City a minute or two to load before you start running, jumping, and slashing your way through bandits and undead alike. Once the gray, putty-like textures give way to the colorful world of Villedor, players should expect to encounter relatively few significant issues.

PS4 users who played the game at launch will be glad to hear that Dying Light 2’s missing audio glitch is no longer an immersion-breaking issue. Furthermore, frozen hit reactions and non-existent enemy ragdoll physics have become a thing of the past.

Now, while Techland’s latest larger-than-life zombie slasher has made amenable strides towards becoming the title fans were hoping for, it’s still a long way from polished.

Is Dying Light 2 Still Buggy?

Especially on last-gen consoles, it’s unfair to discuss Dying Light 2’s performance without analyzing Old Villedor and the Central Loop separately. Each section of the map has its own strengths, sense of style, and dominant gameplay mechanics.

The sheer size of the city center and potential for verticality sets it apart from the homes, stores, and apartment buildings found in Old Villedor. Still, unlike the starting area of its predecessor, Dying Light 2’s historic district allows players to travel from one side of the map to the other without touching the ground.

Perhaps most impressively, both encompassing regions of The City feature a plethora of enterable structures filled with supplies and hazards alike.

Now that patch 1.4 for Dying Light 2 is live, let’s look at what last-gen players can expect in the line of performance and stability in the two main areas of the map.

Old Villedor

Besides the prologue, Old Villedor is the player’s first exposure to the world of Dying Light 2. It’s also the smaller of the two major locations. Therefore, it stands to reason that the developers at Techland would have an easier time fine-tuning this area compared to tackling the task of optimizing the city center.

Overall, I encountered relatively few bugs while exploring the historic district, and the glitches I did find were by no means game-breaking. For example, here’s a group of invulnerable virals who failed to vacate the premises after Aiden secures the water tower:

Primarily, PS4 players will find that the game’s framerate drops and textures may occasionally load in and out around faction strongholds such as the Bazaar and Main Terminal Station.

I find that pausing the game when frames begin to stutter and the foliage starts de-rendering allows for things to catch back up to the player. While this is still not an optimal fix, it’s easier than exiting to the main menu or closing the application completely to troubleshoot performance shortcomings.

At night, players will find that more special infected appear in random encounters and Spitters now take to the streets in greater numbers. Additionally, the Howlers at street level are not intangible placeholders. In fact, I never encountered any impervious enemy glitches that didn’t make contextual sense.

To be precise, the only fake-out enemies I saw occurred as a result of me spamming the “Ultimate Fury Cricket” combat challenge as I tried (with no luck) to earn a gold medal. Shortly after I threw in the towel, I found a nearby group of unkillable, non-responsive virals on a rooftop.

All in all, last-gen console gamers can feel relatively comfortable pushing Dying Light 2 farther and harder in Old Villedor.

The Central Loop

Look, no one is going to blame you if your sole interest in Dying Light 2 revolves around the soaring spires and cramped streets of the Central Loop. Furthermore, I don’t blame you for liking and expecting high-end and consistent graphical quality.

If you identify as the kind of person described above, I’d recommend loading your save with your eyes closed. Go grab a drink or a snack, use the restroom, just don’t look at the screen for a few minutes when you spawn in.

Essentially, the first few moments of the city center look like a low-res T-1000 morphing from a sprawling gray mass to the parkour playground we all vie for.

While the Central Loop’s stability does take on a noticeable improvement when compared to previous versions of the game, the trappings of Dying Light 2’s infamously janky performance make a return.

In some cases, audio will lag or dialogue may only partially play due to loading delays. PS4 players can expect more texture dropouts as compared to Old Villedor along with the occasional stuttering enemy.

Overall, the Center’s framerate isn’t horrible, but when it does drop – and it will drop – it definitely spurs fear of a hard crash. Still, pausing or slowing down seems to allow the game to catch up fairly quickly, and I’ve yet to have Dying Light 2 crash on PS4 since the 1.4 update.

What Content Does Dying Light 2 Update 1.4 Have to Offer?

Naturally, Dying Light 2 wants to shine the spotlight on its first Chapter, “In the Footsteps of a Nightrunner,” which features a brand-new character, Agent Harper. Techland also somewhat cryptically details the addition of “mutated infected” and two new spins on the Volatile zombie variant: Tyrants and Hives.

But what can players expect from this round of free content?

Personally, I find that the real star of this update’s content drop is the photo mode feature. YouTube content creator OniZombies offers insightful sentiment regarding photo mode, citing creativity and self-expression as the most appealing factors.

Especially for gamers who prefer to keep things single-player, photo mode offers a compelling reason to care about Aiden’s clothes and equipment skins. With a substantial number of compositional options, this update opens a door for the Dying Light community to show off what they love about the game.

In the Footsteps of a Nightrunner

Dying Light 2 welcomes the newest character to its cast as Agent Harper, a former Nightrunner, sets up shop at the Fish Eye. However, the trailer for Chapter 1 makes Harper seem like a more important character than he is. In reality, he’s not much more than your average vendor.

Harper does, however, serve as Dying Light 2’s answer to the bounty board feature implemented in the original game. Every day and every week, players can pick up challenges and tasks from Harper in exchange for reputation points. These points serve as the basis of a Dying Light: The Following-style ranking system that will afford players access to purchase new items and set out on new missions.

These bounties offer a range of interesting and unique challenges, even if they can become repetitive. Still, this is only the first installment of the Chapter system, and more challenges, bounties, and rewards are sure to follow.

The Infected

Techland kicked off the premiere of their new chapter system with a highly-successful launch event. Players received the challenge to collect 5,000 mutation samples by defeating and searching special infected types. What’s more, is that the event featured a global community goal of a lofty 80 million mutation samples collected.

The limited-time challenge ended Monday, June 20, with players from all over the world banding together to collect more than 10 times the target amount. In total, Dying Light 2 players obtained nearly 850 million cumulative mutation samples.

To put that figure in perspective, roughly 170,000 players would each have to hit the personal goal of 5,000 samples to reach that result. As a reward, players who fulfilled all of the event’s requirements can claim a total of five “Harper’s Tokens,” which Aiden can then use to purchase new items.

Perhaps the most interesting zombie-related addition is the new Volatile Hives in Dying Light 2. These random-encounter events can occur in any completed GRE research facility or dark hollow.

Essentially, players must enter the building, defeat the Volatiles and other infected within it, then destroy the blossoming Volatile growing on the floor.

Not only does this addition provide a challenge to players, but it also naturally increases the rate at which one can encounter these apex predators of the night.

Conclusion

Dying Light 2 update 1.4 adds a lot more to love about the game while also smoothing out some of its rougher edges. It’s clear that Techland still has more ground to cover to get the game in a proper state of optimization for last-gen consoles, especially the PS4, but this new patch is a considerable step in the right direction.

Now is the perfect time to get back into playing Dying Light 2 or pick it up on sale for a first-time playthrough.

Until next time, grab your inhalers and UV lights and run, boy, run!

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