Dying Light 2 was met with negative reviews after the crime update

Dying Light 2 has been hit with a bunch of negative reviews over its latest The Breach update, which strangely “butchers” the prologue, as well as highlighting all of the game's microtransactions.

Given that Dying Light 2 is a single-player game at its core, it's been very surprising to see how much Techland has continued to support it with constant updates, collaborations, and even live events in the nearly five years since it launched. It's especially strange considering we've had a brand new game since then, the excellent Dying Light: The Beast.

And yet, even with the return of Kyle Crane, Dying Light 2 continues to live on as an almost live service game. As anyone who remembers the DL Points controversy knows, Techland hasn't always gotten it right with its Dying Light 2 updates, and that's become abundantly clear with the mixed reception to the latest update, which notably dropped the game's review score to “Mixed” on Steam.

Dying Light 2 players find crime update 'abysmal' and 'buggy'

“Don't update this game if you want it to be smaller than you wanted”

Earlier this week, Dying Light 2 received its big update to The Breach, which the community has been waiting for for a long time now. The main thing The Breach aims to do is turn Dying Light 2 into a “platformer” with custom maps and mods, but that's far from all the update does, which is where the negative reviews and new “Mixed” review score come in.

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Dying Light: The Beast Review – Back to Beastics

The Beast isn't as ambitious as Dying Light 2, but the sharper focus makes it feel like the true sequel to the first game.

As the patch notes revealed, Dying Light 2's notoriously slow prologue has been trimmed down significantly to be “more engaging” and allow players to dive into “the core of the game faster.” While that might sound great, it also means cutting out the game's opening story and world-building moments with Spike, who even goes on to play a major role in The Beast.

Spike may not be the main character in Dying Light 2, but he provides a memorable introduction to the game's world. Completely cutting this scene from the game without player choice doesn't go down well, with Twitter user TheHiddenOneAC pointing out that it's now “lost media”, and one of the most popular negative Steam reviews calling it “tasteless” and “offensive”.

The update also makes some changes to Dying Light 2's user interface that are meant to improve “both navigation and functionality”, but in reality have only put even more focus on the in-game store and microtransactions. Given that DL Points was already a major controversy, it's not a surprise that this is another factor mentioned in many of the negative reviews.