Dying Light 2: Stay Human

There’s a deflated feeling, usually associated with the penultimate episode of a pot-luck Netflix miniseries, that comes once you realise you’re no longer in narratively safe hands.

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Payoff is not coming. Your investment, emotional and mental, has been for naught. The journey to plot conclusion will be a slow exhalation of disappointment and relief. With the burden of caring lifted, the brain is freed for more pertinent questions: what else is on? (Do we need toilet roll?)

It’s a mercy that this realisation comes early in Dying Light 2. During a drawn-out intro that demonstrates the limits of parkour in a countryside setting, Techland lays out its pitch for the inner-world intrigue that’s supposed to propel you through the next 50 to 500 hours. Aiden, a white-loaf triple-A protagonist performed in the Troy-Bakercore style by actor Jonah Scott, has spent his life wandering mainland Europe in search of sister Mia, from whom he was separated during a series of brutal childhood experiments.

These events are represented in flashbacks to grey hospital wards, shaved heads, and manhandling by gruff orderlies, while Mia herself is voiced in a sing-song giggle that would fail to convince anyone who has even briefly passed through youth. It’s the stuff of B-movies – not a strong backbone for a grand, nonlinear adventure. How will any of our choices matter a jot if the spine of the story is askew?

That