Dying Light 2 update adds fan-requested feature from the original Dying Light

It's not unusual for game sequels to disappoint fans of the original by leaving out beloved features. Dying Light 2 was no exception: While the open world zombie sandbox got plenty of good reviews (including mine) and a mostly positive response from fans, there were complaints about the lack of zombie ragdolling and weapon repair systems sported in the original.

Also: there was no X-ray. In the original Dying Light, if you stunned a zombie with an attack there'd be a moment of time-slowdown and you'd see the zed's skeleton through their bodies. Y'know, like an X-ray. If you followed up with another attack you could see the zombie's bone's shatter and break inside their infected bodies. It's a bit reminiscent of Sniper Elite's brutally gory kills where you can see bones (and other NSFW stuff) being splintered in slow motion as a bullet passes through them.

Dying Light 2 was patched to version 1.7.2 yesterday in anticipation of the Bloody Ties DLC. Along with darker nights, outfit previews, and other quality of life improvements, plus plenty of bug fixes, X-ray has been added to Dying Light 2 in the patch, though the feature sounds like it's still in beta.

"The all-time loved feature from Dying Light is back! X-ray is available and will make your gameplay more memorable!" the patch notes say. "Please keep in mind that this is the first phase of this feature, and we will work in the future to make it iconic for Dying Light 2 Stay Human – your feedback is appreciated, so smash some bones and let us know what you think about it!"

I couldn't deny the urgency of so many exclamation points used in the space of a single paragraph, so I jumped into the patched game to try it out. After running around the streets bashing zombies with a mace and a fire extinguisher on a stick, I did see the new X-ray effect happen a few times. It's not quite as intense an effect as it was in the original Dying Light, at least not yet.

For comparison, here's a clip of the X-ray feature from the original game:

And here's a gif of the couple of times I saw it in Dying Light 2:

There were other times where I think I could hear the effect kick in, without actually seeing the bones of the zombie appear. But, like Techland says, it's basically in beta at the moment, and it may be a while before Dying Light 2 can live up to Dying Light's original bone-crunching glory.

Here are the full patch notes for Dying Light 1.7.2.

Gameplay updates:

• The Nights in The City got darker! Overall darkness is way deeper than before
• Throwable items trajectory implemented
• Players can now run in the PK ship HUB
• Outfits preview is available 
• Fixed an issue with the achievements not being granted to the players upon completion
• Players will no longer be able to travel outside the playable area in Let’s Waltz quest
• Waltz in Let’s Waltz quest will no longer be idle
• You can no longer get stuck in a car during the Let’s Waltz quest
• During the Let’s Waltz quest, toxic chemicals will reduce the player’s infection as usual
• Fixed an issue where UV Safezone in Main Terminal Station was not fully functional
• Hakon won’t fall asleep on the mattress in the Getting Stronger quest, allowing players to progress with the quest
• The toxic area near Downtown and The Wharf will deal damage again 
• Howler’s alert indicator will be shown correctly
• The death screen will be shown correctly when defeated in the Challenge
• Collectibles from Chapter 2 will not count toward the achievements
• Fixed an issue where the grappling hook was unavailable during Hooked on the Thrill Challenge, and Nightrunner Trial 3
• Multiple Challenges got fixed objective count and timers
• The Wharf water tower will be correctly assigned to Peacekeepers upon the player’s decision
• Virals will hear better, reacting to various sounds with more intensity 
• Fixed an issue where the Infected becomes unresponsive and dies
• Damage scaling for fists and dropkicks is fixed, no longer allowing players to box through the game easily
• You can no longer fall through the elevator
• Fixed an issue with “Leaving the mission area” during the Twin Brothers’ quest
• Added a new Craftmaster upgrading tutorial for the new players
• The wardrobe is no longer blocking the exit in one of the safe zones
• Frank’s door at the Fish Eye is now open during Explore Villedor mode, which will allow plates to get a collectible located there
• Fixed AI outline during Rage Mode in one of the story quests
• Fixed issues with Stamina not depleting during some of the Nightrunners’ trials

Co-op updates:

• Users won’t encounter a black screen while activating windmill when one of the players is respawning
• Animation of grabbing the player by infected should no longer freeze
• You can now leave the game if the host dies during certain story quests
• Fixed user’s online ID disappearing during some activities in co-op

UI/UX Updates:

• Removed a glitch where a white box showed up when LMB was clicked
• Fixed a display timer on Challenges from Chapter 1
• Players will be no longer to see outside the map with the Photo Mode
• Fixed lighting inside buildings during the day
• AI clothes will not stretch in a long distance
• Fixed some missing textures in the bazaar
• Beehives are more aligned with the trees in the Prologue
• Fixed the sound glitch that did not play any sound during the death screen
• Biters will ragdoll correctly when dropkicked 
• Raindrops will be appropriately displayed on the water’s surface
• Aiden’s Stash text fixes
• Multiple Lightning/Brightness tweaks
• Fixed an issue with previously looted bags being highlighted during survival sense
• Fixed issues with missing textures
• Parts of the player’s outfits are now displayed correctly in Photomode, and inventory
• Fixed an issue with parkour music being stuck on one track indefinitely 

Technical updates:

• Fixed an issue where using a rollback feature might lead to the game crashing
• Fixed the framerate drop issue that was happening randomly after a few hours of gameplay
• Fixed an issue with random crashes during the combat
• Players will no longer be stuck in the infinite loop after launching the game in Steam Offline mode
• Fixed multiple crashes on consoles
• Fixed random freezes when changing some options
• Fixed textures in X13
• Fixed D3D failed to execute error
• Fixed occasional crashes when playing with Video Settings set to D3D12 Ultimate Raytracing
• New Intel XeSS upscaler available
• Screen space reflections are now more stable & capable of reflecting particles
• Improved water rendering
• Improved water ambient lighting
• Improved water screen space reflections
• Water is now able to reflect reflection probes in the interiors
• Water & fog interaction is enhanced.
• The default sharpness value for upscalers closer resembles the native result
• Ray-tracing VRAM consumption reduced (up to 1G)