“Less Hassle, More Power,” What Techland Wants From Next-Gen Consoles

Dying Light 2 may come to PS5 and Xbox Scarlett but Techland wants to see less hassle and more power from the next gen consoles.

Techland is currently working on a new game, Dying Light 2. The studio is in the middle of creating a sequel to the popular Dying Light, a post-apocalyptic title. The game will release sometime next year on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

There are rumors of next gen consoles being announced next year. If that turns out to be the case, we may see Dying Light 2 on next-gen consoles at some point. So we discussed this with Techland and asked the game’s lead designer about what he thinks of PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.

According to lead designer, Tymon Smektała, next-gen consoles should be “less hassle, more power.”  He current-gen consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, didn’t deliver something new and unique although the console allows them to hit native 4K.

He considers current-gen consoles most big-budget games were just better implementation of old formulas.

Less hassle, more power. And something that in my personal opinion wasn’t really delivered this generation yet: something genuinely new and unique. Most of the big budget games we received this gen were “just” better, more polished version of the formulas and formats we knew from PS3/X360 era.

He added that current-gen consoles still have life left in them. And while he wants to see more powerful hardware, he stressed the fact that powerful hardware doesn’t mean good games. They are just tools to create something special.

Look at the popularity of X360 titles that receive backward compatibility on Xbox One. Or at the number – and commercial success – of games developed by independent studios. Better CPU or GPU don’t really make games better, they’re just a tool that can be used by developers.

Among the vast majority of games released this generation, Dying Light is one of few unique ones. Mixing parkour with its gameplay within a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world.

With Dying Light 2, Techland is going to take things one step person, especially with the NPCs. The AI algorithm is much more complex this time around.

Developers have also added a moral system to simulate a person’s behavior. The system allows NPCs to pull off something unexpected when they fight you.

The overall fluidity of the parkour system has been improved. It is a crucial aspect of the game as the entire impressiveness of parkour depends on it.

As for PS5 and Xbox Scarlett, rumor has it that the dev kits were sent out earlier this year.

Sony and Microsoft are expected to announce their new gaming consoles at E3 2019.

The power of next gen consoles will allow Techland to create something even better in the future.

Sarmad is our Senior Editor, and is also one of the more refined and cultured among us. He's 25, a finance major, and having the time of his life writing about videogames.