Dying Light 2: Stay Human - Bloody Ties

Bloody Ties is a fun DLC, especially if you enjoyed the side activities in the main game, but it’s hard not to think Dying Light 2’s first expansion could have benefited from a bit more time - even after the delays - to help it live up to its full potential.

Modestly-priced but misguided, Bloody Ties reflects a more restrictive design ethos without a worthwhile payoff.

Weighed down by a weak and predictable revenge plot, impossible-to-miss visual glitches and gameplay bugs, and stingy restrictions that prevent players from using any their owned equipment in matches, the Bloody Ties DLC drains much of the fun out of what makes Dying Light 2 great.

Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties distills all the highlights and flaws of the main game. If you want a little more story and a bunch of new timed trials to tackle, it's only £8, but it won't change your mind about the game. If you originally came to Dying Light 2 for zombies and are disappointed, this won't change your mind, and if you're here because you want to fight like a gladiator in an arena, this definitely isn't the place for you.

Bloody Ties drops you right in at the deep end yet it keeps you waiting for the good bit until an hour or so in. When you do get there, the action stays fresh, different, and oftentimes interesting, and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and invested. It’s a nice mix of everything you’ve seen in Dying Light 2 already, not really pushing boundaries or doing anything new, but still justifying its value and adding even more content to a game already loaded with it.

I’m utterly torn with Bloody Ties (no pun intended). On the one hand, I genuinely found myself enjoying my departure from Villedor in favor of a brutal, balls-to-the-walls tournament. On the other hand, no game I’ve played in the last decade has been as unstable as Dying Light 2. I’ve been forced to curse the sky and proclaim Techland’s latest DLC nigh-unplayable. When it works, it’s great. But these developers have some serious fixin’ to do.

With almost no innovation, the first expansion of Dying Light 2 brings more of the same without being really attractive. There are contents that may satisfy some players, but it might not be enough to keep most interested in the game any longer.

If you've finished Dying Light 2 and mastered its parkour and combat, then Bloody Ties makes for a greatest of strength for your abilities. The story doesn't add all that much, but this DLC distills Dying Light 2's combat and traversal to its purest form.

There's nothing in the Bloody Ties expansion that warrants returning to the game, especially if you've been playing it since release. Its story is rather boring, and its new combat encounters are dull.

While the opening to Bloody Ties stumbles a bit once Aiden reaches the Carnage Hall this DLC does an amazing job not just in the challenges that it pushes upon players, but with the narrative depth surrounding Ciro and his family. Unfortunately key moments are let down by clunky combat.