It is not uncommon for game sequels to disappoint fans of the original by omitting beloved features. Dying Light 2 was no exception: while the open-world zombie sandbox was well received by many (including myself) and received a generally positive response from fans, there were complaints about the lack of the zombie ragdolls and weapon repair system that were well received in the original.

There were also no X-rays. In the original "Dying Light," when you stunned a zombie with an attack, time slowed down for a moment and the zombie's skeleton could be seen through it. It was like an x-ray. Then another attack and you could see the bones shattering and breaking inside the infected zombie's body. This is reminiscent of the brutally gross kills of Sniper Elite, where you can see bones (and other NSFW things) shattering in slow motion as bullets pass through the body.

Dying Light 2 was patched to version 1.7.2 yesterday in anticipation of the Bloody Ties DLC (open in new tab). In addition to darker nights, costume previews, other quality-of-life improvements, and numerous bug fixes, this patch adds X-rays to Dying Light 2, but this feature still appears to be in beta.

"A much-loved feature in Dying Light is back, X-Rays are available to make your gameplay more memorable!" the patch notes say (open in new tab)." This is just the first phase of this feature and we look forward to your feedback as we work to make it an iconic feature of Dying Light 2 Stay Human in the future." It states.

I couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency at the use of so many exclamation points in the space of a single paragraph, so I dove into the patched game to try it out. After running around town beating zombies with mace and a fire extinguisher on a stick, I saw a few new X-ray effects happen. The effects are not as intense as the original Dying Light, at least not yet.

For comparison, here is a clip of the x-ray feature from the original game:

And here is a gif of the few times I saw it in Dying Light 2:

Other times, I thought I heard the effect working without actually seeing the zombie bones appear were there. But as Techland says, it's basically a beta at this point, and it may be a while before "Dying Light 2" can match the bone-crushing glory of the "Dying Light" original.

Full patch notes for Dying Light 1.7.2 are here.

Gameplay updates:

Co-op updates:

UI/UX updates:

Technical updates: