Getting around ‘Dying Light 2 Stay Human’ is a treat. The rest, not so much.

Fortunately, between dialogue-heavy scenes, the plot falls away far enough to make more room for what “Stay Human” is actually good at: creating a massive urban jungle gym for players to swing, climb, paraglide and sprint across. The game’s movement controls are simple enough to learn quickly, allowing for creative, nearly instinctive decision-making about ad hoc paths to take across the heights of skyscraper roofs, the shutters of houses and the power lines crisscrossing between buildings. Just as important, the city is beautifully designed, without much of the repeatable, modular design used to bulk out many open-world games and is filled instead with bespoke spaces that each provides its own self-enclosed acrobatic challenges, during and between missions. For instance, windmills that supply power to city districts are spread across Villedor, each one functioning as a test of the player’s reflexes and ability to spot ways to climb ever higher. The layout of each new neighborhood provides opportunities to flex Aiden’s expanding set of moves, too, as the opening hours’ two- or three-story apartment buildings and shops eventually transition to towering office and condo buildings best traversed with death-defying leaps or grappling hook-aided swings.