The Witcher 3's 'Bloody Baron' writers are working on Dying Light 2

Chris Avellone isn't the only RPG heavyweight working on Techland's next zombie game.

The Dying Light 2 announcement at Microsoft's E3 press event was made significantly cooler by the surprising news that cold fusion-powered RPG writing machine Chris Avellone is working on it. As we said in our report, Avellone's participation "signals a significant evolution for the series" by giving it a much greater focus on narrative and outcomes.

But Avellone isn't the only talent working on the game. "We also got some additional help in the form of the former The Witcher 3 writing team," Techland told VG247. "Those guys were responsible for some of the best quests from that game including the Bloody Baron quest line. All of those guys are working very hard to create a narrative—it’s like a puzzle to play with."

"Those guys" may not have quite the big-name cachet of Avellone, but their talents are readily apparent. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best RPGs ever made, and the Bloody Baron is the best of it—a character so good that we actually wrote about him specifically, describing him as a "complex, conflicted character" at the center of Family Matters, "The Witcher 3's most emotional and disturbing quest."

"We needed a character that personified Velen, with all of its beauty and troubles," quest designer Paweł Sasko said at the time. "The Baron is a soldier, much like we have today, who comes back from war with PTSD and alcohol issues. He’s unstable and unpleasant, but he also has positive traits. He loves his family and would do anything for them."

Not much is known about Dying Light 2 at this point except that it's set during "the Modern Dark Ages," 15 years after the zombie outbreak first began. But the core gameplay seen in the E3 trailer will be familiar—parkour, zombies, and "don't go out at night"—and Avellone said during the E3 presentation that the decisions players make will have a major impact on the game world. A release target hasn't been set.