This is truly a unique game.
i have never encountered a game with such fun and rewarding gameplay that is absolutely ruined by the worst characters and story i have ever seen.
if this game was centered interly around the carrier guild and advancing the unity of the city in the same format as death stranding, traversing the map getting more complex with more and more challenges on your knowledge of the parkour and combat system. then choosing a faction to rule the city or trying to strike a balance by giving them a little bit if the city each, focusing on the perks of the factions and fleshing out the different leaders and personalities within the factions, this would be an easy 10/10.

but that's not this game.
This game's story follows Aiden, the only person in the world that can defeat every obstacle and monster in his path as long as it's not in a cutscene. There is a viceral feeling in my gut when i kill tons of bandits and dangerous zombies only to get my ass kicked by a random unnamed henchman just so he can get killed in the same cutscene by a different character in order to establish that this person is a badass.

Every character I liked got killed in a cutscene, and in the few cases where you can do side quest to rescue them it does not matter. Either they die anyways or is saved but is never brought up in the story again, and the character i dont like get multi-step side quests that have more interesting consept than the rest of the game that you have to suffer through because the gameplay is amazing but the dialogue during is reminiscent of a subpar youtube cringe compilation (when one of these characters died i cheered while the game played sad music to indicate that it was really sad the guy died).
the main characters you "help" in the story are usually rude, lying to you or both. The person that is supposed to be your love interest is introduced as a badass assasin that kicks you in the balls (in a cutscene) and calls you stupid, then the next time you meet her she saves you from a cutscene monster and calls your sister a ♥♥♥♥♥. (It's important to note that Aiden's entire reason for being in the city is to find his sister, and his entire personality is based around that. So the fact that Aiden immediately didn't start beating the crap out of this woman that kicked him in the balls and insulted his sister is honestly insulting Aiden as a character that is obsessed by his own sister.) 

The factions are a mess, there is no feeling of tension between the two main groups. the peacekeepers are portrayed as oppressors trying to create a military junta to control the city, while the survivors/free people, are described as the freedom loving underdogs that want to create a paradise for all survivors. 
However, this is how they are described but not actually how they are. The free people are ignorant and violent; their leaders are a mob boss, a pair of manipulative killers, a useless priest/hippy, and a raging alcoholic that got all the people in his group killed by his own inept leadership. While the paeckeepers are a functioning government with a militaristic but effective hierarchy, they are led by a competent sargent who is somewhat friendly towards you (so obviously he dies) a hothead soldier, a self-important general, and a self-obsessed power hungry rich guy. 
There was no point in the game that i felt like the peackeepers were the bad guys and there was no downside to helping them, Thats bad when a massive part of this games gimmick is the importance of choice. in every conversation with the main story characters (and most sidequests), it feels like the correct choice is to just kill them to make the world a better place.

the gameplay is so good that i almost forgive it all, but there is to much garbage in the story and characters that i simply can't finish the game. im almost at the end of the game, but its simply to bad that i won't waste any more time. i did all the side quests i could, but even there, i can't truly escape the awful writing.

im still going to give this game a positive rating. Because the gameplay was so much fun and i spent hours just running around the city and doing the parkour and combat trials. if there is a dying light 3 i hope they get new writers.