Review: Dead By Daylight

Have you ever wanted to murder people? Wait. Don’t answer that. Have you ever watched horror films involving a serial killer who chases dumb teenagers and said to yourself “I would have been able to survive so easily.” Well I have good news for you! There is a fantastic game by the name of Dead By Daylight that allows you to either be a survivor and have to complete a series of tasks in order to escape or you play as a murderer who hunts said survivors.

But is it a good game or just a gimmick?

Combat

In Dead By Daylight, the survivors are focused on repairing devices and running from the killer. They do have certain items they can use to stun the killer but even then, it is only for a brief moment. When caught by the killer they can attempt to wiggle free, stop death by keeping horrific hooks from piercing them or hiding in lockers. Whereas the killer has a whole mess of combat abilities that involve hunting their victim, snatching them, grabbing them, and then placing them on otherworldly bloody hooks.

While death is almost certain if the killer catches a victim, the various mechanics to help the survivors stay hidden from the killer make it balanced. I’ve been in games where a skilled killer can come upon an unsuspecting survivor in the middle of no where while other games I have survivors that are so good at not being seen that they can go entire games without ever interacting with the killer.

Win Conditions

In Dead By Daylight their main mode involves a very easy rule of the survivors either escape or they all die. The game is pretty straight forward for the killer but there are so many elements to the survivor. In order to escape you must repair a number of generators. The process is a long one and during the repair you’ll be forced to participate in quick time events. If you fail, it’ll explode which will hinder your progress and alert the killer to your location.

After the generators are repaired a survivor must find the exit and then spend time opening the gate. Once the gate is open, the survivors can book it to the exit. There is only one exit so it gives the killer a final chance to slay the heroes. Depending on the skill of your group this can sometimes be impossible. The good thing it that if you do get murdered, you are thrown out of the game and can jump into the next one!

BREAK
This is one of my favorite play throughs of Dead by Daylight involving Dodger and friends! xD

Customization

I had no idea just how much customization you could do in this game. Every one of the various survivors has alternative clothes, hairstyles, and so on. If you are going to out run a murderer, you may as well dress the way you would like, right? Beyond the aesthetics of the game, there is an entire talent tree you unlock by playing the game. You are rewarded for doing more during sessions via experience. Spending the experience allows you to purchase upgrades, items, enhancement to certain items and then a chance to change the map the map you play on, including having a new horrific creature to avoid.

I honestly thought that the game would not have much in terms of customization and yet I was surprised by the healthy amount of choices they offered!

Gameplay

The controls for Dead By Daylight are simple and intentionally clunky. They offer the basics of walk, run, crawl, and action. With those limited abilities you repair damaged generators, throw down items to slow your would be killer, rescue other survivors and so much more. The movement in the game is slow and wonky which just adds to the horror of being chased down by a murderer.

Even when you do escape, you never truly feel safe because of how vulnerable your character is. At first I was skeptical of the movement but quickly adapted to the mechanics and found that it was fair especially when the single killer is tasked with slaying multiple survivors. It helps the lumbering brute that his prey are at a set speed so when he chases them and they are found lacking, it won’t take more than 20 seconds to catch them and disable them.

As I mentioned before, the game feels balanced between being a survivor and a killer. It’ll seem easier to be a killer at first because you literally need to find someone and transport them to a hook. Once you get more familiar with the survivors, the game becomes a lot more fun as you can out smart the killer and complete your objective which then causes the killer to also train themselves to find the most common hiding places and weed out the survivors early on. It is such a fun game!

Overall

I very much enjoyed my play through of Dead By Daylight and am excited for all the future content they produce. It is a market that is virtually untapped and has incredible potential. Personally, I would love if they jumped into other horror genres and included a yandere so instead of a grotesque killer it is actually a super cute anime girl who chases and kills various people getting in the way of their senpai. (No seriously, please do this.) The price of this game is only $20 and has hours upon hours of replay value, it is a crazy amount of fun, especially with friends!