Be on Both Sides of the Horror: a Dead By Daylight Review

Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric horror game created by Behaviour Interactive. It has, in my opinion, a unique and malleable experience that can be adjusted for different types of gamers. As well as a clearly well thought out lore.

In Dead by Daylight, the game takes place in the realm of a being called: The Entity, an eldritch inspired being who feeds off of the emotions of the people trapped in its realm. Those people consist of two groups. Firstly, the survivors, mostly regular people who been taken by the Entity for their emotions, and secondly killers, people or creatures taken by the entity to hunt and kill the survivors. The Entity is able to bring the survivors back from death after they die, resulting in a never-ending cycle for them.

The gameplay of Dead by Daylight is split into two main parts: The trial and the campfire. The trials (the matches) have two teams: killers and survivors. In almost all your matches, there will be four survivors and a single killer. The survivor’s objective is to repair five of the seven generators located around the trial, so that they may power the exit gates and escape from the killer. The killer’s goal, quite appropriately, is to prevent them from escaping the trial, and instead sacrifice (or kill) them to The Entity through the use of meat hooks strew throughout the trial grounds. This causes a lot of cat and mouse behaviour, with survivors forced to repair generators but leaving themselves vulnerable in the process. And although the survivors have no special abilities, each of the killers has a power unique to them that promotes a different style of play for each of them. Allowing different players to experiment with all the available options to find a killer they enjoy.

Image: Behavior Interactive

Once the trial has ended, whether the survivors escaped or not, both teams will be taken back to the campfire, either by themselves or with a group if they had one. Here, players will have the opportunity to think through strategies for the next trial, or use the blood-web, A procedurally generated… well web. And are able to use it to unlock and equip various items and perks (small abilities that assist them with certain actions and playstyles) that will assist them in future trials. And when they are ready, they can ready up to join a new trial, and let the process happen all over again. While this may seem repetitive, and to a small degree it is, you are able to use the mistakes you made in the previous trials to increase your chance of surviving or performing better in the next.

Screenshot: Yelling At Children

Because the game features a wide variety of licensed characters, it is able to attract players from a wide variety of communities. Behaviour Interactive has been able to get the licensing rights to several popular characters in the horror industry, whether that be video games or movies. Including several locations from their respective games/movies, allowing players to relate to them to a degree. And even though they usually won’t be perfect replicas, they are similar enough that players can recognise them and remember their memories playing/watching the same areas outside the game.

Although the game and its concept are great, several parts of the game have caused some problems and controversy. One that I have dealt with quite a bit in the community is its toxicity. In certain games, players, whether they’re a killer or survivor, play in ways deliberately done to antagonise and/or infuriate you. Whether that be survivors blinding you, T-bagging, or other assorted things to get on your nerves. Killers may do things like camp (stand in front of the hook till you die), tunnel (repeatedly go after you instead of others), and use Noed, a rather unliked perk (while some people in the community don’t view this as toxic, it’s generally frowned upon). And no matter if they win or you somehow beat them, they usually put messages in the chat at the end of the game filled with insults and arrogance. Because of this, there are some games I play that make me feel worse than when I started them. Which is the complete opposite of what a game is designed to do. And from my knowledge, there isn’t much Behaviour Interactive can do about it, aside maybe putting in penalties for rude behaviour, or other things to discourage this behaviour from happening. Another major controversy the game has dealt with is the wave of hackers. Due to the game’s anti cheat, hackers have been able to find a way past and cause havoc in matches they join.

Being able to do things hackers are known to do, spawning unlimited items, increased speed and jump, infinite health, etc. Although I have seen what hackers have done to other people, and the damage/annoyance they can cause, I have fortunately dealt with nearly no hackers in almost my entire time on the game. One thing malicious hacker often do is hold the killer “hostage”. Putting themselves in a near invincible state and doing nothing, meaning the only way for the game to end is for the killer to leave the match, however this may be what they want. Because if you willingly leave a match the game prevents you from joining another one for a short while, this was originally done to discourage people from leaving games prematurely for no valid reason. Which can cause some anger and annoyance. And although there are quite a few cheaters on the site, to some people it doesn’t feel like they’re being banned or punished for their actions. With some cheater even making fun of this fact in their username or after the game ends. However, I do believe this problem (hopefully) will, or is, being resolved.

Dead By Daylight is all round a good game to play either by yourself or with some friends and can provide some truly great experiences to players. And with its horror elements and licensed characters, horror fans can enjoy their favourite characters in a whole new way. Whilst the game does have some issues present, whether by the player base or Behaviour Interactive, with some fixes done they could possibly be resolved quite easily. This will enable more gamers to experience and enjoy the games various playstyles from both sides. See you in the fog!

By TheVoidSearcher

When TheVoidSearcher isn't writing stories or correcting people grammar, he's often playing whatever game suits him at the time.

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