Dead by Daylight: Video Game Review

Image Credit: Starbreeze Studios

This week, to round out the Halloween trend, I’ll be reviewing the video game Dead by Daylight.

Dead by Daylight is a horror game developed by Starbreeze Studios. The game has you playing as either a killer or a survivor. The players have to accomplish a series of tasks in order to escape from the map they’re dropped into, while the killers have to murder the survivors. Some of the killers and survivors are very clearly taken from prominent horror films, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw. I have no idea how they managed to get the licenses for these characters — or perhaps they weren’t able to. seeing as characters like Michael Myers are given new names, like “The Shape.” Others, however, are original characters developed by the team at Starbreeze.

The game controls pretty well. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it gets the job done. Your camera and character will generally move in the direction you want them to move, and while the game is essentially a souped up version of Hide and Seek, there’s a nice learning curve. You see, while you complete certain tasks, like healing other players after they get hit by the killer, or repairing generators to open up your escape route, you have to preform skill checks — basically, it means you have to push a button on your controller. Push it too early or too late, then the generator backfires and the killer is alerted to your presence. But if you push it on time, you get to continue your work. There’s also a wide variety of strategies survivors can use to escape the killer, and a wide variety of strategies that killers can use to counter them. Most of these boil down to simple map awareness, so the only real way to master them is to simply play the game. For example, players can choose to drop pallets in front of a killer. The killer can choose to simply go around the pallet, or they can break it down so that it can’t be used against them in the future. However, this costs precious time — time which a chased survivor can use to get away. Survivors can also try and drop the pallets directly onto the killer, but this invariably puts them within range of the killer’s weapon, which is almost invariably a two hit kill.

The game also rewards a variety of different playstyles. All of the survivors and killer have different perks that can be utilized in different ways. For example, you have the Hillbilly, whose chainsaw can one-hit players, but can also get him stuck in a wall for a second. You also have the Nurse, who can teleport across obstacles and get a quick hit on a player, but she becomes exhausted immediately afterwards, allowing a good survivor to make a clean getaway. The perk trees for both the survivors and killers also allow you to further hone individual strategies, because as you upgrade your characters the “entity” begins closing off random perks, forcing you to choose your next upgrade carefully.

For all its gore, the game really is just a Freddy Kruger-ized version of Hide and Seek, but that’s not to say it’s bad. In fact, it’s incredibly fun! It’s just not as scary as you might think. Sure, it’s intense, but it’s not going to leave you crapping your pants at night. While most of the game is spent hiding and crouching in bushes, the moments of action are pure adrenaline. Few things narrow your concentration like the feeling as you’re running from a killer or on the tail of a survivor. The sound design of the game really helps with this. First of all, the music is perfect for the game’s horror theme. Also, as the killer gets closer and closer to you, your character’s heartbeat will start to pound louder and louder. This works to help survivors evade killers and build tension.

The game is not without it’s problems, though. By far my biggest problem was with camping killers. You see, after a survivor gets knocked down by a killer, the killers have to hang the survivor on a hook. If the other survivors don’t get them down within a certain amount of time, then the survivor is “sacrificed” to the “entity,” and is permanently dead for the rest of the match. However, I’ve been through a lot of matches where I’ve gotten hooked, only for the killer to simply stand in front of the hook so that none of the other players could come and get me. It’s downright infuriating. While this does mean that the other players can use that time to get generators working without fear of the killer, it’s still a cheap strategy that Starbreeze could probably find some way to discourage. Additionally, the game costs roughly fifteen to twenty dollars, and even after that you’re only granted access to some of the killers. The others can be purchased through expansion packs. Now, Starbreeze has said that they are going to let players access these without paying any money via an unlock system, but in a game that also has monetized cosmetic items, this still feels unfair. All the killers are pretty balanced, so it’s not like this is pay to win or anything like that, but it will still probably rub a lot of people in the post-Battlefront II era the wrong way.

There’s also the problem where you’ll get stuck with teammates who simply won’t do their jobs, leaving you to carry them on your back, but this is more of a general online gaming problem than a Dead by Daylight problem, so I can’t really pin this one on Starbreeze.

All in all, Dead by Daylight is a fun, exciting hide and seek/horror game that’s definitely worth your money. It’s Halloween, so have a little fun! Murder your friends, or save them from the killer! Though there are some problems with the game, it’s still a very fun experience that I definitely recommend if you’re looking for a new game this Halloween.

4/5 stars