Although Halloween has passed, horror games such as “Friday The 13th” are becoming very popular. One of these games that has sparked a “hide and seek” style of a horror, is Dead by Daylight. Dead by Daylight is a horror game released by Behaviour Interactive, which gained a huge momentum of popularity ever since its release.
The game itself revolves around two teams: the Survivors, and the Killers. The survivors’ job is to repair enough generators to open an exit gate and escape from a wicked, haunting place. While doing tasks to ensure their survival, they get chased by murderous psychopaths attempting to kill them. This brings us to the killers, whose job is to keep all of the survivors from escaping, and in the process, slaughter them. These two sides of the game bring a sensational balance between killing and surviving, delivering a symphony of blood curdling moments.
The swap between killer and survivor is incredible because of its fierce, thrilling gameplay. When playing as a survivor, the atmosphere is very sinister, causing you to make decisions out of reaction due to the scary environment. During the most paralyzing moments of being chased by the killer, you legitimately become scared because of the stunning visuals and music produced while running for your life.
There are many different ways to escape from the killer, but ever since the release of the new killer, the Nurse, the way you endure the killers has been changed significantly. With new killers or survivors being added into the game, the meta (or playstyle) of the game can change severely, giving a new fresh way of playing.
Sometimes, like when The Nurse first got released, the meta shifts too fast, causing the game to be “broken” or one side being overwhelmingly stronger than the other. In a game like this, the two sides are supposed to be asymmetrical; the killer is supposed to have a large advantage over the survivors and not all of them are going to survive.
As stated, the game during its entire journey has had some trouble finding a place to settle, balance wise. For most of the game’s life, survivors have been viewed as over powered because of their excruciatingly strong perks, and abuse of using the maps. For example, every survivor and killer are allowed to have four “power up perks,” that enable them to have a buff to their gameplay, thus helping them complete their task easier. The problem for the survivors’ perks is that they are considered by many too powerful, making it very hard to play as a killer.
A present example of this is the survivor perk “Sprint Burst,” which enables the survivors to have an extreme speed burst for a three second period every 40 seconds. This can create balance issues because if a killer finds a survivor, the survivor now has an average three to four second boost, that can ultimately help them escape the killer with ease. Despite it being a current issue for the game, the developers of the game have been working hard to solve these problems, like they previously did fixing the infamously broken perk “Saboteur.”
Different killers have unique abilities available to help them complete their task of stopping the survivors from escaping the match. A personal favorite killer of mine is “The Trapper.” This killer is equipped with bear traps which he is allowed to place in strategic locations around the map. If an unlucky survivor finds their way into the trap the killer is notified and the survivor is stuck until either the killer grabs him from the trap or a fellow survivor frees him. When you look at this killer’s ability you must change your playstyle to look for traps.
If you look at another killer dubbed “The Hillbilly,” his ability allows him to run very fast in a straight line wielding a chainsaw that allows him to one-hit down survivors if he lands a blow. If you know that he is the killer there is no longer a need to look for traps, but a need to look for him. When you look into the different killers and how you must adapt to the environment and your playstyle accordingly, this game has hit the mark with the diverse situations you are put into.
Although the learning curve of how to counter both new killer and survivor strategies may be somewhat large, Dead By Daylight is adaptable and plays like a fast paced horror game. Dead By Daylight has a exceptionally reasonable price of $20 dollars, available for purchase on Steam.
This game is a must buy! The hours of heart racing, fear-inducing, and purely craze-filled moments this game has brought me and my friends as we play together is beyond worth the price. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for hours upon hours of fun and is resilient enough to stay to learn the game, and watch it evolve throughout time.