A Haunting Review of Dead by Daylight
Many of my readers should know by now that I love survival horror games. And for the people that know me personally definitely know that I simply cannot get enough of them!! Sure, I might be the kind of person that covers my eyes when I think nobody is watching me, and I might squint my eyes to ensure I avoid taking in too much of what’s really going on around me… however, I can’t seem to actually put away the games that scare me so much. I just get a rush from the fear of the unknown!
I was first introduced to Dead by Daylight on RustyPieLover’s stream one spooky Friday night. One of his friends was asking in stream if anyone wanted a copy of the game and when nobody took up the offer I said yes!
This is a video game that can be enjoyed in two ways. Which I thought was pretty cool! You can either play as the killer or as the survivors. All of these characters are from various horror movies and games and they all look great!
As the killer, you HAVE to ensure that no one survives in order to win the match. You can achieve your goal by tracking down survivors, stunning them, picking them up and hooking them onto the closest hook you can find. The more kills you get the better your blood points are at the end of the match.
As one of the survivors, you are in a team of four you and you have to work together to escape the killer. Your job is simple, fix the generators, find the hats/door and escape before the killer finds you. If you can’t do this in time you are faced with the sad reality that if you can’t get enough generators running to power up the door you are left with the horrible conclusion that you will die a gruesome and bloody death.
Unfortunately for you, the odds of surviving are extremely low. Especially if you come up against an experienced killer! For me though that challenge is why I prefer to play as the survivors.
As you start off a match your heart rate starts picking up slowly the closer the killer gets to you. Soon the faint heartbeat of your character quickly gets louder and louder with each wrong step you take. If you finally manage to outsmart the killer and lose them you can make your way to the nearest generator to start repairing it. However it’s not as simple as you might think as the game throws unexpected skill checks your way and if you miss your opportunity the generator goes “BANG”, alerting the killer of your location.
So what options do you have as one of the survivors when this scary looking killer sneaks up to you? Running seems like the most logical decision, but you need to remember that the killer is faster than you are. It’s super easy for them to catch up and take you down.
Here’s where your survival skills need to kick in, and if you have none like me you will get knocked down fairly easy and hooked. So do your best to avoid my way of playing and try and outsmart the killer by avoiding running in straight lines. Attempt to jump through windows or block his path to you with a pallet when you have the opportunity. Basically just put as many obstacles between you and your impending doom!
The reason this is such an effective way to escape the killer is because they will need to break the pallet in order to go through it or walk around it. Giving you a few precious extra seconds to make your escape! The same goes for the windows, the killer can’t jump through them like you and needs to find another way to get around them. HOWEVER!!!!!! If you are too slow the killer can catch you and instantly pick you up and WILL DEFINITELY go and hook you.
Just like how the survivors have things that can help them escape, the killer also has tricks that help them take out the survivors one by one. For example when a survivor makes a run for it they will leave marks behind for a few seconds allowing the killer to track them easily. So don’t be fooled by thinking you are safe if you decide to run and duck behind a corner. If your track marks are still there it might lead the killer straight to you!
Once you have found your victim you can knock them down, hook them and look for your next target all while the clock is ticking for the survivors to escape. Be careful if you try and rescue one of your fellow survivors as you may end up getting attacked and taken down next! Those killers can be really sneaky!
I am really enjoying the game with friends as we play it while voice chatting in our Discord server, however, playing alongside complete strangers can be a totally different experience as you don’t know beforehand whether they are experienced or not. And in a game like this communication is key if you want to survive!
The matchmaking system in my opinion needs more work since you can either be thrown into a match with players far above your skill level or grouped with players that are completely new to the game with a killer who is unfairly good. This makes for a really hard time to get blood points for progressing your chosen character.
With the game developers adding more killers and characters from our favorite games and movies I can see why so many of us keep enjoying the game. However I do worry that the main attraction of the game will change if I keep playing it as much as I am currently. My concern is that I might get bored once the scare factor wears itself thin.
Overall it’s a great game that leaves us screaming when we unexpectedly see the killer making their way to us. It really is a game that gets the blood flowing and that keeps us on our toes! It’s something fun that can be enjoyed with friends which usually results in a lot of laughing while you try and escape from the killer! Right now this is one of my favourite cooperative games to jump in and play with my friends during the evening. What started off as a scary Friday game night quickly turned into something fun and enjoyable with friends! I highly recommend picking up Dead by Daylight and trying it for yourself :)
Lots of Love
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