Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight - Live your worst nightmare

Take on the role of killer or survivor.

From Deep In The Fog...

Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric online multiplayer survival horror game. It was developed and published by Behaviour Interactive, and released on June 14, 2016. It currently has over 23 individual DLCs, and as of August 2020 has reached over 25 million players across all platforms. Dead by Daylight is available on Microsoft Windows, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and Stadia.

Blood For The Blood God

Each match of Dead by Daylight involves five players: one killer, and four survivors. The killers will seek out the other players with the aim of "sacrificing" them to The Entity by placing them on hooks, while the survivors seek and repair generators scattered throughout the map to escape.

Dead by Daylight currently has 25 killers and 27 survivors to play as, with a mix of both original and licensed characters from popular franchises. Some examples of killers include Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare On Elm Street, Amanda Young from Saw, the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill. These killers and survivors are all acquired through DLCs, which can be gained either by purchasing them with real money or by playing the game to rack up in-game currency.

Concept Rating: 4/5

Wide-Eyes

All aspects of the game's graphics and audio work in an attempt to heighten the thrill of a chase and the suspense of hiding in a dark corner. And for the most part, it works. While there's nothing that Behaviour implements that players haven't seen before, they're a lot of the tried and true techniques game devs use for the typical horror atmosphere. Shadows loom across stretches of the map, offering refuge or hiding danger, and the sound of a heart beating will grow louder and faster the closer you are to mortal peril.

Dead by Daylight was released in 2016, and for the most part, its graphics haven't changed much. It doesn't take a discerning eye to note rough edges on character models, and even with motion capture, the survivor animations feel a bit off. When healing other players, survivors' hands will hover and "work" above the other's, but all of this is easy to overlook when you're keeping an eye out for a killer that could walk out behind any corner at a moment notice.

The individual maps attributed to the killers are to be commended. Each has its own distinct atmosphere, which do their job of grounding the player in Dead by Daylight's world. Some are simply downright beautiful, despite the lower-quality graphics. The fifteen maps are based on locations where some killers became murderers and started down their dark path. The attention to detail and intricacy these maps offer can be hard to catch when you're mid-sprint down a hallway, but multiple playthroughs will show players how much effort was spent on each level.

Graphics & Audio Rating: 3.5/5

Cat and Mouse

The type of gameplay you'll experience depends mainly on whether you choose to play as a killer or a survivor.

As a survivor, you'll play in the third person. Working together with your teammates, you'll sneak around the map and repair five generators to power up the exit gates. While each generator starts up, players will need to keep an eye on their surroundings while also responding to skill checks in a timely manner.

Survivors can sprint, walk, crouch-walk, or crawl throughout the map, with the last option being the only one available to "downed" players who have received a significant amount of damage.

Tools like a medkit for healing or a toolbox for speeding up the fix time for a generator are available to survivors, but these tools have finite durability and can be lost in any given match.

Killers, on the other hand, play in the first person. Each killer has a unique play style and weapon, with varying degrees of learning curves.

By striking at survivors with their weapon or grabbing them, killers aim to take survivors to various hooks around the map. If injured enough, these survivors will rise into the sky and be "sacrificed" to the mysterious Entity.

Both survivor and killer have unique perks and loadouts and can advance their abilities and gain items through spending points through the "bloodweb" in-between matches.

Gameplay Rating: 4/5

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

As with many other online multiplayer games, Dead by Daylight can be anywhere from horrible to a blast to play, depending on who you're playing with. If you have a horrible teammate or get a disconnect, you're probably not going to have a great time. But what Behaviour Interactive has created is a thrilling game that allows players to experience unbelievable cat and mouse sequences from right out of a horror movie. Dead by Daylight might not boast AAA origins, but there's a reason it still sits in the top 10 most-watched games on Twitch to date.

Replayability Rating: 4/5

TL;DR

Dead by Daylight is an online multiplayer horror game that is still offering genuine thrills and blood-pumping adrenaline rushes years after its initial release.