I am a little late to the game to the 2016 video game Dead By Daylight. I have heard of the game before and have always seen it in the store. After hearing the news of a Stranger Things DLC coming to the game in early September, I decided that it was time to pick up the game.
Dead By Daylight is an online, multiplayer game where four Survivors take on one Killer. You have the option to choose which side you want to be on. Both Survivor and Killer have the choice of a variety of characters, each with different special abilities. This is where the DLC comes in, with licensed characters from different franchises such as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Saw. Soon Stranger Things will be joining the group with a playable Demogorgon as a Killer and Nancy and Steve as Survivors, plus a new map of Hawkins Lab.
The gameplay is very straightforward, if you are a Survivor, you and your fellow Survivors must work together to restart five generators. Once the generators are all working, you must find and open and exit to escape the map. All of this must be done while avoiding the Killer, who stalks the map, trying to prevent the Survivors from escaping. The Killer can use their weapon to down the Survivors and hook them as an offering. If a Survivor is hooked, other Survivors can come to their aid and unhook them.
As a Survivor, it is a lot of fun to find and restart the generators while always worrying about the Killer. The game employs many sensory cues that make the experience even more frightening. When a Killer gets close to your character you can hear your heartbeat getting faster and louder, alerting you that you probably should hide. As you are repairing generators, or performing other actions such as healing, there are random quicktime events where you are alerted by a noise and then need to quickly press a bumper. Wondering when the next quickplay will happen and also where the Killer is adds to the suspense.
Every round is different with a variety of characters and differing gamer playstyles. The matches are fairly short and the endgame can differ. If time goes too long, everyone will be told to head towards the exit for a final showdown. The Survivors have to get there first to escape or the Killer can wait for them and block the exit. Additionally, if there is only one Survivor left, a hatch spawns and is opened randomly on the map. If the Survivor can find it and escape, they win.
Dead By Daylight is an excellent online multiplayer game. It adds terror and suspense and fun, short matches. The game also incorporates many special abilities to customize the characters in the game.
Dead By Daylight is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4, and will be coming to Switch in September 2019.
