Dead by Daylight

Four determined Survivors face a bloodthirsty Killer in a vicious game of nerve and wits.

NA release: 27th August 2024
EU release: 27th August 2024
JP release: 27th August 2024
Developer: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
Publisher: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
Push Square Review: 6/10
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Version Played: PC

Dead by Daylight is the game that sparked the current trend of asymmetrical “one monster vs humans” online games, although not the origin (Evolve is one notable older example). It started off as its own game with monsters and lore of its own creation, although its success has led to a massive amount of microtransactions, most of it licensed material. The amount of stuff is quite overwhelming for a newcomer, and it all just feels a mess of random people from different franchises.

Among the various DLCs are stuff you’d expect like Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th – all the kind of horror franchise that fits the game quite well. But then you have stuff that branches out a bit more: Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Alan Wake, Alien, Stranger Things, Nick Cage and Dungeons & Dragons. These will sometimes offer new monsters, but the core gameplay and setting is not affected by this DLC.

As a survivor, you try to avoid the monster while starting up generators. Your goal is to activate enough to power a gate, get the gate open and flee. You can’t attack, so you’ll have to rely on stealth. When you do get spotted, you can throw pallets or jump through windows to try and make a gap, but the monster is generally faster than you. If he catches you, he’ll usually set you on a hook to be sacrificed to a cosmic entity, so your teammates can help you out. You’ll all need to try and get away to win.

The monster has to make sacrifices, which involves picking attacking survivors and putting them on hooks. Some monsters can kill survivors outright, which still counts for winning the game, but not for specific daily quests. If a survivor messes up a QTE for repairing a generator (or other events), you’ll be notified of where they are, to help you give chase, and survivors that run or are injured will leave behind trials. For all the menus, perks, loadout options and microtransactions, the core game is fairly simple.

With Dead by Daylight being online only, the game is extremely unfriendly to newcomers. If you play as a monster against an organised team, they can often escape before you even see one of them, while playing as part of a disorganised team will result in the monsters trouncing you – especially as some have ranged attacks that can harm you through walls. There is a custom mode where you can play as a monster against bots (not the other way round – even though one game mode does have AI for a second monster). This mode is also online – so once the server goes, the whole game is unplayable. I also think it’s a shame that there aren’t singleplayer missions to help people get used to the mechanics of the game.

As I mainly played this for Castlevania, I tested out the Dracula monster. There’s no specific level for him, so he feels out of place in the modern day setting of the game. They could have turned the generators into some kind of magical device to translate the gameplay into different styles, and the clash makes it feel like you’re not really part of the game. Dracula does have a lot of moves at his disposal, like a fireball and the ability to turn into a wolf or bat, so he can be very useful in the right hands. The survivors you buy (like Trevor Belmont) are essentially just skins and a few minor perks. Once again, it feels separated from the game itself.

At the point I played it, the entire game felt like a hodgepodge of inconsistent franchises, and I struggled to find any interest in the game’s reasoning and lore for why this hook-based gameplay is happening. Sure, you can chase down Alan Wake as Chucky, or run from the Xenomorph from aliens as Ash from Evil Dead – but it all becomes meaningless when nobody feels like the actual character. This stopped being a horror game, and is just a multiverse mishmash.

Fine

The asymmetrical multiplayer genre seems to be a real tough nut to crack with each heavy hitter coming out swinging, only to be plagued by nuances that trip up the experience and expose debilitating cracks in the mechanics. Unfortunately, it seems that Dead by Daylight suffers much the same fate. It’s honestly really good fun, but the more you play the more its issues rear their head and become points of ire.
Ben Tarrant, Push Square

Remake or remaster?

Offline support is needed

Official Ways to get the game

Dead by Daylight is available on Steam, PlayStation store, Xbox Store and Nintendo eShop