Dead by Daylight Review
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game. Inspired by the horror and slasher film genres, this 4v1 asymmetrical horror game pits a single killer up against a group of 4 survivors. To say this concept is well received would be putting it lightly. Dead by Daylight launched June 14th 2016, and since then has become an absolute hit. Blowing past the mark of 270,000 sales for Behaviour Digital and publishing partner Starbreeze, Dead by Daylight has already recouped development costs and much more. Dead by Daylight is currently available on Steam at the price of $17.99 USD, 10% off until July 4th, making it an absolute steal.
Dead by Daylight is posting some impressive stats in addition to their staggering sales figures. A few metrics were released by the developers revealing that Dead by Daylight has already had over 1.5 million games played (equaling about 100 years of ingame gameplay). 35 billion Bloodpoints have been earned by the players of Dead by Daylight as well. Dead by Daylight also boasts a horrifically incredible rate of 16123 murders per hour!
But enough with the basics, let’s get into the gameplay!
Dead by Daylight – The Survivors
As a survivor in Dead by Daylight you have a few goals to accomplish. Number one, don’t die! I know, surviving as a survivor, who would have thought it would be the goal? But there’s more to it than just that. Survivors need to repair and power generators in order to power the exit doors and escape the map, all the while craftily avoiding the bloodthirsty killer hot on their heels. In addition to surviving the killer’s attacks and escaping the map survivors also need to watch each other’s backs. Survivors can be expected to do anything from a quick patch up heal on another injured survivor, to healing up a dying survivor, and even to pulling a survivor off of a meathook to save them from being sacrificed by the killer.
Dead by Daylight currently features a cast of 4 survivors listed below:
- Dwight Fairfield – This office worker turned survivor may not be exactly what you picture as the prototype for survival, but he does make one hell of a leader.
- Meg Thomas – This young woman is a walking, or more accurately running, ball of energy. Meg knows how to run, and she is quite good at it, making her an excellent survivor.
- Jake Park – This craft saboteur grew up wealthy before dropping off the grid on purpose to live in nature. His handyman abilities make him excellent at sabotaging the efforts of the killer and a valuable addition to any survivor lineup.
- Claudette Morrell – This survivor is a bit, well ok basically a complete, shut in. Her studies of botany leave her with a rich understanding of healing through nature, making her a valuable addition to the Dead by Daylight survivor cast.
Dead by Daylight – The Killers
Dead by Daylight covers the classic horror killers well. Deranged trapper with a cleaver and bear traps? You got it. Bloodthirsty hillbilly with a chainsaw ready to cut you up? You better believe he’s coming for you. A powerful wraith who can go invisible at will stepping into another dimension? That one is probably right behind you now! These 3 killers offer great diversity in your gameplay style while hunting down those pesky survivors.
So what’s a killer to do? Kill, kill, and how about kill? There’s a bit more to it than that in Dead by Daylight. Granted there may not be a whole lot more, you are a deranged bloodthirsty psychopath slasher after all. As the killer your main goal is to hit and injure the survivors, knocking them to the ground. Once you have them down you throw the survivor over your shoulder, run them to the nearest meathook, and hang them up there to be sacrificed to the Entity. But it’s not always easy, the true test of a killer in Dead by Daylight comes during the hunt. Finding survivors with all the small clues they leave behind can be difficult at times, and keeping track of them while they are running for their lives only adds to the challenge. But with some practice you’ll have them dead on a hook in no time!
Dead by Daylight – The Recap
Overall we think Dead by Daylight is an amazingly fun game, well worth its price, and a guaranteed way to get many hours of fun. That is not to say the game is without flaws. However, the flaws that Dead by Daylight currently has are mainly in the ways of a few minor bugs, a missing feature or two here and there, and some minor balancing issues. The good news is the developers of this game are on top of everything. They are actively working on all known bugs, taking community feedback and assessing it alongside their own internal analytic data, and pushing new features as quickly as possible. With a strong and devoted developer team behind a game, like Dead by Daylight has, things can only get better. We anticipate Dead by Daylight to be a hot game for a long time to come; and think it likely to dominate the asymmetrical horror genre. So what are you waiting for, get in there and do your best to stay alive! Unless you have a bit of a bloodthirst that is, in which case make sure none of those survivors escape you. Now if you’ll excuse us, there’s a hillbilly with a chainsaw heading our way and we need to get out of here!