Dead by Daylight Review

Title: Dead by Daylight
Developer(s): Behaviour Interactive
Publisher(s): Starbreeze Studios

Platform(s): PC
Release Date: June 14th, 2016
Price: £10.39 (Steam sale price)

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REVIEW INFORMATION
Platform(s) played on: PC
Time played: 10 hours

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By Ryan Holmes – So I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years! As you well know it’s that time of the year where you empty your wallets for good old Steam! I have and this is where my next review comes into play! Dead by Daylight was amongst the sales this year so I picked it up cheap for a whopping £10.39!

So let me give you some brief details on this game so you know exactly what you’re looking at without going, “Eh?”

Dead by Daylight is a 4v1 horror game where you the player can take on the role of either a savage killer or survivor. The game itself is very nice to look at, and the characters are customisable and complete with a levelling system and perks. The aim of the game is to start generators dotted around the map and escape from a junk yard.

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You play as what appears to be a demonic killer with a bad complexion that cannot be hidden with foundation, who quite clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed, thought “them kids are on my property again” and decided to go on a murderous rampage. Now depending on which character you choose, these killers all have different special abilities that you can use. An example would be the character I used who was codenamed ‘The Nurse’ and believe it or not, speaks for itself. This character comes complete with a bone saw and a special ability which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, and kinda looks familiar…. *cough* Silent Hill *cough*.

Now with the map being murky and misty with a bit of fire here and there, the only way you can really find the other players is by strange red marks dotted around in front of you. Unfortunately, these are useless unless you do actually stumble across the person in question as they are not in a straight line, they are ALL over the place. The other thing that signals where these people are hiding are the generators, which once repaired give you signals allowing you to casually stroll over and play peekaboo with your victim.

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Now in movies, correct me if I’m wrong, but despite the survivors having the ability to run quite quickly, shouldn’t the murderer be even quicker? Apparently not! It’s next to impossible to catch these people once they know you’re near them and don’t even get me started on the objects they push over to stop you in your path. The tutorial teaches you by videos rather than gameplay and that you have to try and cut them off or be tactful about trying to catch them, *throws book out the window* NOPE! On the flip side of this, if you do end up catching one of these little suckers, you can get them hooked on this game, LITERALLY!

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Moving over to the other role of this game, the ‘Survivor’. You are 1 of 4 people trying to escape this nightmarish place because Mama told you to stay away but obviously, you little rebels didn’t listen. Your job is to fire up these generators dotted around the map that power up the doors (which there are only 2 of, by the way) to escape the junkyard. Now, I hope you all have a good sound system or a decent pair of headphones as the only way you’re going to hear if your killer is coming is your own heartbeat, the quicker it beats the closer he is. You get just 3 chances (from being hooked) to be rescued by your teammate and failing this you die, basically. You have chances to hide around the map in wooden boxes that are near the generators, but obviously, you take a big chance with this!

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On my first attempt at being a survivor, I survived a whopping 3 minutes before being caught trying to save a friend, which was my biggest mistake! I’m not saying don’t save your friends, but it doesn’t help when the other guy loves pitching a tent next to your friend (camping if you don’t get this reference). I was rescued 3 times and all 3 times the guy fucking came back and slashed me up! When he has hold of you, there is a chance of wriggling free which you might as well not bother as the action meter takes forever to climb up and by this time he’s already put you on a hook, started a fire, and is prepping you as food. Running away can only be good if you start throwing objects in front of you, which you have to keep an eye out for while he chases you with a chainsaw. Moving towards the end of the match, if you have managed to get all of the generators required to power the doors running, GREAT! Head over to the door and pull the switch which apparently takes 5 minutes to pull…. Yeah, I’ve never seen someone so reluctant to get out of a hell of where you’re about to die, it’s like saying “I heard a noise coming from the basement, where I know the lights don’t work, let’s go down there and see what it is!”

Moving towards the end of the match, if you have managed to get all of the generators required to power the doors running, GREAT! Head over to the door and pull the switch which apparently takes 5 minutes to pull…. Yeah, I’ve never seen someone so reluctant to get out of Hell. “I heard a noise coming from the basement, where I know the lights don’t work, let’s go down there and see what it is!”

So moving on to the last section of this review, the menu and if you’re wondering why I am doing a section on this it’s because the menu system is brilliantly laid out. Quick play, play as a survivor, play as the killer, character customisation, yep it’s all there but click the play button then go make a cuppa tea and a sandwich, hell why not go the whole hog and cook a roast because you’ll be waiting for about 20 minutes or more to get into a lobby with people! Even then it won’t let you play without all 4 players on the survivor team and it definitely won’t let you play without the murderer.

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Ryan’s Tips & Tricks!

1. Run & repair – As you are moving past one of the generators make sure you have your repair button down because it will repair them but only in short bursts, which believe me, it’s useful if you’ve got scaly face behind you.

2. Hide and hello! – Don’t hide in tall grass as he can see you easily and if he’s hanging around a person you’re trying to save, you might as well just smother yourself with butter and sit on the fire.

3. Take this and that and that – Block this guys path! While you’re running through the map there are always chances to put objects in his way and it does slow him down! You can get through open windows quicker than he can too so use them to your advantage!

4. Nurse! NURSE! – This is two tips in one for you. Don’t play the Nurse character unless you are good, she’s useless and extremely slow and if you have the perk with the medkit, use it!

5. Do you even lift? – Perk up! Everything you do gives you XP and ability points at the end of the round. Always make sure you perk up your stuff!

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