Dead by Daylight

February 6th, 2023

Publisher: Behaviour Interactive

Release Date: June 14th, 2016

Format: PC

This is an older game that I recently discovered thanks to a colleague of mine. As a big fan of horror this seemed like the perfect game; you play as either a survivor or the killer, picking from a variety of characters. The first set of characters were original and did not utilize intellectual property from other media- but soon, expansion packs would be released featuring other characters. A small sampling includes Halloween, Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Scream, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Nightmare on Elm Street, and many others. If you ever wanted to see Laurie Strode run from Nemesis, Ash escape from Pinhead and Rebecca Chambers square off with Michael Myers, this is definitely your game. 

The gameplay mechanics revolve around what is called "asymmetrical gameplay," essentially meaning that every player's experience will be different depending on perks, characters and the specific map placement of items. I don't imagine this being a new feature as many online games are like this, but the term has become popular in recent years to describe randomized matches where no two matches are exactly the same. As a survivor your goal is to make it out alive by teaming up with three other people to fix five generators to power the exit gates. You can then either escape through the gate, or if you are the last survivor, can try to go for an escape hatch that opens up (though can be closed by the killer.) There aren't any weapons you can use and when you are being pursued by the killer, you are expected to utilize the environment to slow them down and get them off your tail. Pallets can be knocked over, window sills hopped over, flash grenades/firecrackers to stun the killer and a flashlight to blind them temporarily.