Asymmetric multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight has evolved drastically over its lifespan. What started out as a small cast of horror homages quickly evolved into a collection of some of the most iconic horror characters, and players went from running around in giddy panic to coordinating with each other and developing clever strategies. However, as the game becomes more complex, we have to wonder if some things were lost along the way as well. Have Dead by Daylight’s new additions taken something away from the game’s innate sense of horror?
Early on, the game’s killers were, in a general sense, presented as monstrous figures. Characters were sometimes supernatural monsters such as the ghost-like Nurse and swamp-dwelling Hag, but even the non-supernatural characters like the Trapper and Doctor were accessorized to be threatening. The Trapper has a grotesque mask and bits of jagged metal all over his body, and the Doctor’s face and body are twisted and damaged from self-imposed experiments.
These kinds of monstrous designs aren’t gone by any means in the current day with newer releases like the Dredge and the Artist, but there are significantly more exceptions to this monster design philosophy than before. Characters like the Legion, Trickster, and Mastermind (Wesker) look mostly like ordinary people, and some like the Deathslinger, Oni, and Knight feel like characters from a different genre tweaked to have a bit more of a horror angle. This trend towards less threatening designs extends further when looking at cosmetics such as the Clown’s Mr. Puddles and the Legion’s Lost Mascot skins, which are explicitly designed to be jokes.
This shift in monster design slightly dampened the game’s sense of horror, but the biggest impact actually came from something much simpler: players becoming more familiar and experienced with the game. Survivors were initially victims, thrown into what was pretty much an all-new game concept at the time to be mercilessly hunted down. To say this changed as players learned how to play survivors would be a major understatement.
Chases became less frightening after survivors learned they could loop killers around obstacles for ages. Seeing an ally go down became less frightening after survivors learned they could body block the killer from hooks while they’re carrying someone. Survivors started frequently using get-out-of-jail-free perks like the dash from Sprint Burst or stun from Decisive Strike, which removed a lot of the penalties of getting caught in a bad position. The more common it became for survivors to coordinate and use collective tactics, the less survivors had to worry about. Whether it’s looping a killer endlessly through windows and dropping wooden pallets on their head to buy time, or blinding and stunning them at every opportunity, survivors slowly started to become more of a threat to their hunters than they were to them.
The power has shifted so intensely that it’s affecting how many people are willing to play killers. You can expect queue times of 10-15 minutes fairly often due to a lack of interest in playing killer these days, which is a problem for the survivors who want to get into a game and the killers who don’t feel like their role is worth playing.
There are myriad factors keeping people away from the killer role. Killers have a much harder time managing their objectives these days since items like Brand New Part and perks like Prove Thyself allow survivors to repair generators faster than ever. Chasing someone who is even slightly out of the way might end up a massive waste if they’re good at dodging. Even if a survivor does get taken down, one of their teammates will usually be there to body block or stun the killer away from actually doing anything. When a survivor’s first instinct upon seeing a killer is to harass them instead of running or hiding, killers become much less intimidating, because a good player has the tools and skills to outwit them quite easily.
Dead by Daylight hasn’t completely given up on horror, but there’s a lot that could be done to add more. The best approach would be to make the killers threatening to play against again so that survivors aren’t encouraged to directly engage with the killer unless absolutely necessary.
While carrying a survivor, for example, maybe killers could still be able to perform melee attacks at half speed. This wouldn’t make them very effective at hunting down other survivors while carrying one, but would do enough to discourage survivors from trying to body block since they would still be a threat. Additionally, killers could have their hitboxes increased to hit slightly wider but not as long. Survivors oftentimes attempt to run right past a killer instead of away from them to throw off their aim, and this hitbox change would discourage this. On top of keeping the survivors on edge, making killers more of a consistent threat would help refill that pool of people willing to play as killers.
Dead by Daylight started out as one person holding all the power while four others worked together to escape. The imbalance of power needs to be reinstated for Dead by Daylight to bring back the fear factor that brought many of us to the game in the first place.
