MY CRIPPLING DbD ADDICTION ORIGIN
Having around 2,500 hours in Dead By Daylight across XBOX and Steam going back several years as well as spending over $150 dollars on characters and cosmetics, I figured I’d do an updated 2022 review of the game. I originally played the game when it was free to play for a weekend on XBOX in the Fall of 2017, and I thought to myself “wow this is the dumbest game ever” but when it was no longer free to play, I found myself missing it. I ended up waiting a month later for the physical release of Friday the 13th which in many ways was a better game, and then in the summer of 2018 I ended up finally picking up Dead By Daylight.
DbD USED TO BE A HORROR VIDEO GAME
My first real deep dive into DbD was sometime between the 1.9.3 and 2.3.3 builds of the game, in between the Chapter 8: Curtain Call DLC (Kate/Clown) and the Chapter 9: Shattered Bloodline DLC (Adam/Spirit) releases. During this time the graphics were a bit more dark and gritty, a lot of the maps had a blue or grey tint to them, and the fog was very thick. The end of 2018 was the last time this game was truly great, with the end of 2019 being the hard cut off.
DbD NOW FEELS LIKE AN EPISODE OF RICK AND MORTY
Circus Music Intensifies Around 2021 DbD had undergone a huge graphical overhaul to stay up to date with newer hardware on the market. Gone were the blue and grey tinted maps filled with thick fog, now everything was bright and shiny! They also added in plenty of degenerate charms to proudly be littered all across the game, because when I think horror, I think about two confused zoomers space docking each other because they saw a Tik Tok video about it fr fr no cap Fortnite dances. I don’t mind most of the new silly cosmetics, but pushing agendas in a game played by impressionable middle schoolers is a bit much. They also removed Leatherface’s Claudette face mask, which was my favorite skin on my favorite Killer, because the French Canadians who made this game have never seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre before lol.
PLAYING SURVIVOR
The best way to experience modern DbD is to play Survivor, either play with friends or with cross-play turned off. I mean no disrespect, but I’m not telling any tales out of school when I say that console players are typically much worse at the game. Also with cross-play off you get to have pre and post game banter in the text chat, although even the most common of words get censored out. All survivors play the same with different perks, and you can unlock other survivors perks by grinding, so just pick a Survivor you think looks cool and play as them.
DbD Survivor Waifus: Meg Thomas > Mikaela Reid > Heather Mason > Kate Denson > Bill Overbeck > Yui Kimura
DbD Survivors Picked By Try Hards: Steve Harrington > David King > Nea Karlsson
DbD Best Survivor: Meg Thomas, I’m a diehard Meg Head through and through, her original character model with the 3 orange braids (pre cowlick hair) drew me in like a tractorbeam.
PLAYING KILLER
My first 6 months of DbD I played Killer about 99% of the time. Playing Killer used to be a really fun experience, but after so many nerfs to Killer gameplay over the years, my usual 3-4 sacrifices every single game are more likely to average between 1-2 sacrifices now. DbD is 90% Survivor sided these days and you’ll spend most of the game just running in circles smashing pallets. Playing Killer these days is basically just a Pallet Smashing Sim.
DbD Killer Waifus: Leatherface (Original Build) > The Pig (Original Build) > The Trapper > The Hillbilly > The Wraith
DbD Most Annoying Killers To Play Against: The Legion > The Doctor > Freddy Krueger (Original and Current Builds) > The Clown
DbD Most Powerful Killer: Michael Myers. The Nurse being God Tier I’m convinced is a meme at this point, it’s Michael Myers by far.
THE PERKS
The perks aren’t worth going into detail about for Survivor or Killer since they are always being buffed and nerfed….mostly nerfed. Jane’s Head On locker stun perk is probably my favorite in the entire game though.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The gameplay objective for every game is the same, repair 5 Gens and escape or stop 4 survivors from escaping, this NEVER changes. The addition of new Killers, Survivors, Levels, and Perks does keep the game fresh though, for better or worse.
If you end up getting this game, treat it like a party game and not an Esports Game, trust me it’s not worth drenching your gamer chair in sweat for.
DbD Survivors are EXTREMELY TOXIC. Playing Survivor is much easier than playing Killer, so if you play Killer don’t let the Survivor Privilege of “oH yOu DIdn’t LeT me WIN REeeEEEEe!!” get to you, if you want to camp, camp your little heart out. Survivors will complain no matter how you play.
There are ways to play the older versions of DbD such as the 1.9.3 and 2.3.3 builds, if you can find enough people for that, then I’d HIGHLY RECOMMEND the game.
As far as modern day DbD goes, if you see it on sale for 10 bucks and want a party game to play with friends while drinking, then it gets a EH I GUESS SO RECOMMEND.
