Dead By Daylight is the latest in what seems to be a current trend of  multiplayer survival horror video games to hit the market, I must admit that I have been watching people stream this on Twitch for quite a while now and have been eagerly awaiting the console release and for the most part it does not disappoint.

The basic premise of the game is that 4 people play as survivors in third person view and another plays as the killer via first person view, you get to choose to play as either via the games main screen. In order to survive players must repair 5 generators located around the map, once done 2 gates are then highlighted and can be opened allowing escape, if you are the last survivor left you also have the option of escaping via a trapdoor. The killer must try to mow down the survivors and then pick them up and put them on various hooks located around the map and sacrifice them to their god, the killer can also sabotage the generators (as long as they aren’t fully repaired) and negate any of the repairs done to them by the survivors.

Dead By Daylight does a great job at creating tension when playing as a survivor, when repairing generators you must perform a series of skill tests by pressing a button at the appropriate time (an audible cue warns you that a skill test is coming up) if you mistime the button press then the generator will emit a very loud bang which will set your repair progress back and also alert the killer of your location. It’s incredibly tense and stressful when you hear the killer approach your location which is indicated by a heartbeat at first starting off feint but then getting faster and louder as he gets closer to your location. Do you slink off slowly and hide? Or continue repairing that generator in the hopes that he won’t see you. One of the advantages the survivors do have over the killer is that the third person view allows them to see a lot more of their surrounds than the first person view of the killer does, making it easy to find a good hiding location, be careful though as when you run the killer can see where you have run as it is indicated via marks on the ground, and if you are bleeding the killer can also follow the blood trail. The survivors feel really underpowered compared to the killer (and so they should) they do however have some help with items such as flashlights that can blind the killer and medkits that they can use to patch each other up, if the killer finds you and a chase ensues then survivors can also throw pallets behind them whilst running and if timed right these can temporarily stun the killer.

Playing as one of the killers is a different ball game entirely due to the first person view and the powers that the killers have, the aim of the game being to stop survivors repairing generators and to hunt them down and sacrifice them via the hooks scattered around the map. The different killers have a wide array of different powers, The Doctor for instance can use shock therapy on the survivors forcing them to reveal their location and into having hallucinations, The Wraith can become temporarily invisible and stalk survivors. There is a killer here to suit many different play styles and it takes a while to come to grips with all of their powers and which one will suit your style best.

The progression and levelling system in the game has a lot of depth can be quite confusing, both killers and survivors have two types of levels, a level for the character and also a separate level tied to their online performance which is used for matchmaking purposes. Killers and survivors earn both bloodpoints and gems in every game they play allowing them to purchase various perks and items to improve their chances of killing and survival.

The game does not really do a good job of holding your hand when you first start out the only instructions coming via a couple of screens of text outlaying what your role as a survivor or killer is and to be truthful I found this refreshing, I put in the effort to research the killers powers before even attempting to play one and felt rewarded by this as it helped my chances immensely. Dead By Daylight is not going to win any awards for graphical prowess but it certainly isn’t the ugliest game I have ever played, the sound design is excellent though, whether it be the heartbeat as a killer approaches or the squeal of a chainsaw in the distance as the killer carves up yet another victim. This is a game I continually find myself coming back to for just another go, if you are looking for something a little different in your collection from the usual online multiplayer FPS games out there then give this a shot, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Thanks to Starbreeze for supplying the game for review