Dead By Daylight Special Edition - Review

In the last period the videogame world is witnessing the revenge of a genre much appreciated by fans or that of Survival Horror: just think of Friday the 13th: The Game, Outlast, Left 4 Dead, or more simply to Dead By Daylight. This is the title that we are going to analyze today, in its alternative variant, called Dead By Daylight Special Edition, containing the various DLCs: the title is developed by Behavior Interactive and has quickly gained a large share of users on Steam. A few days ago it was also published on consoles, with the hope on the part of the developers to expand the aforementioned audience.

The game system of the title is very simple: four players they will find themselves in a procedurally generated map, under pressure from a killer, known as the Entity. The group of survivors will have to start 5 generators located in the various areas of the map, escaping from the clutches of the killer eager to make young sacrificial victims. Operating the various contraptions will not be a walk in the park, as the Entity will be equipped with various skills that will make its hunt much easier, finishing its dirty work with our hanging on a large metal hook.

At the moment they exist well 7 killers, each with its own unique moveset, including:

1. The hunter uses a large cleaver and bear traps, scaring the survivors, who will be slowed down while they repair the generators, heal themselves, or sabotage the killer.
2. The Ghost has a very interesting moveset that allows him to follow the blood tracks of young people and to broaden his field of vision. He uses an ax made up of a skull and a spine.
3. The Hillbilly he is a very strong killer, endowed with great resistance to light and pain and hunts his takes with a hammer and a chainsaw.
4. The nurse she applies penalties to wounded survivors who can be tracked while they are intent on healing themselves, due to their more labored breathing: she uses a blade made of bones and has the ability to teleport for short distances.
5. Michael Myers (The Shadow), is the famous killer from the Halloween movie saga, usable thanks to a DLC. The shadow can boast a strange repertoire of moves, as this is made up of "obsessions", which penalizes the various actions of the victims; Michael wields a classic kitchen knife, which together with his innate evil (a sort of passive that grants the killer various bonuses), make him a tireless hunter.
6. La Strega feeds on the survivors' hopes: thanks to these, the killer can greatly hinder the work of the boys, reducing the chances of repairing the generator, or enhancing her skills.
7. He Dottore, the most recently released killer. This crazy killer is able to generate some electroshock discharges, which greatly influence the playstyle of the various players; in fact, the various discharges will make the victims scream with pain, and will also provoke hallucinations of a fake doctor, or will paralyze him, making any action ineffective.

Yes, you are most likely thinking "the killers in Dead By Daylight are OP!" and most likely you are right. Precisely for this reason you will have some elements with which to counter them within the map, even if they are minimal compared to their abilities. In fact, in this labyrinth of terror, you can hinder the killer intent on hunting you with some elements, similar to wooden beams, which will give you a small advantage of a few seconds, vital for your survival. In addition, the arena is dotted with red booths that you can use to hide, even if they are not a permanent solution; in fact to neutralize the users who played dirty the developers have in fact inserted some crows that will make you traceable much more easily to the killers. This is because many players used the cabins to "camp", hiding inside for a long time, even if this is no longer possible since, trying this trick, you will end up with a crown of crows that will sing your funeral march. Another element that can help us is the torch, which can be used to temporarily stun our executioner: as if that were not enough, however, some killers are much more resistant to light so you will have to play several games to understand your opponents.

As for your team, well, there is a premise to make. Dead By Daylight is not an easy game and requires great teamwork: if you want to win easily I suggest you form a team to play with, possibly with the help of headphones and microphone, because by casually throwing yourself into a lobby you can run into some problems, such as griefing. Furthermore, without headphones and microphone you will hardly be able to communicate your moves and your movements to the team, thus risking to be captured in no time at all. Although you will be part of a team, many times it will also be necessary to act alone, because by tracking your group, the killer could carry out a real slaughter. So don't be afraid to sacrifice a mate - temporarily - to escape and then save him.

One of Dead By Daylight's weaknesses is its poor replay value. This is because at first glance the title might seem great for spending hours of fun with your friends, between one escape and another, but after about ten games the formula of the game will seem repetitive, forcing you to quit the game after a few hours. Furthermore, the title has a serious deficiency that is now peculiar to online multiplayer titles: one integrated voice chat. In fact, to communicate with the other members of the team you will have to rely on the Steam voice chat, the PlayStation 4 party lobbies or the Xbox Live voice chat, thus using components external to the game.

In this review you are reading the features of Dead By Daylight Special Edition, therefore of its counterpart for PlayStation 4 e Xbox One: this second version is the result of a port that penalizes even more the limited formula of the game. In fact, on consoles you will find truly obsolete graphics, combined with poor quality elements such as poor shader and lighting effects, cumbersome animations, garnished with a good dose of bugs and crashes, as well as the inevitable drop in frame rates. The audio sector, on the other hand, is well-made, equipped with a series of excellent sound effects for the kind of title we are going to play.

In conclusion, if you are really curious to try Dead By Daylight, I recommend you try his PC version to have at least a better gaming experience: this is because the console port is of low quality. Finally, we remind you that Dead By Daylight Special Edition It is available for PlayStation 4 e Xbox One starting from June 23 2017, at an introductory price of 29.99 €.