Has Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight Been A Success So Far?

Released as an asymmetric online multiplayer game where one player takes on the role of a killer and goes against a maximum of four other players called survivors with the intent of killing or sacrificing them while the survivors attempt to evade the killer and escape from the map, Dead By Daylight came out for Microsoft Windows in June 2016, It has gone on to sell more than 4 million copies across all platforms while celebrating its second year anniversary in June of 2018.

The game has a large and vibrant community spread all across the world, a community which grew exponentially when the game launched on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2017.

Whether you play as a killer or a survivor you are guaranteed minutes of laughter, anger, satisfaction and other relevant emotions, in short you will be entertained most of the time if not all. While the game can be difficult to grasp on the first encounter, watching its gameplay on YouTube and Twitch definitely helps in understanding its asymmetric mechanics. The game does require a strategic approach but that does not stop you from enjoying it especially from the availability of a wide range of playable characters to choose from.

The game comes with an inventory of 14 killers and 15 survivors as of December 2018, although one of those 15 survivors William Bill Overbeck (from the Left 4 Dead franchise) is exclusive to PC and does not appear on the console versions of the game. While most of the characters come in the base game depending on the platform and game edition you choose, some of them are associated with famous horror franchises such as Freddy Krueger and Quentin Smith from The Nightmare on Elm Street and Michael Myers along with Laurie Strode from The Halloween franchise all of which can be purchased as playable characters with the game's DLC.

Incorporating the idea of having well known fictional characters from the horror and survival genre franchises into playable in-game characters seems to have paid off for Behaviour Interactive as they have released a total of 8 characters from different franchises till date. Predictions have been flowing in from the community and it is anticipated that characters from more recent franchises such as Pennywise from It (2017) are going to be next in line to enter the game but we are not sure if Behaviour Interactive will be able to obtain license for the franchise given its ongoing lawsuit with Warner Bros. who are listed as the Stephen King's novel based franchise's latest movie distributor.

SURVIVOR

While all survivors share the same objective which is to evade the killer, complete the given task and escape, each survivor comes with 3 unique perks. Each perk empowers the survivor in a different way and different perks from different survivors can be bundled together to create a more strategic approach towards the game. Each perk has to be unlocked using bloodpoints which are gained by playing and winning ranked games. Each perk can be upgraded to a maximum of 3 tiers while each tier makes the perk more enhanced by either prolonging its duration or increasing its effectiveness. Apart from perks, numerous items, their enhancements called add-ons and certain use and throw charms known as offerings are also available to the survivor.

KILLER

Asymmetrically all killers share the same objective which is to find and kill survivors to make sure they are not successful in their attempt to escape. Killers can hinder survivor's escape progress in different ways and they too come with their own 3 unique perks. While the survivor perks lean more towards helping them escape the map, killer perks are completely opposite assisting the killer in causing disturbance and blocking survivor's escape. Killers are different from survivors with one unique mechanism, each killer has a power of their own which can be further enhanced using killer add-ons. Similar to survivors, they too have an inventory of use and throw charms known as killer offerings.

2018 YEAR REVIEW

2018 saw the release of 4 new killers, survivors and maps. While the killers and survivors can be purchased as DLCs the new maps are available for everyone. Dead By Daylight saw an increase in the number of Public Test Builds (PTB) on Steam compared to previous years.

The beginning of 2018 saw the deployment of a new ranking mechanism The Emblem System replacing Victory Cube which used to rank players according to the bloodpoints (in-game XP) earned by players in each match. With the new mechanism players are now ranked depending on their overall performance in a match independent of the amount of in-game XP they collect.

This year also saw the release of Dead By Daylight's in-game store supported by its store currency Auric Cells which allows players to purchase cosmetics for their characters. While most of the characters can be customized, characters linked to external franchises are locked in their default attire at the moment with very limited changes which can be brought through levelling up your character's tier. With the new in-game store players can unlock non-licensed DLC characters using 'Shards' (another in-game XP) which can be earned by playing ranked games making most of the characters available to people who do not wish to spend additional money on DLC characters.

Killer Cosmetics Available In The Store

Occasional events for Halloween and Winter are deployed around their respective period which brings relevant map decorations and settings along with limited period consumable items and modified user interface.

On the other side although the development team promised better tools to handle toxicity and cheaters in their 2018 year roadmap but little was done in terms of being transparent with the community for the methods adopted as the current reporting system looks the same and players have no clue to what is being done once a report has been made. The game is additionally plagued by killer bots making the game less entertaining to competitive players. Our team saw a spike in the amount of killer bots at around 17.30 GMT everyday on the PlayStation server. The game has seen its share of bugs in the past and we believe while there has been improvement over the years the issues start to peak on the release of a new DLC every time especially with the most recent Darkness Among Us Chapter in which we noticed a variety of bugs with one of the killer character called The Doctor

While the release of new characters is totally enjoyed by the community we believe balancing the game should be a priority for the team as currently the matchmaking system is not appropriate. Killers are immensely overpowered and it takes at least 3 seasoned players to cause any sort of trouble to a mid level killer. Face-camping by killers is also a persisting issue which has been raised by the community time after time but apparently this issue has not been addressed until today. At this point Behaviour Interactive needs to be transparent in the measures been taken to fight cheaters and handle toxicity reports in addition to improve matchmaking in the lower and mid levels.

THE YEARS AHEAD

2019 will bring a major change to the online multiplayer by introducing Dedicated Servers.

As of today if you are a player on Dead By Daylight and you are playing as a survivor, you will be at the mercy of the killer and their internet connection stability for the match as with the current online infrastructure it is the killer who hosts the ranked matches. With dedicated servers, all players will connect individually to a server at a data center and their own internet connection will be responsible for their connection stability of the match. This also gives the development team additional gunpowder to make further customization when it comes to punishing players who disconnect prematurely during a match. Migration to dedicated servers are supposed to be completed for all platform by Summer of 2019.

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Each game has its share of bugs, problems and cheaters but at the very core Dead By Daylight is still enjoyable on a daily basis whether you play with friends or go solo and looking at the progress of the game's health and the addition of various mechanics, features since its launch it seems Behaviour Interactive is determined to pull a Counter Strike with its flagship survival horror game.