The game discussed involves graphic visuals and language
As the fog thickens and the heartbeat quickens, the video game developers at Behaviour Interactive have kept the “Dead By Daylight” experience fresh with regular updates and events. From the new years event to the anniversary event, The Devs By Daylight continue to entertain and stun players like myself. With great designs and new limited time items and mechanics, each event has me excitedly back on my PC evading killers and feeding “The entity”. The Halloween event, Haunted By Daylight, which took place from October 18th to November 6th, included all of these things and was certainly no exception.
Before I jump into the update let’s get into the basics of the game itself: Dead By Daylight is a multi-platform online multiplayer game in which a group of four survivors team up to repair generators and escape a killer. The survivors have one goal: escape. They accomplish this by fixing generators to power exit gates, distracting or avoiding the killer and saving other survivors, all while the killer works against them. In the game there are multiple survivors and killers that players can choose from. New players start the game with four survivors and killers already available to them and can unlock more as they continue playing. Each character has their own perks and abilities that provide players with a variety of tactics and skills to use in each game. In addition to this, almost every character in Dead By Daylight has cosmetic items that players can unlock and wear in the games they join. Now that we’ve got the basics down, let’s go more into depth about the update itself.
The Haunted By Daylight event entertained players by introducing a new looping mechanic into the game. In the event, survivors and killers could collect energy and transfer it to forsaken rifts which would open portals to a new realm called “The Void.” Within “The Void” there are entities called “Haunts.” Killers and survivors could sacrifice energy to these “haunts” and release them into the overworld. When a player, whether they are survivor or killer, interacts with a haunt in the overworld they are either given a boost or are hindered by it depending on whether they or the opposing side released it.
Energy can be collected in many different ways: killers collect energy by destroying pumpkins that appear on the map, damaging event generators, hooking survivors on event hooks and breaking pallets. Conversely, survivors collect energy by destroying pumpkins, repairing event generators, unhooking survivors from event hooks, and dropping pallets to stun the killer.
I had a ton of fun playing around with these mechanics and I think they made a great addition to the game. Though, part of me wishes there was a way to play this event longer, since it got me back into playing the game more regularly. I really have no criticism when it comes to the event’s mechanics, but I wish there was a little more in regards to the story of the event itself. While introducing new elements, the event did not significantly add to the narrative of the game, however when it comes down to it I’d much rather have well developed mechanics rather than a good story with sloppy design.
When it comes to visual design, the event, like most of the others, definitely surpassed the expectations that I had for it. The new lobby, cosmetics and mechanisms were extremely visually pleasing, everything from the forsaken rift designs to the little pumpkins on the maps were done well. That being said, I wish they had decorated “The Void” realm a little more to spice it up, since it was pretty barron. Overall, the ghostly design of the forsaken rifts, Haunts and the pumpkins were really cool and I definitely think the additions to the map put the cherry on top of the update. But the same can’t be said for the event’s cosmetic items.
In each Dead By Daylight event the creative team designs new character cosmetic items for players to unlock. Most of the time they are unique and leave players satisfied, but when it comes to the Haunted by Daylight event, the cosmetics left a lot to be desired. Only a few characters got cosmetic items and most of them weren’t base game characters. That means players who are just starting out or players who are struggling to level up can’t really enjoy having new cosmetics or weapons since the characters accessible to them are only base game. Another thing to note is that the amount of cosmetics themselves was also pretty underwhelming. The event’s cosmetic additions really only included new shirts for some survivors and weapons for a few killers, all of which had similar designs. As far as new items go, one positive I can take away from the update is that the devs made it easy to obtain the cosmetics that weren’t in the rift. That being said, the ones that were in the rift were definitely difficult to obtain, especially for leisurely players like myself.
Overall, the Haunted By Daylight event was really fun. Although it was lacking in a few areas, the event really succeeded in visual design and the introduction of new mechanisms. All of these aspects made playing the game during the event so much more enjoyable. The game itself is pretty mature so I’d probably give it an age rating of 15+ and I would definitely recommend it for those who like thriller, survival, and horror games. As far as the event itself, I give it a strong 8/10 since I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think they should bring back the mechanics for use in later updates.
