Looking At Dead By Daylight, 6 Years Later

I try very hard to not do things pointlessly.

I just have too much to do lately. Writing some fiction. Writing articles. Podcasting. And that’s all on top of, you know, BEING AN ADULT and having a job and a wife and things to do. My days are very full, and there is constantly one thing or another I’m “meant” to be doing, even if that’s just watching movies to meet my New Year’s Resolution.

So, as sad as this sentence is to type, I try not to do too much “just for fun”.

Which is not to say I don’t HAVE fun! I just try my best to incorporate my fun into SWO Productions one way or another. Reading new comics? Write an article on them! Watch a classic movie? Do a Patreon video on it! Start a TV show? Do an episode-by-episiode review series! It’s just my little way of trying to make sure if I’m wasting my own time, I’m at least accomplishing something with it.

The problem I ran into was video games. I enjoy video games, but other than writing about them, how do I make them purposeful? Well, I can extend SWO Productions into streaming and video content!

By far the weakest areas as a creator, I am trying to get better at such things. I’m very elementary school level at any kind of video technology competency. I figured out how to stream from my PS4 directly to Twitch, and there is no video of me or anything besides the game screen… just my talking over what I am doing. And when my stream is over, I convert the video and upload it on Youtube!

Now, are my streams and YouTubes anywhere near as successful as my writing and podcasts? They are NOT! Ha, but also… marketing isn’t my forte. You’d think I would mention on my podcast that I have these other services, but… I don’t. I’m far too into my movie discussion to remember I need to Build The Brand or whatever. I’m trying to get better at it!

Anyway, the point here is that I recently discovered the classic multiplayer cross-system game Dead By Daylight as a free download on PlayStation Plus, and while I’m typically nightmarishly bad at multiplayer games, I thought I’d give it a try.

For those somehow unaware, Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror game. I… I had no idea what “asymmetrical” meant in terms of gaming before this, so I looked it up. It means that it is 4-on-1, where the 1 is very powerful (unless it’s me, then I promise it isn’t!), and the four are more meek. The game plays as several unrelated trials where four players take the role of Survivors and one has the role of The Killer. I imagine you can guess what each side is trying too accomplish, even with those highly puzzling names.

Survivors have to do tasks so they can escape the trial. The Killer stalks them and tries to sacrifice them all to an evil god before they can.

Now, for the record? I’m definitely nightmarishly bad at Dead By Daylight. But I’m TRYING!

Dead By Daylight is a game that was initially released in 2016, and I was amazed to find that the Dead By Daylight I am playing–that EVERYONE is playing–is still that same game! They aren’t on, like, Dead By Daylight 6: Deader By Noon or whatever. Behaviour Interactive released the game and decided to monetize it with in-game purchases and subscriptions and DLC. While those kinds of services aren’t always ideal, it’s certainly better than Call Of Duty-ing this game up and forcing fans to buy a whole new game every year.

We live in an age of obsolescence. EVERYTHING is designed to be replaced. Our computers. Our phones. Our watches. Our TVs. Our game systems. The games themselves. Nothing is really meant to last more than 5 years before capitalism has decided we need to buy a new one. Why make one really great product that can last forever when you can keep selling idiots the same kinda-good thing over and over until they die?

So for me, getting a game for free that millions (?) of people still play frequently because the game is still en vogue and current is simply rad as hell. I remember the early days of COVID when PS Plus gave away Call Of Duty World War II. I got it. I played it! But it was an old Call of Duty, and once the newness of its being a PS Plus game wore off, it started becoming tougher and tougher to find new matches. And right as I was getting good! I had a shotgun that fired exploding rounds now! Come back, players-who-used-to-kick-my-ass!

Now, as far as I know, before coming to PS Plus, Dead By Daylight was still very popular! Hopefully that is the case, because I am borderline addicted, man. I love being bad at this game! And I don’t want it to become a wasteland right when/if I start being good!

And bad I am. Being a Survivor is one thing–I die a lot and generally feel like the Killer lives on top of me at all times–but being the Killer? Haha, I am EMBARRASSINGLY bad. When I’m the Killer, the map on which we play suddenly grows an 8 mile radius, and it feels like I’m wandering around forever without being able to find my prey. I’ve never once won as The Killer, and honestly? Before writing this article, I tried again and actually sacrificed two of the Survivors before the other two won! I felt like He-Man, dude. I killed TWO people. I’m pretty sure they were the first two I ever killed! I’m losing, but I’m losing 50% better!

So while I’m still growing and learning how to… less consistently suck, I guess, I’m not too big into spending the money that keeps the game afloat all these six years later. But with the rate I’m playing it? It’s almost inescapable that I will so that I can expand my joy. This game has gotten some pretty snazzy licenses for DLC ever since it came out! You can try to survive as Ash Williams or Laurie Strode! You can hunt down prey with monsters like Pinhead, Leatherface, Samara, or… um… the person in the Saw movies who wears the pig mask. Does that character have a name? Swinehead? I’mma call her Swinehead.

You can also purchase new maps to play on, and as far as I know, as long as one player has access to a DLC map, everyone in a game can use it. Again… I love that! It’s so balanced and NOT money-hungry. It’s such a great system! I hope it’s making them money; I want more games to do this. There have been SEVEN Call Of Duties released since Dead By Daylight. SEVEN! Can you imagine a world where they just said “Oh, nah, the next one is it for the next decade or so. Call Of Duty 2020’s or whatever we call it. You can buy subscriptions to get access to new outfits or download DLC that lets you Call Of Duty as, like, Brad Pitt’s character from Inglorious Basterds or something. But it’s going to be the same game itself!”. Inconceivable!

Anyway, that’s how I feel as a Johnny Come [Extremely] Lately to the game. It’s that cliche you always hear: easy to learn, hard to master. It’s a very basic game to play, as there isn’t a whole lot going on (you walk, look around, and basically use one button for any interaction), but learning the maps, figuring out what killers are best at what, and knowing when is the best time to do the several things you may need to do at any given time all take months to learn (I hope. Otherwise, I’m just progressing VERY SLOWLY).

If you have a PS Plus subscription, get on there and download this game. You’ll be better than I am in no time. If you have the game but haven’t played it in a while, get back on there and kill/tutor all of us noobs who are just getting into it because of the free download!

Until next time… take care!