Dead By Daylight is an asymmetric multiplayer horror game in which a killer stalks four other players, using the killer’s power, speed and knowledge of the environment to it’s advantage in gameplay that’s designed to bring out the best and the worst of human nature.
The player who controls the killer views everything from a first person perspective, while the survivors view everything from a third person perspective – this allows the killer to be fully focused on their objective, while allowing the survivors to see a little more of their surroundings. Each time a game starts the level is procedurally generated and a killer is chosen from a selection of possible characters, each with their own unique attributes. This means the survivors are immediately on the back foot as they don’t know the level and they don’t know what type of killer they’re dealing with – it’s no use hiding in a house if the killer has the ability to walk through walls!
The survivors objective is to escape the map in one piece, which is done by repairing generators and opening the door to the exit. The survivors must use the environment to their advantage, hiding behind objects or crouching in long grass (an area where the 3rd person camera comes in handy – just because you can see the killer, doesn’t mean the killer can see you). You can also earn points by completing certain objectives or saving other character, which you can use to upgrade equipment and increase your chances of survival.
The killer is outnumbered, but they do have some nifty tricks up their sleeves, such as the ability to ‘see’ noises, move slightly faster and set traps, as well as using their character specific traits such as invisibility or walking through walls. It’s a clever system that allows the killer to actually toy with their victim once they’ve isolated them from the rest, much like a killer in a movie. If the killer catches a survivor they can either kill them straight away or leave them alive and hang them up in a meat hook, as a trap for other players. This plays into the human nature aspect of the game – would you rescue your companion or would you leave them and save your own skin? It’s an enticing experience, that promises plenty as tension, heart-pounding terror and no safe place for survivors.
Important Note: Fittingly for a horror game set at night, you can only sign up for the Dead By Daylight Beta at night time, between 6 at night and 6 in the morning in your region – the beta sign up page will display a fake DNS error screen any other time! Once you sign up, you’ll be given a link to share with your friends (like this one here)- you need to get three friends to click on it and ‘save you’ within 30 minutes to grant you access to the Beta.
Important Note 2: Due to the Beta’s popular demand, the site is experiencing some temporary downtime – if you get a flickery DNS error page with the Dead by Daylight logo on it that’s just the fake error page that displays because it’s not past 6pm yet in your time zone. But if you get a 552 CloudFlare error, then that’s a real error, just keep reloading until the page loads.
Sign Up for the Dead By Daylight Beta Here (6pm to 6am in your region)