In the summer of 2016, Behaviour Interactive released Dead By Daylight, a game that would become one of the most well-known in the survival-horror genre (arguably taking Evolve‘s formula to the next level). It offered a unique multiplayer gameplay paradigm at the time, and quickly gained a massive following as it added new features and horror icons like Laurie Strode and Michael Meyers to its ranks.
Four years later, Dead By Daylight celebrated its anniversary, boasting bloody balloons and confetti joined by a player-base that is stronger than ever on multiple platforms. As a game that is exclusively multiplayer, having a dedicated fandom is crucial for its success. When looking at SteamCharts, the average amount of players one year after its initial release in June 2017 was about 10,000 players. In the past 30 days, the average amount of players has grown to about 46,000. The question is: what is making Dead By Daylight stand out to have such a strong fanbase? The answer lies deeper in the gameplay and not simply the faces representing it.
When comparing Dead By Daylight to other well-known multiplayer games in survival-horror, there is a clear schism of success in its favor. The most obvious comparison would be to Gun Media’s Friday The 13th: The Game, which follows the same asymmetrical multiplayer gameplay format as Dead By Daylight. Although Friday The 13th: The Game ended up facing legal obstacles that would later hinder its success, it still never quite reached the level of success of Dead By Daylight, even during its prime. This is interesting to consider based on the fact that it seemed to follow the winning formula: Friday The 13th: The Game had fun, cooperative gameplay, was multi-platform, and featured one of the most iconic faces of horror with Jason Voorhees.
This leads to the point that Dead By Daylight’s success can’t simply be attributed to the horror conglomerate it has formed with faces like Ghostface from Scream, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers. Sure, there’s no other game you can play where you assume the role of Stranger Things’ Steve Harrington as he’s being chased by Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head. But there’s something deeper in the gameplay of Dead By Daylight that has made it so tangible for players to return to even after years of playing.
Whether or not players are aware of it, Dead By Daylight is constantly presenting micro-choices in almost every facet of the game. At the title menu, you are presented with a major choice: do you play as a survivor, or a killer? From there, the series of micro-choices begins. Who do you play as? What offering will you sacrifice? What item and add-ons will you bring into the trial? Will you select any challenges that you want to try and complete during the trials? What perks will you use? What type of play-style will you approach your next trial with?
When listed in that way, the number of choices can appear overwhelming. However, the unique thing about Dead By Daylight is that, not only are many of these choices made subconsciously, but they aren’t always necessary either. A player can be just as successful without an item or perk as another using the best items and rarest perks. From the beginning, the game can be completely tailored to the player’s level of investment and desire.
This extends into the gameplay itself in even more complex ways. Trials in Dead By Daylight can be intensely long or frustratingly short, but they are always fast-paced. As soon as the trial begins, it’s a countdown of when the last generator will be completed and who manages to stay alive. This fast-paced action leads to even more micro-choices, and these choices allow the player to craft the playstyle that works best for them.
As a survivor, you can decide whether you want to be an altruistic team-member, or abandon your team-members if they seem to be weighing you down. You can decide whether or not you want to run or hide from the killer; and if you do hide, you get to decide whether you use a locker to hide or if you try to use the map to your advantage. As a killer, you can decide whether you want to play aggressively or surreptitiously. You can hook your survivors or bait others as one is injured on the ground. You can carefully hinder objectives and place traps, or go full-on slasher and chase survivors down during the entire match.
Next time you play a match of Dead By Daylight, or you watch a stream of a trial, keep a tally of just how many micro-choices appear. Even if the objectives remain the same, Dead By Daylight is anything but linear.
As you consciously and subconsciously make your own micro-choices, every other player in the trial is doing the same, coalescing into a truly unique experience every time. This element of choice is what’s vital to the success of Dead By Daylight. It commands the attention of the player while still allowing for a true survival-horror experience, which is why the presence of so many horror icons in its roster works so well. In addition to this, a solid matchmaking and ranking system will progressively land each player in matches with allies and killers on similar skill levels.
As the horror genre continues to evolve, and the debate of whether big-name games like Resident Evil should be more reliant on action or survival, Dead By Daylight manages to fall in the middle. It also presents us with the question: is extensive player-choice the direction that survival-horror should take? Dead By Daylight’s versatility to fans of survival-horror, as well as casual and hardcore crowds, is the reason why The Entity will continue to ensnare more players for years to come.
