Halloween is upon us at last, and some of us introverts might be searching for a way to celebrate the spooky season without the nightclubs or dressing up. Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight offers a clear solution to this problem.
Dead by Daylight is a four-versus-one nightmarish slasher chase game. You can either play as the killer or one of four survivors. At its most basic form, DBD is about evading the killer by both sneaking and running around a small map and getting out alive. To put simply, it’s pretty much just hide and seek but with much more gore.
It's not a game to take too seriously but it certainly is one to play in the dark.
I love to play this game in a group, mainly due to the amount of hilarity that can ensue in a Discord call, with all four of you screeching in fear whilst getting chased. It's not a game to take too seriously but it certainly is one to play in the dark. In addition, the game itself isn't too expensive, and frequently features in the copious Steam sales so it's very accessible to everyone in your group.
As for DLC, there's a lot. The most recent, and my favourite, has been the Stranger Things tie-in, bringing the Demogorgon killer, as well as Nancy and Steve as survivors.
Dead by Daylight doesn't have cutting edge graphics, incredible new mechanics or an award-winning story. It is, however, some good old fashioned co-op fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Imagine my surprise when, after finishing the wacky ride of Resident Evil 4, I come across its unlockable ‘The Mercenaries’ game mode. This thing is a real treat, and adds a hell of a lot more time to a game that was already brimming with replay value.
Unlocked after finishing the game on any difficulty, ‘The Mercenaries’ is fairly simple in its fundamental gameplay - kill as many of Resi 4’s spooky enemies as possible before a helicopter comes to collect you. This time trial style of gameplay is wildly different from the slow-paced survival horror of the main game, and one might think that Resident Evil 4’s control scheme would not suit such an energetic game mode. This is where the effort that Capcom put into the game’s combat really shines through.
The combat of Resi 4 is designed for close-calls, with quite literally every shot counting towards your survival. Risky headshots can convert into a crowd-clearing melee attack, which turns into extra score from the combo system employed by the ‘Mercenaries’ gamemode. This ultimately creates a dynamic where the player is always on a knife’s edge between a satisfying combo and certain death
I remember fondly taking turns with cousins and family friends on the Xbox 360 version, each of us staying up late into the night trying to beat each others’ scores.
Despite lacking the survival horror limitations of reduced ammo and sparse checkpoints of the main story, this game mode is excellent. I remember fondly taking turns with cousins and family friends on the Xbox 360 version, each of us staying up late into the night trying to beat each others’ scores. This turned a regrettably single-player mode into a high-stakes competitive group experience that you simply can’t put down.
This game is on every system known to man or beast these days, and is on sale so often that it’s a crime if you haven’t picked it up yet - go give it a try this Halloween!
Call of Duty Zombies: it is a game mode that encapsulates the idea of infinite possibility, where no one game you play is the same, be it because of the other players or the gameplay itself.
As a game it makes itself replayable, this ability for it to reinvent itself without even changing the arena that you play in. It was the highlight of so many people’s school years getting home switching on your Xbox or Playstation, firing up Black Ops and jumping onto a game of zombies with your friends. The game combines the tension and fear of a real tooth and nail fight for survival with a genuine fun experience of enjoying a game with friends.
The variance of each map ensured none of them grew old as you would always find a new way to progress through the rounds so the entertainment that the game provided wouldn’t cease.
The variance of each map ensured none of them grew old as you would always find a new way to progress through the rounds so the entertainment that the game provided wouldn’t cease.
It was this combination that not only made zombies so successful in the future games but also that it allows the game to remain massively replayable even nine years on from its original release. The variance of each map ensured none of them grew old as you would always find a new way to progress through the rounds so the entertainment that the game provided wouldn’t cease.
Despite the fact that the franchise is now on its fourth iteration, the Zombies game mode as a cooperative experience, is something much more than the regular matchmaking with strangers online. It stands the test of time and will remain a popular choice every time you power up your console.
