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The game isn't scary at all.
Note: I'm not here just for a discussion, but I also want to suggest some things, which I admit, will take some precious time and resources to implement, and will also change the game very drastically, you could call it a different game if you will, so I'm not writing this with the expectations that they'll actually do something about it, I just want to send the right message, which is: For a game that calls itself a horror one, it's just not scary at all.
This is just my opinion, but after 5-10 matches when you first start playing the game, it just turns into a glorified hide and seek with objectives for the survivor team and a scary guy running around trying to catch you, the same scary guy that also doesn't become so scary anymore after a few matches against him, and I get it, just like a horror movie, the more you watch it, or play it in this case, the less creepy it becomes every time you do it, but it doesn't have to be like this.
Now, I'm not here to complain without giving some suggestions too, but keep in mind that these suggestions are very unlikely to be taken in consideration since it basically changes the whole game, and from the point of view of BHVR, this will cost a lot of time and resources, not as much as getting another licensed character for example, and they might not even share my excitement for these changes at all, not alone want to sink the resources in them, but I believe the ideas behind them should be taken in consideration. This is basically my view of the "perfect" dead by daylight experience and I don't expect anything more than some opinions from other users.
To make a so called horror game feel more like an actually horror game, immersion is everything, without it the game will be so arcade-like that the players would actually try to develop gameplay strategies that wouldn't make sense in an actual horror setting, like getting in the killers face to body block a hook or to protect a survivor while they reach the exit gates, but oh wait, that's already happening.
First of all reworking the map tone will be a great start, improve the fog and make it denser, change the lighting, lessen the visibility maybe, and change the overall atmosphere, force the survivors to rely more on the terror radius than on seeing the killer from 80 meters away, what I have in mind it's something very similar to the opening cinematic when booting up the game. That's why Ghostface and Myers are considered the scariest to face against, while they may not be the most powerful, you will never have a good idea where they're coming from, are they watching you right now or on the other side of the map? You'll never know, and that paranoia is enough for someone to look around mindlessly for a killer that might not even be there, not just run away from a generator once they hear the heartbeat, and come again 20 seconds later once it quietens down.
Another good start might be to limit the knowledge that the survivors have, instead of seeing them all at the campfire and seeing who they are or what items they bring (the killers can still see the survivors and what they bring) it would be cool and immersive to have a surprise every time you get in a trial, and you'll only get that information on your HUD only when you meet up with them, before that all of your teammates are anonymous, limiting the aura reading capabilities of survivors will also be a good idea for this change.
The survivors also shouldn't know each other's health states until they actually meet up and see what their condition is, not telepathically knowing already, for example you see your friend get injured? You will have that information for the rest of the game or until you meet up with them and see what condition they're in, because you might go around looking for a medkit to help them, but when you come back they may already be dead, you will never know for sure unless you see them again, or even better, you may not even see one of your survivor teammates for the whole game, until you find their lifeless body sitting in a puddle of blood. Something like this can be used for the killer as well, if survivors don't have access to that precious information, maybe the killer shouldn't know either if a survivor is healed up or still injured/dying on the ground.
This will also help with the repetitiveness of the game, every match feels the same, spawn in, get on a gen, heal a teammate because you magically know they need help, maybe get hooked and escape or die, which depends entirely on the killer. Every killer should be terrifying and instead of changing a bunch of stats, I feel like immersion might be the key to the balancing of each character, This sort of unpredictability that I mentioned before will help a lot with the immersion too, and hopefully will terrify the survivors from going right in front of the killer to body block a hook as I said before, no one in their right mind would do that if it was real life, you would look more after yourself than the other guy.
Now I'm sure I'm asking for too much, I'm asking for huge changes actually, but if the devs actually want to make the game more scary and immersive, the suggestions above will be a great start, but that is debatable of course, someone might have better feedback than mine which may or may not be easier to implement in the game.
Here's another idea from another commenter: Let's make this it's entire game mode, separated from the trials game mode that the entity "hosts", just let the killers go wild and kill everything that moves, no hooks or anything like that, I'm thinking something in the likes of Friday the 13th the game, but with larger maps and no generators especially dedicated to that game mode alone, that way the players that prefer the original are happy and the game will deserve it's "horror" title as well, to be honest if you remove the killers who are basically the only scary part about the gameplay, it's not a horror game anymore.
Conclusion: Immersion and realism is everything in a horror game, are you going to follow a serial killer with a flashlight and 360 them until they lose sight of you like some Looney Toons cartoon or are the survivors scared to even get a glimpse of the killer from behind the trees?
Some problems with these suggestions:
- Separating the community into two parts, the one that prefer the original mode and the one that prefer the new game mode more will lead to longer queue times, especially if the number is imbalanced and 75% like the original more as an example, while the rest may like the other game mode more, the original game mode will still get slower queue times while the other part of the game will barely get matches at all, but I guess that problem already exists with the killer and the survivors mains.
- Not being able to see the health states of the survivors will be crippling for solo queue players, while overpowered for SWF players if the killer cannot see them either, an idea would be to disable SWF for this game mode, which would also make it even more scarier but I don't think the community would appreciate that.
- The amount of time and resources required for something like this to happen will lower the chances of it actually happening, but instead of it's entire game mode they could still keep some of the ideas like the HUD not updating by magic, and tweak them a bit to keep the original idea for the trials there.
So what would you prefer? A game that actually feels like the opening cinematic when you first boot up the game, a killer that has the advantage, overpowering the survivors and is actually scary? Or do you prefer the current state of the game where 4 megs are butt dancing the killer every chance they get?
If you have your own ideas or improvements for my current suggestions please leave them in the comment section, like I said I expect nothing other than the opinions of others.
Edit: I edited a lot of the thread, but the same idea is still there
Comments
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I really like your idea of not knowing what state the other players are in until you physically see them and I agree that it would make the game feel a lot more immersive and interesting, but people will still be playing with voice chat and the discrepancy between those players and solo queue players will be even bigger.
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I love the game how it is. But for a new mode, I'd like it.
Having the choice between the current gameplay and what you suggest would be better in my opinion than replacing the actual mode we have. We could choose what mode to play.
Instead of hooks, the Killer could kill you instantly. You are harder to find, it seems fair to me. As a Survivor main, I would love the "stress" of being found from this mode.
Also, being hooked when you're solo, if no one knows, it's pretty much over. That's why I think "be killed instantly" could be a better option. Discovering your teammates are all dead... Creepy!
But for the idea of not knowing who's in the lobby... It has its place into the actual gameplay. I like the idea, but as a solo Survivor, I prefer to avoid key users. Last time I had one, it was a 3 man squad who escaped when they knew I was keeping the Killer busy. You guess the end of the story.
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I was waiting for someone to say this so that I can address it, but all I can say is that any game that's not mean to be played with a 3rd party voice chatting software will be ruined if it's played like that, there's nothing anyone could do about it, it's in the hands of the player, do they want to have a scary and horror experience or do they want to win? Maybe make it a separate game mode and disable SWF? Well that's a bit too much to ask, but I think I already asked too much in this whole thread so why not put this here.
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Devs promoted their discord server several times where people get offered in many languages some channels for people to look for a swf group and voice chat. For me they kinda mean to have a voice chat in the game but not really implement it as feature to avoid weird aspects.
Also if killers could decide if going or not agaisnt swf literally everyone would not be able to play with friends since all killers would disable versing swf groups and completely ruin matchmaking for both sides.
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If you paid attention to the game you would know the devs aren't interested in making this into the game you're proposing. Look at the Trickster. Look at all the silly cosmetics. Look at all the aura reading perks. Look at the recent UI changes giving survivors MORE information, not less.
You're basically asking for an entirely different game. The only way some of these changes MIGHT happen is in Dead by Daylight 2.
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A new game mode it's what I had in mind too, that way the devs will keep the players that prefer the original happy and it would also make the game less stale as it is now, like I said it's very repetitive in it's current state
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To be fair I did say that what I'm about to say will change the game drastically, and that the suggestions are very "heavy", but, like another commenter said, this could be it's entire game mode, not necessarily Dead by Daylight 2. Also that thing about the trickster, even though I agree with you he doesn't look that scary, imagine how creepy he would be with a dense fog around the map, not knowing whether you're the last survivor alive, and all the other stuff I mentioned above, at that point anyone can be scary.
Although I have nothing to comment at the cosmetics, I agree with you they're pretty dumb and obviously made for monetary purposes.
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Yeah my suggestions are very flawed at the moment, but what's important is the idea behind them, I agree with you though that being able to turn of SWF will be broken, but what I really meant it's that the "immersive" game mode will be it's own separate thing, with no SWF like the original game mode
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I feel like this might be fun for a game or two, but after a while it wouldn't be scary either. And it'd stop being fun. It'd be a neat experience. Maybe for an event or something.
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your right this game not scary like it should be fine idea but wont work with swf also killer not see the items used he may not have the right add on or perk and it would hurt the killer more then help.
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I was thinking that not seeing the items was only a thing for the survivors, the killer should still see who they're playing against and what they bring
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Unfortunately, a lot of these ideas are just hard nerfs towards solo players which in my opinion is the most frustrating game mode, you're already relying on other survivors to do gens/totems/saves etc, how will you know to save someone if you don't know their health state, I would assume this means hooked too because if they're hooked they're injured, you'd always have to assume someone is hooked and look for them, you'll always have to assume someone is slugged somewhere, I really don't think trying to make a game people spend 100's of hours in literally horror is going to work.
The game has a horror theme, murderers etc, not everything horror themed has to be "scary", Halloween is horror themed but isn't always about being scary.
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You do have a point, but survivors not being able to 360 and follow serial killers around would be a great start, what I'm aiming at is realism and immersion, not necessarily my suggestions alone, that was the point of this thread
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Let me ask you this: is your favourite horror movie still scary after you've watched it dozens of times? To the point where you know every single jumpscare and line of dialogue by heart?
Of course not. You'd be desensitised to it to the point where it's no longer scary, and the same applies to video games.
I thought Resident Evil 7 was horrifying when I first played through it, but now I can beat it in sub three hours, barely paying attention.
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sorry misread that but still with swf it may not work maybe hurt solo then.
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I guess you're right, doesn't matter how scary something is, if you know what's going to happen, that fear of the unknown just disappears, a good solution to this might be just RNG, plus there's a lot of killers in DBD, all of them have various playstyles depending on perks, so it's not as linear as a scripted video game like resident evil, which means it would be a long time before someone gets used to it, and like I said in a previous comment, what I'm trying to suggest is more immersion and realism, not necessarily my ideas that I mentioned in the thread
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@Superyoshiegg RE7 was a really good game. First time I played through it, Jack scared me shitless a few times. After my 2nd and 3rd playthrough, I was like, "eh."
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@Superyoshiegg RE7 was a really good game. First time I played through it, Jack scared me shitless a few times. After my 2nd and 3rd playthrough, I was like, "eh."
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I know other people have brought it up but the sheer amount of solo nerfs here makes it all a hard no from me. A video game is that first and foremost-a game- and games should be fun.
If you want an immersive horror experience, a single player game is much better suited to your needs, or maybe even Phasmophobia idk never played it. However due to the actual core gameplay loop of dbd, these changes would put the final nail in the coffin for solo survivor and solidify it as the worst experience in DBD.
You did say these changes would change the game but then it wouldn't be Dead By Daylight anymore. It'd be something completely different.
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Phasmophobia is not really my taste, the graphics are a huge part in a horror game for me, not to mention the wacky cartoonish like animations. I just wish the game would focus more on the horror element and not the competitive element, which also makes this community 5x saltier and more toxic than anything I've ever seen before, and while my ideas are flawed you can't deny that a horror game should keep it's name as a horror game, and not a competitive hide & seek
A good example would be Friday The 13th, when you're up against Jason it's very scary and suspenseful, and you hope that he won't find you eventually, now imagine that with all of DBD's killer, where half the roster is scarier than Jason in a scene that focuses more on the horror than the gameplay mechanics, it would honestly be terrifying. It's a shame really that the game doesn't receive updates anymore because of complicated licensing stuff, it really needs a good makeover and some gameplay changes too
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Sounds cool for a separate event mode, but after enough exposure to the game, fear is the farthest thing on your mind. DbD is a better horror-themed game than an outright horror, and it would be better off leaning to the camp side of horror. The game is basically the Smash Bros. of horror icons, and it does better off as that than trying to be Silent Hill Online or Hereditary PvP.
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An event is a good idea, if the community likes it they could keep it as it's own game mode, or maybe release the event once a few months to not lose it's "scariness"
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If they can get the ambiance to be as immersive as Phasmophobia, then I'd be properly creeped out haha.
But if you played with me, you'd know I play this game scared, in the jumpscare and chase kinda way lol.
But I agree that BHVR wouldn't go in this direction, based on what current content is like. Unfortunately. Could've been great.
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Everything you said is perfect in my mind, I want the game to feel scary again
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