Is Dead By Daylight too complicated?
Do you think Dead By Daylight is (getting) too complicated?
Is Dead By Daylight too complicated? 54 votes
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28 votes
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Are we talking about in-game mechanics? Mmm probably not. They're quite simple to understand. The amount of perks or powers that usually come with these mechanics makes them time-consuming to understand for newer players.
As for balancing, yeah. It feels like a new issue is found every day. /s
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Yes
(Note; This is nothing against you! Your opinion is fine and dandy, I just have had this issue for a long time and this update has made me want to communicate it well. I'm just going crazy with all I've ever thought about the inconsistency in DBD.)
I would say all of it lately. When I left DBD, I had already believed for a long time that perks were far too complex and that caused a lot of unnecessary complications. With boon totems and scourge hooks, a whole new layer has been added to slop pile of perks that are less perks and more of a power.
I think simplicity was a key aspect to dead by daylight, a simple game of 1 killer versus 4 survivors, with an equally easy to understand objective for both sides. While it is somewhat simple to long-time players, it is certainly not to newcomers. Alongside the ever-growing meta, the consistency in Dead by Daylight is a HUGE issue for me lately. My main examples/issues being:
- Boon totems are a whole new type of survivor perk with new rules. I personally always felt that if a perk generated something like a new animation or new UI overlay, it was too much to be considered a perk. And with these new perks, the inconsistency across the board of all perks is even further expanded. Diversion has its own animation, For The People and a select few others have a unique sound, Boon totems have a custom UI overlay, sound, and even environmental objects (blue orbs). It's just aesthetically messy. Not to mention the whole new relationship it has on core mechanics with other existent perks/powers. It's just exponential.
- Again, we have a new perk gimmick: Scourge Hooks. While cool, it's just further complicating an already chaotic perk roster. Scourge perks seem to add a new indicator into DBD's gameplay: sparks around hooks. It's not particularly aesthetically consistent with the entity, although similar in color.
- The Artist's power: I'm not talking about the mechanics, I think each killer having unique mechanics is a fun and good variety to have. But, having giant crow heads in game is not particularly consistent with what DBD has presented before. Of course, nothing in DBD has to be realistic, but these aren't particularly supernatural or scary. They look silly.
These are my main issues from the recent update, and when you mix these with the current DBD, I certainly think that every game will look like and feel like this if you have anywhere less than 500 hours:
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Assuming you’re talking about mechanics, once you know what you’re doing not really. For newer players though it can be.
When I was new I always remember seeing buff/debuff icons in my hud from other survivors’/the killer’s perks and not knowing what those icons meant/what those perks do.
The tutorials also don’t do a good job of teaching you a lot of important things, including how to actually survive in a chase beyond throwing a pallet.
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No
Aside from certain killer powers and Boons, I think DBD is still pretty simple.
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The game is quite easy to understand and everyone can master one role or both.
I would say Dead by daylight is more frustrating than complicated.
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The game mechanics are quite simple, it's only the beginners that get quite confused by it. Perks are also pretty simple but there are some walls of texts around there
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The core gameplay loop is as simple as they come. Hold M1 on generators, hold W when the killer finds you.
The nitty gritty of the game is absurdly opaque, and is never actually explained, even with the updated tutorial. For example:
- There is an incredibly narrow window of time where if you put your flashlight in the exact right place when a killer is bending down to pick up a downed survivor, it is a 100% flashlight blind every time. If you miss that window by even a little bit, the blind fails every time. Players have no info on how to do it anywhere in-game.
- There is a "Correct" direction for killers to chase survivors around certain walls. If you go in the opposite direction, the survivor will never be caught.
- And, possibly the most egregious: when a killer kicks a generator, damaging it and making it explode, this does not actually do DAMAGE to the generator. It does start the regression, but regression happens at 1/4th the speed of a survivor working on it. Despite visual, audio, and logical indicators that kicking a generator is a useful thing to do, it is anything but.
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Yes
DBD itself is simple game - do gens/escape, hook survivors 3 times.
However the more they add to DBD the more complicated it becomes. I think if you play consistently and are involved in the community it doesn't feel like it's too complicated. If you take a break/are new or are not involved in community at all there is alot to learn.
Ridiculous amount of perks on both sides that you need to learn what they do and how to counter them if need be. How often do people complain about survivors not staying nearby after unhook because they were running We'll Make It? If you never use that perk and don't know all the perks off the top of your head you have no clue what that little icon means when you were unhooked. It's basic knowledge to the one running it, not so much to the other player.
My swf teammate has been playing this game for as long as I have, but he sucks at retaining information. If we have a hex on the screen he automatically assumes it's ruin, it's the only hex he knows well. He focuses on middle of screen so doesn't see if hex popped up said Undying, Thrill of the Hunt, or Huntress Lullaby. It has to be obvious to him in game to have any idea. For him there's just too many perks to keep track of.
The amount of status effects, what they do, the math - those add a layer of complication. Good portion of us know the math between self care, being healed by another, and time sloppy adds. Those not as into DBD just think "self care is slower than getting healed by someone else." They don't necessarily realize how much slower they are healing when Sloppy is in play, that's why you see them self caring when they shouldn't be.
Then there are the variety of killers. While some are pretty similar they all do work slightly different. Players need to know how the killer works, their counters, their teachables that you're more likely to run into, and the perks they usually run. You take long enough break to miss couple chapters that's quite a bit to catch up on when you come back, longer the break the more you need to catch up on. New players have ridiculous amount to learn.
The more that gets added to DBD the more complicated it becomes.
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While I do agree that the way Boons are presented is a bit too much added UI clutter and is a bit annoying (and that eventually the multiple Perk UI Icons will likely need to be standardized to a Generic counterpart), they are mostly just a repackaging of existing mechanics. The only new thing they add is the Killers ability to snuff a totem, and the global Aura for all Survivors, Blessing is just Cleansing but renamed.
With Scourge Hooks, it's just "go to this Hook instead", but Hooking is still the core mechanic.
And regarding Animations? No, adding in a new animation does not make something more than a Perk, it's just a finely polished Perk. It's just that animations for individual Perks is going to cause a lot of maintainability problems down the road.
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No
Gens go pop. Killer go brrrr.
That's literally the whole game. I see nothing complicated about it.
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I think the fact every new character added to the games adds 3 new perks is making it more complicated. If you have ever tried to explain to a new player what is going on, the basic premise is easy, once you add in the perks and how they modify game play it gets insane.
I would like to see different play modes, like games with no perks, or games with randomized perk picks.
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No
I don’t think it’s too complicated, assuming the question is asking if it’s “too complicated for new players”. The basics are pretty simple honestly. And it has a good ingame tutorial.
That’s not to say I think it’s easy to win as a new player, the game takes a bit to get good at on either side because it’s so different from most mulitiplayer shooters. Strategically and tactically you’re playing a very different game from, say, Overwatch or Call of Duty or whatever. The game is very skill based in that a high skill opponent will wipe the floor with a low skill opponent on both sides. So I suspect it can be tough starting out getting stomped over and over.
So the basics aren’t complicated, but there’s a pretty wide skill range.
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Other, or in between
I think the perks and killer powers are getting too fussy, but the core gameplay loop is probably still too simple and repetitive. The new content doesn't really revitalize the game -- it just adds increasingly complicated particulars to an experience that stays mostly the same.
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