Hillbilly gives me nostalgia of old dbd, sadly nothing else does any more
I'm about to go on an absolute splurge of topics and how I feel about this game, being a veteran player since 2017. I really hope you guys read this through and I ask for devs to read this too, but I do not know how likely that is. I ask of you guys to read it fully, I'll try not to make it a college essay, no promises.
Modernization of Dead By Daylight-
Dbd is a game that creates nostalgia for many players, especially vet players thinking of the past and the old dbd atmosphere. For a while now the game has been heavily modernizing, what I mean by that is updating and making every mechanic newer, which is, don't get me wrong, needed to keep this game running, but every OG mechanic that gives me good memories of old dbd is getting changed. Along with modernization of this game the atmosphere is long gone, I find myself messing with my TV settings to make the game look scarier and try to create an atmosphere, I make the game harder for myself by changing lighting just because I want that old atmosphere back, but I have come to see that I cannot bring back what is already gone.
My Proposal On Dbd Modernization-
These games updates are great, I completely agree on mostly every mechanic that has been changed to be modernized and perfected, even if that required old/OG mechanics to be gotten rid of, but I do believe old mechanics should not of been completely erased. For example, the huge graphic updates for every map where completely necessary, but what's needed is to add in a little spice from old dbd to fully maximize the atmosphere. Add depth of field with the newly updated graphic maps (depth of field is when you look into the distance and see blurriness which creates a spooky effect, I'll put a video down below) and adjust the lighting and fog back to old dbd. Those small old dbd mechanics added with the new dbd graphics would be truly amazing. Another example is the prestige system. This new prestige system is needed for sure, but that does not mean getting rid of every old prestige mechanic. You may say the bloody cosmetics are the same, but they got a graphics update that made them look so much different, they have never been the same since then. Going back to my example, the new prestige mechanic is great, but there is no old mechanic that can be remembered, specifically talking about the prestige icons. The prestige icons were one of the oldest icon/graphics, whatever you want to call it in dbd. Now that icon has been replaced by numbers, no little extra dbd designer touch, just numbers and a background color. Obviously now that it goes up to 100, they can't keep the old prestige icon, but still, like i said earlier keep a little of old dbd and incorporate old dbd things with new dbd mechanics. So maybe add the old p1 p2 or p3 symbol to the right or left of the newer icons to indicate that you got this person prestiged long before the update. Myers for example was my first p3 killer a little after he came out and that was a huge accomplishment for me and looking at that prestige icon gives me good memories from the past, it gives me nostalgia, but now that icon will be removed and replaced for a new one that will have no meaning to me at all. So overall i just propose keeping some old mechanics (the smallest of mechanics like icons or animations etc.) integrated in with the newer updates and mechanics.
Where Billy Comes In-
Billy is the face of this game, I know technically trapper is, but billy is what people remember about old dbd. Many people don't know this, but Hillbilly is what carried this game for so long, he kept killers playing and survivors playing because he was so fun, and very balanced. He balanced out the game back then because he was so good against double pallet tiles, infinites etc. Everybody, and I mean everybody played him, it was just so fun on both sides. Hillbillys became pros against survivors, but survivors became pros against Hillbilly, so these counteracting forces are what brought balance to dbd, even with double pallets, infinites, 5 second heals mid chase, etc. I bring that up because Billy is now the only OG in this game, with similar game mechanics from release, besides the overheat mechanic which can be overlooked. Billy is now the only thing that I get nostalgia over, and maybe Myers, but he's in a very weak state right now. Trapper doesn't really because he's just too eh, nothing special about him. Think about it, what else is left from old dbd? Bloodweb? Maybe, but it's been changed a lot and now it has a whole different goal with new prestiging system. Gens? Nope, animation changes, they look different, sound different, there speeds are different. Hooks and hooking? No not really, animations are different, sounds are different, even the entity is different. The entity when it sacrificed you, used to be grand, it was really big and it gave off a huge pulse threw out the whole map that was super cool. Some perks are still OG, but that's getting a change soon. Animations have changed, the atmosphere and graphics have been changed, the lobby layout has been changed, almost everything has been updated and modernized, except Billy who has had the overheat addition, but that didn't change much. To me Billy is the only one that gives me nostalgia and the need to watch old dbd videos and get that blast from the past.
Overall, I love the constant updates and the new introduced mechanics, but at the same time old mechanics need not to be completely removed and it's gotten to the point where they have been. I play Billy because I love feeling what old dbd felt like and I hope dbd doesn't modernize so much that that feeling is completely gone. If you guys read this completely through, thank you so much, this post is necessary for me to let out my true thought about this game as a vet player. Thanks!