Lights Out game mode - my feedback
As someone who had asked for new game modes and asked for DbD to go back to its darker atmosphere and horror aspects I guess I should share my feedback on this implementation and try to be more detailed than usual. It’s mainly meant as my personal feedback for the devs and not necessarily up for discussion, even if I may write as such I don’t mean anything here as some universal truth or anyone must agree with.
first of all: I love a new separate game mode available next to the core one! You can switch between them and play what you currently prefer even if the event is not for you. I wasn’t sure if I liked this with a game mode where the core aspects are still the same as the original mode but yeah, it’s well implemented. Minus the fact it introduced another button click in the main menu to start the game - we need less, not more. It’s also great for it to be time-limited (and hopefully reappearing with adjustments?) as the mode in itself can’t stand on its own.
the game mode in itself i personally like, as I do think that the original game got too bright and lost the eery feeling. I don’t think this much darkness should be how the core game mode looks at all though something in between would be cool. I also think chases are kinda more fun in the dark - terror radius, memorized map layout, aura readings etc made chases kinda unfun and same-y.
the fact it’s vanilla - no perks and addons - is something I surprisingly found super refreshing. I think (meta) perks can be very annoying in casual matches especially if the opponent side is trying very hard to win at all costs or as survivor your teammates are intentionally or unintentionally helping the killer.
something I very much dislike is camping, tunneling and slugging for the 4K, as well as genrush, which all happen more often in this game mode (for me). I guess this is also showing how meta perks -while annoying- are also kinda required to have a match that doesn’t feel too rushed/sweaty. I haven’t experienced too much hiding as in holding the game hostage or getting zero chases and hurt rushing gens which also kinda surprised me? But I guess this still happens and I just got lucky.
some killer powers got obviously boring in this mode as they are redundant and everyone became stealthy. Some killers just need to have some sort of hint they are nearby (insta down killers first of all).
for solo survivors, it also feels kinda weird to lose action huds from other survs. SWF are still available in this mode and I feel like this should have stayed as SWF have free access to it. As to other hud elements, such as progress bars, I think it thematically fits to have them not visible!
i am looking forward to new game modes and hope the feedback influences core changes as well as just new refreshing modes even when timed. But please also reoccurring, nothing worse than actual game modes that are only available for a short period of time that are super fun and never see the light of day again.