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Is Dead By Daylight scary?

D34D_B34TB0X
D34D_B34TB0X Member Posts: 427


Is Dead By Daylight scary? 77 votes

Yes
10%
SlothGirlyKnightFall28901VenusaNathan13Trickstaaaaa[Deleted User]Bennett_They1ThemDRSPHILA 8 votes
No
62%
GibberishAcromiokaeruDimekMrPenguinFreddoElusivePukkaoxygenCornpopers_Evan[Deleted User]bjorksnas[Deleted User]landromatSlamitieDarkMagikSquirrel_ThiccChurchofPigJay_WhyaskdugmanKayTwoAyy 48 votes
Potato
27%
Slaughterhouse3TapeKnotSblitchermaaadinsomniacBlazelski[Deleted User]discopumpkin200GeneralVIcewhisperRobotfangirl67Hippiebm33SOMENINJANAMEPSPGazgemauchslendermansmoomJustWhimsicalMrCalac123UssuSwiftWarriorCar 21 votes

Comments

  • kaeru
    kaeru Member Posts: 1,568
    No

    It can scare you from time to time but not with atmosphere.

    Most of the time you can be jumpscared by beartrap, hag's trap or some killer without terror radius.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,966
    No

    Commenting because this poll lacks nuance- the answer is "no and that's not a problem", it's not a horror game and has no responsibility or expectation to be scary.

  • NoOneKnowsNova
    NoOneKnowsNova Member Posts: 2,785
    No

    In very specific instances it can cause you to jump, but laughing follows rather than being scared.

  • glitchboi
    glitchboi Member Posts: 6,023
    No

    It has its moments, but they're more startling than scary. To be honest though, it's way too late for it to become scary, which is completely fine by me.

  • TapeKnot
    TapeKnot Member Posts: 248
    Potato

    Occasionally.

  • Aurelle
    Aurelle Member Posts: 3,611
    No

    I found it scary when I first started playing, but it wore off after a while. There are a few scary moments that can happen, but that's about it.

  • ElusivePukka
    ElusivePukka Member Posts: 1,599
    No

    They took out Heart Attack Spirit, which is the only scary thing that's been in this game.

    They eliminated the chance for scares a long time ago when they chose to perpetuate an m1/ W/tunnel meta in lieu of fixing atmosphere elements, and the recent dev commentary of 'we don't want killers to be able to surprise survivors' kinda clinches that they've pivoted against any pretense of scares.

  • slendermansmoom
    slendermansmoom Member Posts: 544
    Potato

    never unless it's a scratched mirror myers on lerys or a ghostface with stealth level 100

  • Yes

    It is to begin with, because it's unfamiliar and spooky.


    After a few dozen hours or so, it becomes more about optimising your gameplay.


    The story is always chilling though.

  • Trickstaaaaa
    Trickstaaaaa Member Posts: 1,277
    edited October 2021
    Yes

    Without spine chill the game can be scary.

  • DarkMagik
    DarkMagik Member Posts: 822
    No

    I wish they did something to the Lighting to make actually scary or Survivor P.O.V

  • JustWhimsical
    JustWhimsical Member Posts: 590
    Potato

    When you first start out.

  • Seiko300
    Seiko300 Member Posts: 1,862
    edited October 2021

    The game is horror and it's a ludicrously foolish idea drummed up by certain members in the community that Dead By Daylight somehow isn't a horror game.

    There is nothing NOT horror about being chased by a serial killer. There is nothing not horror about being placed in a powerless position where you must run for your life, or die. There is nothing not horror about the inclusion of prominent villains from well established films and franchises within the horror genre like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, and more. There is nothing not horror about having a hook thrust through your shoulder as you are left to hang to be sacrificed to an ancient Godlike being that is the source of evil. There is nothing not horror about the lovecraftian entity: a primordial interdimensional being which preys on the hopes, fears, and powerful emotions of entire worlds plunging them into madness, chaos, and anarchy.

    It is undeniable that Dead By Daylight is a horror game. There is zero reason to see it as anything else, and the arguments for why it might not be horror are entirely frail and anecdotal at best.


    Now is Dead By Daylight a scary horror game? Did you ever even stop to consider that not everything that is horror is scary? That the horror genre is not always exclusively synonymous with the word "scary"?

    To be fair what is and what is not scary is entirely subjective in the first place. I myself am absolutely terrified of snakes- I cannot stand them, regardless of shape, size, color, all snakes are scary to me- and even if I see the tiniest of garden snakes slithering through the grass I will bolt in the opposite direction. In the few instances where I've approached snakes: I tense up, my hands shake, my heart races, my breathing quickens, and I am entirely on edge and most definitely uncomfortable. Even watching snakes in nature documentaries or on youtube makes me uneasy.

    That being said, I recognize that some people like and even adore snakes- they keep them as pets and close companions. I even have friends that own snakes, although I've never set foot in the house of anybody that owns a snake, friend or otherwise.


    Dead By Daylight is no less the same way, and I understand people who aren't scared of Dead by Daylight- I myself am not particularly afraid either. Although I remember fondly of a time of when I was scared of the game. I remember scariest match I ever played was the very first match I played against Michael Myers- who was the first killer with a reduced terror radius and could just run up to you and slash at you with a kitchen knife without a word or warning.

    But it's important to remember that after hundreds much less thousands of hours of anything- obviously you're not going to be scared anymore. Veterans of the game are more interested in the strategy and the mechanics of the game than we are in being scared all the time. That's fine well and good, but equally that doesn't make it any less outrageous to say that those horror elements flat out don't exist. You tell me the next time you've got somebody two feet taller than you chasing you in the isolated night with a machete or an axe that you aren't scared.

  • Quentiplex
    Quentiplex Member Posts: 22
    No

    It was at first, like what everyone else is saying... but at this point it's more jump-scary than actually being scary.

  • Yords
    Yords Member Posts: 5,781

    For a little bit, maybe 100-300 hours of playing it. Then it starts to become less and less scary.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,966
    No

    Hi there! Weird wordwall to make at me because it seems like you've got the spirit and are just confused on a few specific words being used, but I'll clarify all the same: Dead By Daylight is a game that utilises the horror genre's aesthetics and atmosphere, but it is not a horror game in the sense of being a game with mechanics designed to scare the player. Amnesia is a horror game, Alien Isolation is a horror game, and Dead By Daylight is a cat-and-mouse asymmetric game that uses horror aesthetics.

    There is no responsibility for DBD to be scary, because it's not a horror game. It's the difference between watching A Nightmare On Elm Street, and seeing someone dressed as Freddy Krueger for a costume party.

    Hope that clears up your confusion and prevents further wordwalls on unsuspecting posters!

  • Seiko300
    Seiko300 Member Posts: 1,862
    edited October 2021

    I generally just type wordwalls. That's not specific to you, so I apologize if I appeared to come at you aggressive out of the blue (although what may explain this is that I'm tired of this idea roaming around the playerbase- I don't take stock in it myself).

    The idea you propose is not a novel one, and I assert that this is a distinction without a difference. A game which employs the aesthetics and atmosphere of the horror genre is as much a horror game as a game which intentionally attempts to scare its audience. Though I don't necessarily need to prove this idea however, since I would argue that Dead by Daylight does make sincere attempts to intentionally scare its audience which is what defines it as a horror game. Using the example you provided, Alien: Isolation shares many of its foundational principles that make up its core gameplay, mechanics, and general concept, with Dead by Daylight.

    See if this sounds familiar:

    • You play as a young, clever, and plucky survivor stuck in an isolated and unfamiliar place with a single, deadly killer. To escape, you must use your knowledge of engineering to repair various mechanical instruments to fix your abandoned and neglected surroundings, as you slowly uncover the story behind the circumstances of your entrapment, all the while evading the relentless pursuit of an overpowering monster that uses superior speed, strength, and its own malicious cunning to hunt you down. With few options to defend yourself, your primary methods to accomplish your goals and survive are to run and hide using lockers and other scattered objects to conceal your presence. With the help of some strangers and a few friends, you're able to fend off the violent assault long enough to survive, only to discover that danger still lurks around the next corner.

    And though I don't particularly find this to be the end all be all of discussion, it is worth noting in order supplement my point that Dead by Daylight by all accounts is categorized as a Horror Title. Horror is first the top user defined tag on Steam followed by Survival Horror as a close second, according to wikipedia it is a Horror game, according to a basic google search- it is a horror game. IGN, Gamespot, Polygon, and so on, all refer to Dead by Daylight as a Horror Game. According to PC Gamer: "Dead By Daylight remains a horror game and there is still a paranoid thrill to skulking around the marshlands and repairing generators, but the more you learn its systems, the less scary it gets."

    I am not new to this conversation, and I find most of the arguments that Dead By Daylight isn't a horror game entirely laughable. Although I do like the points you bring up and the analogy you make, I find the overall case itself none the more compelling.

    Post edited by Seiko300 on
  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,966
    No

    Fair do's, I get wordy too sometimes.

    Regardless: I'm not buying that. If we're taking the term "horror game" seriously enough to suggest that DBD is lacking in elements of that genre, then we need to understand what a horror game is beyond simply having spooky elements. Fallout 4 has spooky elements but calling it a horror game would be laughable, and it's the exact same way (albeit to a lesser degree) with Dead By Daylight.

    There are two outcomes here: The term "horror game" is so broad that it's meaningless, or it's a term that has mechanical weight more than it has aesthetic weight. If it's the former- sure, DBD is a horror game, but everyone saying it should be scarier/should go back to being scary are still wrong. If it's the latter, then there's no way that DBD counts. It's an action cat-and-mouse game with the occasional (often accidental) jumpscare- if it ever counted, it definitely doesn't now.

    (I don't much care what articles talking about a game say about its genre, by the way, I've seen far too many refer to Borderlands as "post-apocalyptic" for that.)

    Honestly- if you are of the opinion that any game which uses horror iconography is a horror game, I'm totally willing to let that be the end of the conversation. No sense arguing over a simple difference in definition, after all.

  • Seiko300
    Seiko300 Member Posts: 1,862
    edited October 2021

    First off, I think you can be broad and still retain meaning. I hardly think you yourself would consider games like Stardew Valley, Cuphead, or Civ. 6 as horror games would you?

    Secondly, I'd very much like to hear what it is that Dead by Daylight is mechanically "lacking" that doesn't make it a horror game. Since we've already covered that Dead By Daylight does indeed fulfill your aesthetic requirement. As you yourself put it, it is: "a game that utilises the horror genre's aesthetics and atmosphere" so we've already established that Dead by Daylight generates a mood indicative of the horror genre. It surrounds itself in a thick air of familiar horror tropes and features of horror storytelling. The design of characters and environments is undoubtedly grim and grotesque, blood is splattered across the walls and floors of many maps, bodies can be found, and the mutilated corpses of pigs and cattle can be seen on horrid display.

    In fact I would argue that the dark and foreboding tone of horror that is so intrinsic to dead by daylight is an essential and critical aspect of nearly all horror media, from film and TV to video games. Can you provide me examples of anything in the horror genre that doesn't have these qualities? Though to what level and degree they can be found might be left for debate and speculation, they don't all have to be so intense, I don't doubt that they do exist in almost all forms of horror- a commonality that pervades and unites the entire genre.

    So what perhaps, pray tell, could be so fundamentally lacking on Dead by Daylight's part- as to overlook the entirety of Dead by Daylight's utter climate, and the spirit of the game itself?

    I would argue Dead by Daylight's core Cat and Mouse gameplay loop is indeed a staple of the horror genre. In games like Alien: Isolation, Outlast, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, all feature overpowering antagonists who cannot be stopped, and an average but otherwise resourceful protagonist whose survival is dependent almost entirely on their wits.

    This is certainly true of the famous slasher films that Dead by Daylight largely takes inspiration from. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, all of these feature characters who are forced into supernatural situations where their only choice for most of the film is to run and hide while accomplishing small tasks such as the retrieval of an item or the discovery of some information that is key to their escape. It isn't until the climax of those films that the characters discover a way to fight back, such as pulling Freddy from his all powerful state in the dream world and into the real world where he can be injured and killed (for a time).


    And though Jump Scares are often seen as cheap nowadays, it's important to note their history and relevance within the horror genre. It's intended to scare an audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in events, usually occurring with a loud, startling, and frightening sound. And has even been described as "one of the most basic building blocks of horror" which is fitting given that it's usage has been seen since the 60s with the release of Hitchock's Psycho which holds in it the infamous shower kill seen.

    It is by no means accidental that the jumpscare is included in Dead by Daylight: whether that's the sudden arrival of a Michael Myers just around the corner or a Ghostface stabbing you in the back, the unexpected appearance of a Hag erupting from the muddy ground beneath you, or the unanticipated emergence of a Hatchet flying through the air from between stalks of corn which lands squarely between your shoulders. The Jump Scare is very much intentionally used for a very obvious and purposeful aim in mind.


    As well, regardless of your opinion on the articles themselves it serves to prove a point: the opinion is a widespread belief amongst the greater gaming community and beyond (a population much greater than the Dead by Daylight playerbase alone). And though you might dislike the articles, I assume you've got no problem with the user defined tags on steam, or the other basic results one can easily find on wikipedia or google, seeing meet them with any criticism or indeed mention them at all.

    If I used any platforms other than steam, such as the Windows Store, Google Stadia, hell even mobile on IOS/Android- I would have no doubt that I would be able to find the same information as well.


    It seems to me that you've got an uphill battle to prove your point. Within each of my three posts thus far I believe I've contributed different and valuable insights for why Dead by Daylight would be considered a horror game. The content in your posts so far have been very sparse and vague.

  • sneke
    sneke Member Posts: 1
    edited October 2021
    No

    First 20 hours when I only played survivor; had a 80% fail-rate on skillchecks, constantly hearing the heartbeats with my sweaty palms shaking. 300 hours in, and I'm finally cool as a cucumber (except when facing hag)

  • Nathan13
    Nathan13 Member Posts: 6,721
    Yes

    I'd say it's a little scary when I'm playing against stealth killers.

  • teasalt
    teasalt Member Posts: 5
    No

    Overall dbd is not scary. But there are moments making you scream and the tension when you and your survivor mates don’t know what killer you are going against can make dbd temporary scary. Best killers for jumpscares are hag and meyers (especially with his friggin mirror).