Nic-Cage having voicelines makes something clear
DBD is moving away from horror and more into something action-based with horror elements.
I personally feel the last four chapters didn't really have a horror feel to them at all, sure there are some grotesque elements and gore as usual, but nothing really scary or unsettling. I'm not saying the art of these chapters was poor, far from it, their aesthetics and sound design are excellent.
But the game now feels like four heroes working together to take down a bully and escape rather than four victims attempting to survive being hunted by a force of evil.
Wesker was the start of this shift and I believe that voicelines are where the death of immersion starts and that once you open that door you can't close it. And now with Nicholas taunting killers mid-chase, I feel like any horror immersion is now officially gone.
Combine this with gameplay elements favoring interaction over evasion and new content being designed with competitive gameplay in mind and it makes me think the shift is intentional as it broadens the amount of content that can be brought to the game.
Example being something like Terminator would fit right in with the current roster while being a choice that wouldn't have made a lot of sense in the early years of the game.
Do I think its a bad thing? Not at all, but it is different and I definitely think going forward the devs should be careful of the "coolness" factor. Too much becomes tacky and cheesy really fast.
Closing note is that I believe the Dredge is the perfect killer, every aspect of their design is beautifully horrific. I still get chills hearing the screaming and crying during Nightfall and the amount of chaos their power causes is how I feel like DBD should be if it wanted to be true to its horror roots.
What's the consensus on this? How do you guys feel about DBD's current thematic direction?
Comments
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Don’t forget the HUD removing any kind of surprise or uneasiness.
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I personally don't think voice lines on surivors remove the horror aspect if anything it makes the match more immersive if done right
Hearing nick sometimes go ######### when hit is kinda nice because we're thinking the same thing
And smooth killers still have a pretty good aspect of irrieness to them
Wesker and skull merchant are really the 2 that arent scary in terms of irriness
Post edited by Rizzo on6 -
Please explore more facets of the horror genre and take notice of all the ways the genre is represented.
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What? Singularity isn't horror? Knight's pretty frightening when a guard pops in on a survivor. Wesker is literally from Resident Evil. I'm not tracking the last four chapters thing.
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There's all different kinds of horror. If you're only sticking to grotesque horror then you're missing out.
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It lost the horror vibe when they started putting in non scary killers like for example the trickster, artist, skull merchant and giving survivors stupid shirtless cosmetics
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"non-scary"? Trickster is the actual killer, his terror music composed from his victim screams. Of course you can say he's not scary because of his really bright look, but it's probably made for balance purposes, since he's ranged. Huntress is pretty bright killer as well.
Artist it's really subjective, first time i hear someone saying she's not scary.
Skull merchant? kinda yeah, this is worst killer design in the game, but she still creep out since her drone ability removes terror.
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Tricksters lore is very good. Some of the best in the game. But he doesnt look intimidating. Artist looks hot. Thats it. She doesnt look intimidating either. And skull merchant just looks stupid.
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Artist looks hot
🤨
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Even tho i dont find her scary at all, i can not deny that she looks attractive lmao
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Digging the Goth Chick vibes eh? I gettit xD
I dunno, she kinda has that Melina thing from MK going. Mostly normal looking with a couple of predominant features that are pretty freaky, namely the dripping ink from her mouth/hands/feet and her voidlike eyes.
There is that skin that has the Cronenberg-esk mouth, removing her lower jaw and having teeth going all down into her neck... that looks absolutely badass...
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Trickster not looking scary is kinda the point of his character.
He's not suppose to look scary because his horror stems from him being normal on the outside but twisted and fcked up on the inside, when he drops the facade of normality and start showing his true colors.
He's basically the Terry Simmons/Norman Bates/Patrick Bateman of Dead by Daylight.
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I really dislike the trend to add voice lines to characters, as I find them to often be annoying if not cringe-worthy. Pinhead's are fine in my opinion, but I really dislike Wesker's voice and lines, and if Nic Cage is as talkative I'll respectfully take his perks and put them on someone else.
I don't want the game to broaden its thematics to action and anime, I just want it to stay horror themed and for the love of everything unholy, make the characters quiet or give an option to turn off voice lines.
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I wish the game was more scary. I was playing F13 a little and it scared me so bad. That's the kind of scary I prefer.
Ghostface once scared me so bad i screamed irl when he marked me from the hole in the top of the house on The Knights map lmao. That kind of stuff is fun.
I don't know about voice lines taking away the scary aspect. F13 has them and it makes the game more scary, however, the music, general atmosphere and the lights going out randomly in the cabins freaks me out. It's all about the big picture.
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Comedy and horror go hand in hand.
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I officially have no idea what people mean by "competitive" anymore.
To the wider point, though, Dead By Daylight hasn't lost its horror vibe at all, it's just branched out into other kinds of horror. The last four chapters are a great example of that; you have Singularity as extremely classic sci fi horror with some body horror thrown in there for aesthetic, you have Skull Merchant as the equally classic concept of "The Hunt" from rich people who seek a more dangerous game, with some social commentary on vulture capitalism thrown in there to give it some spice, you have Knight as a slightly blander but still just as fitting grotesque medieval grimdark horror...
Admittedly, Wesker is a little less of a horror archetype on his own, but you can't ignore Resident Evil's place in horror gaming history. Even RE5 was noteworthy! ...Largely for being awful, but y'know, still. I'd argue Wesker himself doesn't need to represent a horror niche because he's from a broader license, so he just needs to represent that. Which he does!
With Nic Cage, you have horror comedy, which still very much counts as representing horror. Arguably that actually started with Ash, since Evil Dead is considered horror comedy (I think? Still haven't seen them), and arguably it continued with referencing the Scary Movie mask for Ghostface, but Nic is the first character that aims to represent it as authentically as the last four (three discounting Wesker if you must) chapters presented their niches.
I think people get caught up in whether they personally find a thing scary, and base their idea of horror on that. Horror is a lot more far-reaching, though, and Dead By Daylight has done a great job branching out to represent more limbs of the tree than before with recent chapters.
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Now that skin with the weird jaw would have made her more intimidating if it was her base look
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Even if it was the point, i still dont find him scary
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My point was that even if you don't find something scary, that doesn't mean it's not horror or that it's lost it's horror vibe because horror is subjective and comes in alot of different ways, shapes and forms as it isn't restricted to just that of conventional horror, Trickster not being scary does not make him non-horror.
Also the whole "something isn't scary, therefore it's not horror" or "This game isn't scary, therefore it's not a horror game anymore" arguments are both incredibly flawed ones because then nothing is really horror because there's always going to be people that aren't afraid of something or find something more spooky over other things regardless of if it's something that conventionally suppose to be scary or not.
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Competitive to me means both sides trying their best to win and being as efficient as possible. With BHVR being way more consistent at balancing the game it makes me think that they care about the competitive nature the game is heading towards. Not a bad thing by the way, just different.
I suppose horror is a pretty broad umbrella in which many things fall under, and in a crossover game such as DBD it would be hard to bend each addition under the same unified theme.
That being said I feel as though I notice a shift in tone/atmosphere with the recent chapters compared to the first few. And DBD definitely needs a foundational vibe to keep it grounded and focused as a game, which I feel said foundation is being changed to something more action based as I stated in my OP.
While yes, Skerchant/Knight/Singularity are all horror in their own right, to me their art and gameplay don't really mesh well with what I interpret as the game's initial atmosphere to be. Feelings of helplessness, flight over fight, etc.
Let's take Singularity and Demogorgon for example. Both are sci-fi horror, but the Demogorgon aligns much more with the type of horror that I feel DBD used to be.
Demo doesn't talk, but instead his bestial nature is portrayed with roars/ambient gurgling/hissing that you can hear across the map. His visual design is also excellent, vaguely human shaped with perfectly unform skin until he opens his mouth which is his signature visual and attack, really sells the whole bloodthirsty alien aspect and his gameplay reflects it pretty well too. He feels like something one would want to hide from instead of trying to fight back. The Demogorgon doesn't view the survivors as anything more than something to eat, I think that's good. Granted, he's liscensed so it is admittedly a little unfair, but BVHR has been able to pull off similar characters (Dredge.)
Singularity though? I feel as though giving him a personality was a mistake that takes away from his contribution to the game's atmosphere. He taunts survivors by calling them worms and inferior lifeforms, and scolds me for bonking him on the head with a pallet. His visual design looks weakened and incomplete (which is lore-accurate,) also the fact that Gabe messed him up pretty bad makes him feel way less threatening as a killer. Combine that with the way his gameplay pans out, and he feels like something the survivors would want to fight and take down rather than run and hide from. I don't even find him vaguely creepy or unsettling, even when trying to detach my personal taste from the character.
Nicholas isn't a bad character or done poorly, but his personality and unique in-game SFX definitely do clash with the rest of the game to me, comedy horror is valid I agree, but at present he is very unique in that regard which makes him stick out way more. It also feels weird that he talks but nobody else does, I feel like voicelines are a very all or nothing type of deal so I hope they go back and retroactively spruce up some of the older characters.
There is nothing wrong with action-horror, RE 4/5 are both examples of it done very well and I feel like it will benefit the game in the long run as action-horror has a lot of flexibility. But we definitely are losing the original vibes DBD had and I think the devs should be careful because there is a very delicate balance in play.
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I get what your saying tho I respectfully disagree
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DBD isn't really a 'horror' game after you play even a handful of matches, let's be fair.
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I would not call DBD a full Horrorgame anyway.
However, when it comes to voicelines... Yeah, they are overdoing it. At least if they dont add an option to disable them. If they add this option, they can make their characters as talkative as they want.
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I nearly agree with all your points made and this is exactly how I feel with the whole “shift” that I can see dbd has made. Personally, I was not too happy hearing Nic Cage coming to dbd. The voice lines for me are overdoing it a bit and are just too goofy. Goofier than the other goofy things that dbd had already added and supported, half of it which are from them and half from the community, like wesker’s voice lines for example or the devs jumping in on the memes talking about their flaws. Like, I appreciate the freshness and positive or, if not, happy or intrigued feedback of the community but I feel the devs are taking it a little too far with this idea and it’s just not MY cup of tea vibe-wise. And knowing how nic cage takes on any role for anyone… I mean idk. The whole thing just feels a little cheesy from already what we got. I would DEFINITELY like a voice line disable feature to be added if anything. This is just my personal pov.
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It's a more Scary Movie/Cabin in the Woods type of horror,which I don't mind.
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Idk if you’ve ever seen a horror movie or played another horror game but spoiler alert, there’s voice lines in those too
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Exactly, gore and slasher films aren't the only types of horror.
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Pretty much this, Trickster's scariness comes from the effect that he is a chameleon. He's a celebrity, he's a dark twisted reflection of the K-Pop industry. You're meant to be distracted by the glitz, glamour, bright lights, his amazing voice and his good looks. Off-kilter behaviour can be passed off as a stage persona, his "weapons" are just props in a performance.
Seriously, in a lineup of murderers, he'd be the absolute last person you'd point to as a killer. That's what makes him scary.
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Horror is famously a genre without variety or subgenres or comedy or campiness or bright colors or people who talk.
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This I can agree with I wish I could turn off the hud sometimes
But that's just me
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Very much agreed. I'd love an option to disable voice lines. The occasional one isn't bad, such as Ash, but some are just way too chatty. Wesker in particular, but also Trickster and Singularity. Sounds like Nic's going to be added to the list.
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I mean that's not true. He looks like a nutbag. That said nothing about Trickster has ever been scary. He's arguably the worst addition they ever made.
As for the topic the voice lines are just cringe. I've been on a break and they've convinced me to extend it.
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I definitely feel the game has shifted away from horror but moreso in terms of gameplay than the characters they’re introducing. On a side note… to whoever said Artist isn’t scary… I think she’s one of the most terrifying killers in the game. To each their own!
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By themselves each killer would be able to have it's specific flavor of horror but jamming all the subgenres of horror into one blob makes the game less like a horror anthology and more like Cabin in the Woods.
You can definitely feel a shift from the original design recently.
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Wesker is the killer version of Nic when it comes to voice lines but I think its cool it's nice to have something different I'm glad they did it and I hope it stays , in my opinion horror went out the window when they introduced trickster but that's ok, theyre branching out because theyve got to keep content coming and most of the iconic killers from horror movies are already here.
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I feel like the voices add personality to characters and it's something BHVR is slowly experimenting with. I know many including myself have asked for characters to have more personality for years so this is probably their gateway to experiment with it and see what the reception is.
Being quite honest though - DBD has its moments but it stopped being scary when they removed the thick atmospheric fog. At some point any killer could walk and approach you across the map and it was very ominous and scary at times because it was easy to not notice. BHVR removed the fog because optimization reasons I believe and I will be honest the game hasn't felt the same since. The graphical overhauls were nice but it will never make up for the presence the fog had.
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Ok buddy, whatever you say. You clearly don't understand the intent behind chameleon killers and what makes them scary, nor do you understand Asian horror.
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Horror can have moments/elements of comedy. Even my favourite horror movie Halloween had some. Dr Loomis scaring off some kids who were daring eachother to go into the Myers house always gets me;
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I think too many people have narrow views of horror and refuse to explore anything out of what they consider horror. Horror can be scary, but horror doesn't need to be scary to be horror.
It's fine if DBD isn't a "scary" game.
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Exactly, not all horror is splatter and slasher. Horror can be comedic, it can be suspenseful, it can be psychological, it can be sci-fi, it can be paranormal etc.
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Honestly wish I could disable hearing voice lines from certain killers and survivors. I'd argue there has always been a bit of a theme park element to DBD. It's getting a bit much with so many. Wesker constantly grates on me. Trickster and Cenobite are probably the only two I enjoy with lines.
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