I'm getting very tired of Cookie Cutter Killer design...
So I was trying to make a build using Any Means Necessary, and came up with Troubleshooter, Chemical Trap and Resilience. Not meta, but a decent little build, and after getting a run of playing against about 6 different killers from modern DBD followed by a Wraithand a Ghost Face... I realised how similar the builds and play styles of all the modern killers are...
Ignoring the fact the Krasue is overtuned for a second, I am getting extremely frustrated with the homogenous design of killers of the past 2 years.
Every single new killer has the same basic list of requirements:
- Some way to get across the map faster to prevent hold W and make macro gameplay (and tunneling/slugging) much easier.
- Some way to punish vaults, either by hitting over them during animation lock, or bypassing the vault for a free hit, making playing pallets pointlessly risky, you have to prethrow or greed ALL the time.
- Some kind of high speed attack with an insane turn arc or hit box that becomes very hard to juke/play around in pallet dry areas.
I am refraining from using a particular term, but every killers kit released in the past year and a half is stacked to the nines with so many features and built to cover so many things the Survivor can do, that you end up playing against them all the same way with very similar builds...
You compare this to older killers, take a sample of them from other eras, such as Hillbilly, Wraith, Huntress, Trapper, Pig, Myers... these all feel very different to face, with very different means of countering them, and thus different perks they prioritise... they feel like they are satisfying different DBD gameplay archetypes, excelling at a particular area of the game at the loss of others...
Modern killers, Kaneki, Dracula, Krasue, Houndmaster, Springtrap, Vecna... the presentation is different, but the flavour is the same, they are all basically doing the same things.
- High map mobility - Their macro is so simple, on any hook, they're probably beelining towards you with BBQ and Chilli or something equivalent.
- Similarly are all really good at tunneling and slugging, a threat I believe Survivors can play around, but they all can bee line back go hooks to create problems very easily.
- You never wanna be caught in a vault animation because they all can hit you over tiles or come after you to injure you with little you can do in many cases, the need to fake them and spend high value resources quickly is so much higher against them, more a product of how dangerous their power is than a particularly skillful play on the killers part.
- All of them can use the same kind of perks in conjunction with their heavily stacked kits that make it super unsafe at strong tiles making use of perks like Bamboozle and Blood Favour to basically have guaranteed hits.
I'm not necessarily complaining about their strength, more just how convoluted they are, with numerous tools baked in to cover so many scenarios, that they all end up running similar builds because their kit handles majority of their weaknesses at base, and they all very similar to play against.
You compare this to older killers, who all tend to have much more pronounced identities, strengths, weaknesses, and perks they want to find space for in their build... it encourages build creativity, it feels fresh every game against them, and each trial feels unique against that killer.
If I'm wrong do please tell me, but to me these modern killers feel like you can phone in your gameplay with the same beats at all times... nothing really to think about, the same perks work on all of them, cause their abilities are the same crap, with a different wrapper.
Comments
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You are allowed to say BHVR loves to make dashslop in the recent years, we all know it's true.
The only one from those modern killers who kind of sticks out is Vecna, and even he kind of fits the formula too well. Also, he precedes dashslop, as he came before all these, but still kind of fits it.
Aside from that, from Unknown onward, it's been one dashslop after the other… and the reworks follow suit (Skull Merchant, Myers)
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Good post my friend. I agree with you, but I think kaneki is a bit more unique compared to other dashing killers.
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I mean, mobility is bare minimum in current DBD. If survivor start running when he sees me halfway across the map on m1 killer, and I should waste 30 seconds just to START chase, I wonder why I even play non-mobility killer at all. I'm not even talking about waste another 10-20 seconds to catch up exhaustion every single chase, looping, eating pallet, destroy, catch up, repeat.
That's why I also completely disagree with you on "it makes macro easier". Mobility and non-mobility killers simply have different macro. You won't win matches on Huntress going from one side of the map to another, even if your chases are insanely fast. But you do with mobility killers.
Same thing with chase. Watching tournaments where Oni sets pretty often has matches with 5 gens done and Z E R O hits, I wonder if m1 killer have it's place in DBD at all.
Short answer: it's boring, true, but this design is imposed by the speed of matches and the constant limitations of killers and survivors buffs.
Krasue, for example, is very overturned killer in current DBD, but on PTB she was just fine, simply because killer needs to have super strong chase with almost guaranteed down and great mobility to have chance with all these constant "you can't".
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I think the reason the Killers that excel in just one thing anymore is that makes them too easy to go against, it makes it too simple for Survivors. A Killer who falls off the second you don't follow the leet gamer strategy guide is a bad Killer because there is no wiggle room for exploration. But also I can put on any perk on a new Killer and be fine, where older Killers have way narrower options and sometimes fall flat without a specific perk.
Example: Bubba with Bamboozle. Oh how weak he is to killer shack without it.
DBD's future isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on what kind of player you are, if you are a new or average player then these Killers are fine. If you are very skilled you might find them boring or too strong. As the game is made more accessible to more people the chances that a Killer will appeal mostly to the highest skill floors is disappearing. Why? Well more people mean more money, a more stable business and more DBD for years to come.
DBD is going mainstream, things are not like they used to be anymore.
Its all fine by me, I'm not a player who tries to gain as much skill as possible I tried in the past, but big MMR is just misery. So I changed my perspective and looked at why I like the game, I just enjoy the chase and fun of the game, so I focus on that.Not to depress you ofc, it is kind of sad though when time is running out and the immaterial becomes the immaterial sorta deal.
What options do BHVR have really create a Killer which can only do a few niche thing well, have it not appeal to many people, but keep a a small group happy? Or should we accept there is gonna be mainstream concessions in our Killers and see if we can find a way to maintain identity and skill in a modern world? I don't have those answers, but idd prefer everybody be happy.
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