Let’s stick with dark themes for now. After the zombie kittens and Zombicide: Alive or Not Dead, we have another text for you aimed at lovers of horror, horror and, above all, collaboration. The board game Dead by Daylight is a one-man battle against a group of survivors who, like the video game version of the work, are trying to escape an assassin. Our review will tell you how this thing behaves on the table.
- Number of players: 3 – 5
- Game time: 60+ minutes
- Price: 1079 CZK (Thlam Games)
- Credit: muzzle games
- Age: 15+
The Entity is Hungry in Dead by Daylight
The Dark Essence craves the blood of new victims, so it sends one of the killers to hunt. Four survivors will fight him on the playing field. Death still haunts them, but with the help of cooperation, they too can succeed, which is one of the main factors of this work. The need for cooperation, as well as the ability to think a little ahead, is something without which you will never reach the point of retreat. However, let’s look at this game in order. At the base, you can choose one of six “human” monsters that follow the survivors.
Each of those who are hungry to kill innocent people enter Dead by Daylight with their own special strategy, as well as the level of difficulty required to play as them. For example, such a Ghost is a skilled, hard-to-play assassin whose special ability is the Ghost Bell, which allows him to move between locations that are not strictly adjacent to where he is at the moment. The Doctor, on the other hand, is light. It spreads madness among its victims that can injure them, and grants the doctor a bonus turn discount and one blood counter for each person affected by the madness. Overall, I find the hunters to be decently balanced.
In addition to their main abilities, they also take three special abilities into battle, which cost one action to activate and often also blood. For example, the already mentioned doctor has a huge hatred for electronics, so if the generator is damaged, he has the opportunity to injure a survivor without even destroying the equipment that his potential victims were repairing. A scary-looking Rogue can completely disable Survivors from using certain movement cards when she discards that card herself, which is very annoying.
Like killers, survivors are always unique in Dead by Daylight. Gamer Feng Ming is a skilled repairman who, thanks to his vigilance, can react to the killer moving a damaged mason’s pallet out of the way by moving along any of the paths, which is great when things go wrong. However, this is not a leading figure, but Dwight Fairfield, whose abilities can strengthen the companions around him.
Dead by Daylight won’t contact you
The objectives of the game in Dead by Daylight are really simple. While the killer must sacrifice his victims, their task is to get out of the place before he does. They must repair four generators to open the way to freedom. Once you’re done, the escape will open and you’ve practically won. However, you do not move on one of the two maps as you please, but primarily with the help of movement cards, with which you move through locations in the first place, depending on which map you are using at the moment. Not all destinations are available when, for example, you’re running or sneaking, because why would you need to get out of the upper floor of the foundry with a stealth card when you just need to jump down.
Fortunately, the killer is also limited by cards, but in his case, as mentioned above, they often also have some kind of special effect, and in addition, he has pieces in his hands that increase his mobility in various ways. If the monster manages to collide with a survivor and still use interaction with them, the victim is injured. If the player is even caught, there is a part of the game where they need to be caught. And at that moment, massive dice appear on the scene to decide whether the survivor will manage to escape or fall on the hook, indicated by a red token. Others can get rid of this victim, but it is not easy. Overall, I could imagine more use for dice, but that’s because I just enjoy rolling the dice from time to time. Due to the lack of significant use of dice, this article is primarily about tactics and collaboration.
Of course, the creators of the Dead by Daylight record somehow rely on the fact that not all players will be able to get the entire set for the game. However, it is not necessary to play this piece five times. There are also alternatives for a smaller number of players, but in this case, like in Zombicide: The Living or the Undead, the player must take control of the rest of the survivors, because the whole is simply positioned in such a way that a certain part of the survivors are fighting for their lives in it . I would probably not rule out the possibility of playing only two. In this case, however, a relatively large responsibility is shifted to the individual, related to the fact that if he wants to play this way, he must control all the heroes as efficiently as possible, otherwise he simply will not run away. This part is not really meant for singleplayer, unless you can create a game AI and then actively work with it.
Dead by Daylight – worthy carnage
I have to say that I never liked the design of the video game Dead by Daylight because thematically it’s not really my cup of tea. However, the board game based on the themes of the draft title was near perfect. We have badass killers, quirky survivors, and two maps to navigate. The game mechanics are not demanding at all, and there is not even a flood of cards or chips waiting for you. Thus, both an experienced player and a beginner who does not have experience playing this format of games can easily immerse themselves in the game.
The price is also a very interesting thing for this piece. It’s surprisingly affordable, so for “a few” hundreds you end up with a very decent board that can keep you busy for hours. In the future, you can also expect that it will expand with the content presented in the Kickstarter campaign. Overall, this increases its overall potential, so at least for me, Dead by Daylight is a good choice for spring evenings.
Source :Indian TV
