Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 526:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆☆ (4/10)

How much did Behaviour Interactive Inc. pay Supermassive Games in this collaboration? I hope it was worth it because as a standalone product, this is easily the weakest of Supermassive's catalog—and I say this as someone who loves even the weaker titles. I know very little of Dead by Daylight, and I think even if I did, I would still feel as lukewarm. Well, not lukewarm. Annoyed, frustrated, and bored. The characteristics that make Supermassive great—their writings, branching, and atmosphere—are completely gone, replaced by a shallow plot, unlikeable characters, a boring setting, and so many performance issues. I can't believe I paid $10 for a six hour game that I disliked.

Pros:

✅ Collectibles are highlighted in blue. This might annoy the hardcore gamers, but I really liked not worrying about missing a collectible because they were SO bright, haha.

✅ Cutting Room Floor. An excellent QoL that allows you to see the branching of every choice. You can go back to choose a different path and see which collectibles you've missed/gathered.

✅ Hold A to advance. Another excellent QoL where there's a clear signpost when you're moving on to the next scene, so you don't have to worry about missing out on collectibles.

Mixed

🟨 Plot/ending. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't make a Lovecraftian/cosmic horror into a choice-based story. MAJOR spoilers but: I can’t decide whether it works or not that all roads lead to death. It works from a Lovecraft and DBD point of view, and the ending I got of Madi hugging Linda with Chris at the fire was honestly sad af. But Supermassive Games are about choice. So either way, you're cooked. It's a depressing, yet real and emotion ending, but not all that fun to play.

Cons:

🟥 Cast. This is unquestionably the weakest Supermassive cast. Usually, there's one prick to play the antagonist role. But Stan, Chris, (some of) Jaime, and (some of) Robert, are so whiny, idiotic, and useless I genuinely wished for their death. A large part of this is due to the game's writing, but I have to discuss this. Stan is useless. He is arrogant and annoying and stupid and a literal plot device. Thank GOD you can kill him. Chris ... girl. Teenagers are hard to write. You want them to be realistic, but being realistic includes making them as they are in real life: whiny, dumb brats (I say this as someone who used to be one). Well, the teenage cast is realistic, all right. Story spoilers but: I'm only half kidding when I say everything can be blamed on her. She has a shocking fixation on a real serial killer and insists on filming in his hideout where he brutally killed people. Realistic, yep (looking at the True Crime community). Supermassive likes setting up character relationships and a slowburn in its opening chapters. But here, "backstory" turns into "forced, pointless, immature yapping." For example, there's quite a long bit where the characters act in a cringe, homemade movie. I could not take them seriously. There's also forced tension. There's a subplot where Jaime feels jealous that Robert is hanging out with Chris, his girlfriend. Problem is, why should I care? He also invited a girl friend of his, and Robert's talking with Chris seemed innocent enough. The writing also insists on having a tense relationship between Jaime and his sister, Bonnie, based on one (1) scene. He recites lines about having to support the family or the like, and Bonnie explodes, thinking he's throwing shade at her. Based off on ONE scene where he's ACTING??? In addition, Robert acts like a little b*tch. He gets hurt Jaime didn't invite him to make the movie, even though Jaime politely explained he wanted to do it with his closest friends. Robert gets pissy about this. Yeah, no wonder he didn't want to invite you, dude. Bonnie and Madi are bleh. Sam is fine. Linda is great, though! Rant over. Anyway, the writing is generally poor.

🟥 Gameplay/narrative dissonance. This game is not scary or tense, and I think I've figured out why. Aany sense of mystery is gone because Augustine Lieber, one of the two villains, has multiple voices overs where she details the killer, his motives, and her great masterplan. To me, this felt kinda condescending, as if the player couldn't figure out the (thin) plot by ourselves. What happened to "Show, not tell?" In past games, I had no idea what was going on, so I was immersed with the characters. They knew as much as I did! But in this one, I was frustrated that what seemed obvious to me wasn't obvious to them.

🟥 Controls. I found the controls clunky and animations ... off. I disliked the camera. It jumped back and forth when turning corners, and sometimes it's so close to the back of the character's head it's like a first-person perspective.

🟥 The actual DBD nods. The story was interesting at first until the whole DBD of it all kicks in. There's a lot of fixing generators when it doesn't make sense in the narrative. How do three different people pick up two parts and fix it? There's also a point in the story where you are running away from a monster and you stop, search for parts, and repair a generator. To me, it was so silly and broke the tension. There's also obvious fanservice with no real explanation? There are 12 or so dolls of DBD's killers scattered throughout the game, and it's unexplained how they got there or what they mean.

🟥 Some plot holes. I don't know man, all the cult/multiverse/time travel/ghost/green stuff just got lost on me. There were also some plot holes that never came up, like the locket or how Sam got to 2024. It's hard to follow along with the DBD lore when it's not explained.

🟥 Less interactivity. Listen, I don't mind a point n' click or a walking sim, as long as the story is good. In past games, I could excuse the light gameplay. Besides, I liked it! In this game, however, you get lengthy uninteractive sequences where you gain control of the player, read a note, and then open a door. There are multiple sequences of this. And there's mostly nothing to discover in the game. It's just empty. There are rooms where there's really nothing inside. There are also A LOT of closed doors. You just interact with them and watch the same animation over and over again. Why do they exist? I can't figure that out.

🟥 Choices don't even seem to matter. The most obvious ones are "Run away from killer, or try and help." The dialog choices affect relationships, but it doesn't seem like these relationships affect how the game plays or ends. It's just flavor text. While you can choose to save some characters, past reactivity of Supermassive Games are lost.

🟥 Poor performance. While I played on the Unsupported Steam Deck, I see other players with real rigs still have bugs and glitches.

🟥 A lot of reuse of areas. You'll have to revisit the Sawmill many times with different characters, as well as the Sewers. The first time it was creepy, the second time it was merely plain. Lots of backtracking. The mansion set pieces are also very same-y looking.

🟥 The villains are just straight up boring. Not even scary or cool, just mid.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wow. Just wow. This was genuinely such a fantastic game. I have no idea why it has mixed reviews. If you've played other Supermassive titles like The Dark Pictures Anthology, you'll likely enjoy this as it's just as good, if not better than some of them. The atmosphere is incredible, the story is intricate but not at all hard to follow as some other reviews suggest and the mysteries it unravels kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn't stop playing until it was over. This would have made for a great movie. It has the perfect amount of slasher elements mixed with the perfect amount of lovecraftian eldritch horror. Even if you are not familiar with Dead by Daylight, I believe this game would still suffice as a great stand alone story but for those who are familiar, the lore and references scattered throughout are SO cool! I highly reccomend not letting the mixed reviews scare you away from this.

PS: BEHAVIOUR PLEASE PUT FRANK STONE IN DBD!!!

The choices you make don't matter. The overall story is convoluted. The characters change personalities with each passing scene. And all fifteen endings are exactly the same, which is just lazy. Then there are the bugs and the unoptimization as a whole. I can't recommend it.