A Suggestion for Dead by Daylight: Two New Game Mode

2v8? Sounds boring…

I don’t usually do this since it’s not part of my routine, but I have developed such a fascination with Dead by Daylight that I couldn’t help but come up with my own ideas about the game. I thought I should give this a chance because I can’t keep it in my chest anymore. This article will primarily appeal to people who play the game, making it an esoteric subject, which I should generally avoid, but I want to try this out at least once. So whether this endeavour succeeds or fails, here’s my shot at it…

Those who read my articles may or may not know that I have recently become a member of the religion of Dead by Daylight, and a fanatic one at that (well… almost). This is coming from someone who only played the game for half a year. Still, I’m not getting the impression that Behaviour Interactive, the developers, are doing much to expand the game beyond its current state — which is good as it is. But when you think about how Riot Games tries to reinvent League of Legends every year (apologies for the comparison to LoL, but it’s inevitable when you’re an avid fan), it makes a stark difference.

I’m saying that the developers don’t show a lot of agency when developing their game, as if they wanted it to stay this way for all eternity. Whether this is true or not, I’m always getting the impression that there could be more to the game that just isn’t there yet. I’m always seeing people in the community ask for more features, and one feature is a new game mode that people have been demanding since forever.

A popular suggestion in the fandom is an additional game mode where there are two killers and eight survivors, which to me just sounds like an additional feature rather than a new game mode, and a messy one at that (imagine getting comboed by two killers). I think this suggestion became popular because DBD has had one game mode since its beginning. A 2v8 game mode is an easy-to-think-of formula because it takes the existing formula and doubles it. There have been all kinds of different suggestions as to what the next game mode will be, which to me seem largely gimmicky because I don’t feel like those suggestions change something fundamental in the gameplay to make it a separate game mode, but instead add just a little bit of flavour. Regardless of how those suggestions are perceived, I would try my take on a new game mode.

Cars for the Survivors; Hounds for the Killers

Let me start by saying that these two modes don’t necessarily have to come together. They’re both separate descriptions for new tasks that survivors can perform in the game and new tasks for killers. Second, all the information presented here is tentative and is always subject to change. Now with that out of the way…

In this new game mode for survivors, instead of having to power five generators and escape through a gate, they’ll have to perform various tasks to fix a car and subsequently use it to drive away. Four of the seven generators are replaced with utility boxes. In contrast, the current generators are already powered up. One exit gate is replaced with the space that contains the car, the other exit gate is something for the killer, which I will describe later, and all the hooks are either gone or gone replaced with electrical switches. Each utility box contains one of four items: a gas tank, a car battery, a spare tire, and a blunt weapon. These utility items are held by the left hand of the survivor (with one exception) and are tailored to represent different playstyles: the gas tank encourages scouting the map for objectives; the car battery encourages constant movement and management key locations; the spare tire requires patience and discretion, and the weapon is for those who a want a more combat-oriented approach to dealing with the killer. The survivor with the gas tank runs around and siphons gas from powered generators and once the tank is full, goes to the car to fill it up. The survivor with the car battery installs it in the car and then turns on electrical switches to charge the car battery quicker. The survivor with the spare tire carries it with both hands at an impeded speed, which can be relieved if another survivor helps out. The blunt weapon is for smashing the car’s windows (’cause there’s no key) and stunning the killer. Once everything is in place, the survivors just need to hotwire the car and drive off.

On the opposite side is the killer, who uses vicious hounds instead of hooks to kill survivors. As I said before, one of the exit gates is replaced with the dispenser for these hounds, which releases one angry mutt for every injured survivor. The dogs chase the survivors relentlessly, and the survivors can use various methods to dispose of them. When survivors are deadly injured, the dogs speed up the dying process. Once the hounds have been disposed of, the killer can repeat the process as many times as needed to kill the survivors.

I tried to summarise this as much as possible, but I may have said too much even in summary. I’ll have to go into the details at a different time and place, which may or may not come. I also understand that the terminology might be confusing for non-DBD players… I expected as such, and I am sorry. At least I got it out of the way. Now let’s examine the problems…

It will mess up the current META

I don’t want to say much since I said a lot already, and frankly, I wish I could say more. One problem is that introducing this new game mode will completely alter the current game’s state as people know it, which may or may not piss off a lot of people. Another thing to consider is that this is not up to anyone but the developers, and they don’t seem like they want to do much about it. But it was nice to ideate for a while…

So… what do you think… of this?

I wrote a lot about this idea, and I just let it flow, but I wish I could’ve written more because there’s more to say about it, but there’s so little space and time to do anything. If this piqued your curiosity, I’d be more than happy to write an expanded version. I just need to be told when…, and then I’m on it.

In Conclusion…

Well… this was an unconventional change of pace from my regular language-based articles, and I hope I could’ve inspired you with this “general” description of an idea that you’re probably still scratching your head trying to figure out what the hell I was talking about. Again, I am sorry. I kind of let myself loose with this one in particular… and I have no regrets… but I probably should.

Again, truly sorry. I did not mean to confuse you… and I hoped you enjoyed this random article… well, not random, but not part of my routine either.