You won’t get many writers saying they hope that something they’ve written is short-lived. That said, I really hope this little DBD opinion piece I find myself compelled to write – just hours after the Alien chapter rolled out to the horror game – is short-lived. I either hope Dead by Daylight survivors sort themselves out, or Behaviour does something to nerf The Xenomorph and/or the Remote Flame Turret. Preferably both.
I only watched Alien for the first time fairly recently, but I enjoyed it and promptly watched Aliens and Alien 3, too. Naturally, I was really excited when the Alien chapter was announced for Dead by Daylight, one of my favorite games to play right now, following hot on the heels of Behaviour’s own sci-fi horror chapter. But here I sit, just hours after the release of Chapter 29 – and minutes after closing the game following my sixth consecutive loss to The Xenomorph.
“Git gud!” I hear you cry. Sure, you could say I’m sitting here in front of my keyboard ranting because of my own failings – but hear me out first. You see, in each of these lost matches, at least two other survivors have simply not been playing.
In the first, which I foolishly thought might have been a one-off, two seemingly SWF players took the time to gather up each of the new in-match Remote Flame Turret items and place them all in the basement. They even went so far as to take one I had set up next to the generator that some fellow survivors were working on. With the basement now set up like some Saw trap for unsuspecting Xenomorphs, the two survivors set up camp down there doing nothing. Long story short, this, of course, led to us all dying with two generators fixed.
It wasn’t a one-off though, and match after match went much the same way. Two of us pointlessly trying to fix generators and avoid death while two others hole themselves up in a nest of flame-throwers. Luckily, in one, I did watch my compatriot escape through the hatch, but not before the killer tried for some time to find them while leaving one of the turret hoarders slugged on the ground. Rebecca Chambers, you deserved that hatch to freedom.
So that’s one side of the coin. The other is that the Xenomorph’s Control Station tunnel ability just seems too OP. Using tunnels, the Xenomorph can traverse the map quickly, similar to the Demogorgon in portals or the Dredge using lockers. This is fine. However, while underground, the Xenomorph can see the location of survivors, who are then also marked with Killer Instinct when the alien leaves the tunnel system. So, if you are one of just two survivors actually attempting to work on generators and the killer is able to find you and mark you pretty quickly, it soon gets tiresome and almost impossible to complete any actual tasks.
There are a few ways I think this could be addressed. The turret is a great idea and should stay – if anything it even needs a boost so that it causes the Xenomorph to drop a carried survivor. In exchange, perhaps Behaviour could give the item a significantly wider radius in which another can’t be placed, forcing them to be spread out across the map. This mechanic is already used for the Skull Merchant’s drones so presumably wouldn’t be difficult to include. Maybe that Killer Instinct could go, too.
Sure, these problems might just be a by-product of a new DBD update, a new DBD killer, and new mechanics, and sure I’ve used PBTs to try features before now, but this is the real game, and it’s getting boring real fast. Hopefully a change to one or the other – or both – puts a stop to this gameplay, but in the meantime, I’m off to play The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. If you’re in the same boat, be sure to check out our Texas Chain Saw Massacre tier list featuring the best killers and survivors. Sticking with Dead by Daylight for the new update? Then grab some DBD codes for extra freebies.